The Effects of Various Lighting Modifiers

OK, this post is VERY photography related. While I use a bunch of different lighting modifiers in the studio, I’ve never did a head to head comparison between them. Over the years, I have learned how each modifier affects the quality of light and am pretty competant at creating just about any lighting configuration I need. That said, I never set up a direct comparison between modifiers.

To create the comparison, I metered each photo at the edge of the book’s binding. I then adjusted the power output so that I got an aperture of f/5.6 at 250th. There was no ambient light and only one light source was used. Each light was placed 5ft from the edge of the book. Now, these images are not meant to be great photos in terms of composition or subject matter. I tried to use objects that would have diferent reflective qualities so the quality of the light could be examined.

Here are the results:

Let me know if you have questions about this test or the series of photos.