A controlled look at light shapers II – Magnum and Giant Reflector 180

September 14 2009 3 commentedTags: dc chavez, guest blogger

Profoto Blog- Magnum Reflector / Giant Reflector from DC CHAVEZ on Vimeo.

Hello again everyone! Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions regarding the last blog post. It is nice to hear that this information is useful to other photographers. The folks at Profoto were gracious enough to ask me back for the second installment of this series.

For this blog post we are going to focus on two very different types of light shapers- the Magnum Reflector and the Giant Parabolic Reflector 180. One provides strong, smooth light and the other a hard yet even light. Hopefully this post will demonstrate the type of light each provides and how you can incorporate them into your workflow.

Before I was able to do any testing I had to head over to Samys Camera on Fairfax to pick up some gear. They loaded me up with a Pro-B2 generator, Acute2 2400R generator, heads, a Magnum Reflector and the Giant Reflector 180. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I forgot to get the 10 degree Magnum Grid, so I went to the Marina Del Rey store (closer to home) and they were happy to help out. Thanks again to Mike D and Harold for their help! I then called up my buddy Will Roegge- director/videographer/editor extraordinaire to shoot some behind the scenes video. We piled all of our gear into the car and headed over to Stage 14 at Southbay Studios in Long Beach where we met up with models Chystal and Genette.

Magnum Reflector

I love this light shaping tool, as it maximizes the output of the head and delivers a hard light- helping to create depth and contrast in my photos. This reflector is rated at a 50 degree spread, but can be used with a grid to channel the light to a 10 degree spread. I like to think of it as the bigger, stronger brother to the standard zoom reflector. Its parabolic shape helps to focus the light and pick up a stop or two when compared side by side to the standard reflector.

Looking at the photos of our model Chrystal you can see how the reflector shape focuses the light as you move from position 4, 6 and 10. At position 4 the light is focused on the model, yet spills out a bit to provide a bit of illumination to our cyc wall. As you slide the head futher into the reflector the light is dispersed more and, while focused on our model, still manages to provide a good fill for the background.

Magnum- Position 4

Magnum- Position 6

Magnum- Position 10

Like the first post, I also set up the light facing the wall of a cyclorama to show how differently light is spread depending on which position the reflector is set. The images below give a visual account of what happens to illumination at positions 4, 6 and 10 when compared side by side to a standard Zoom Reflector.

Magnum- Position 4

Magnum- Position 6

Magnum- Position 10

As you can see, all the way across the board, the intensity of light is much greater with the Magnum Reflector. Also, the light is much more focused and center weighted in comparison- despite having a smooth, even falloff.

Magnum Reflector w/grid

I also wanted to give a visual account of how the Magnum Reflector works with the 10 degree grid. I use this setup frequently, as I like to reduce light spill and have total control over where light is directed. This is demonstrated in the pictures below of our model. Both she and the head are in the same location for this series of photos, but the 10 degree grid is attached to the Magnum Reflector. At position 4 the light exits the reflector as a small beam and has a very quick falloff. Even at position 10, the light emitted is very narrow compared to the non-gridded reflector- barely providing any illumination to her feet.

Magnum- Position 4

Magnum- Position 6

Magnum- Position 10

Looking at shots against the cyclorama, you can see how much narrower the light spread actually is. Also, this shows how you sacrifice a stop for the concentration of light with the grid. The Magnum Reflector with grid allows you to provide a soft, yet direct, narrow beam of light to your photo.

Magnum- Position 4

Magnum- Position 6

Magnum- Position 10

Giant Parabolic Reflector 180

This light shaping tool is unique and so much fun to use. The 180 is almost 6 feet tall and provides a hard light, but appears soft due the massive size of the light source- almost wrapping around the subject. The light quality ranges from almost “ringflash-ish” to a huge softbox depending on how you use it. The light can be focused based on head position and the amount of extensions used on the main shaft. This is the new design- not the older Umbrella Style Reflector. This new design is truly parabolic and allows the user to choose where and how the light is focused.

Having used the previous design, this new style is superior not only in the quality of light, but also the engineering of the actual reflector. It is easier to setup, has a removable 2-piece main shaft (if any of you have ever hit your head on the “Widowmaker” back of the old reflector, you know what I mean), 2 extension posts providing 3 locations to position the head and a brilliant racheting system for pulling the reflector tight.

There is a lot of science behind how a true parabolic reflector works- if you are curious, click here for the dirty details. Rather than discuss the theory behind paraboloidal shapes, focal points etc. – I will SHOW you what happens when you experiment with the Giant Parabolic Reflector.

0 Extensions

I started with the spill kill reflector attached directly to the reflector- no extension posts. Wth the modeling light on, I noticed the light spread was only to around 3/4 of the umbrella, but I was amazed at how the light was reflected. As you can see with the photos of Chrystal, with the head at position 4, the light had many qualities similar to that of a ringflash. This intense light was center focused and had a very unique pop to it. As the head was moved into position 6 it filled more of the umbrella and dispersed the light a bit more evenly. Position 10 was an even wider spread of light and managed to maximize the light output to f/16 from f/11. The JPGs below do not do the brilliance of the light justice. The model just pops off the screen with this amazing light shaping tool.

Parabolic- Position 4

Parabolic- Position 6

Parabolic- Position 10

1 Extension

The next step was to add one of the 10″ extenders to the spill kill reflector- moving the light source further away from the reflector. This small extension maximizes the umbrella from edge to edge- providing a brilliant 6′ light source. 1-stop of light is sacrificed when compared to using no extension, but power is traded for a crisp, even light source. One of the major differences I noticed was how the single extension helped to reduce the shadow under her jaw.

Parabolic- Position 4

Parabolic- Position 6

Parabolic- Position 10

2 Extensions

The last step was to put attach both extensions. It was hard for me to discern a difference between head position 4, 6 and 10. I think that with two extensions, the focal point of the light was much further away and I was not able to realize a difference with the model only 15′ away from the light source. However, I did notice the shadow under her jaw was reduced even more.

Parabolic- Position 4

Parabolic- Position 6

Parabolic- Position 10

Like all the other tests, I also wanted to see what happened with this reflector cast onto the cyclorama wall. I had to mix it up a bit, as the reflector was so large it would have covered most of the light spread onto the wall. This is a side by side by side comparison of how the Giant Parabolic 180 performs at each head position with 0, 1 and 2 extensions attached. I was most interested in the fact that the light output changed so much with each extension added. This reduced output is a byproduct of dispersing the light more evenly over a wider area.

Parabolic- Position 4

Parabolic- Position 6

Parabolic- Position 10

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?

I hope I was able to provide some insight how two light shapers can provide so many different types of light based on how you use them. Both the Magnum Reflector and the Giant Parabolic are two amazing tools to have in your photographic arsenal. Here are some shots that I was able to get of our model Chrystal and Genette using mainly the two light shaping tools described above.