my photo exercises: Gridspots

Today I received my shipment of computer venting grids from Saxon PC. While I was expecting something more durable, these appeared to be made out of a material about as strong as a straw, and about as brittle. While they don't have to be particularly durable to restrict light, I can't see them surviving a winter day outside. They are available for $.75 each if you are willing to take their cosmetic rejects. Make sure you ask for a broad range when you order, because there seems to be minimal difference in the sizes that they select for you. In fact, I would recommend maybe two large hole, and 2 small hole if you were to order.

These were soon converted into gridspots, which are light restricting devices. A gridspot is actually made up of a number of small Snoots, in this case each snoot is the size of about a straw hole. These are well suited to maybe lighting up the shaded side of someone's face, adding a highlight, or product lighting. The advantage to using gridspot snoots as opposed to one made of cardboard is that the light fall-off is very soft. If you note the snoot demonstration from Strobist, http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-cereal-box-snoots-and.html, the snoot there has some uneven transitions.

Below is a picture of the flash projecting on to the wall from a distance of 4 feet. This is the flash set at the 85mm setting without any light shaping device

Below is the large hole grid, and it projects the largest circle of light. This would serve well as a snoot since the area projected is so large, yet will pack in to a more compact area.

The next three photos are the next three sizes down, from thinnest and least light restricting to thickest and most light restricting. I actually find it very difficult to tell these apart, and I will use them interchangeably.