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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Group Buy: K-FLECT lighting System

David Battistella said:
Check in this old video where they use a single source to light cafe scenes and even a very complex night scene with a single source mounted on a boom with many reflectors. It's in German but I love the lighting design concept of treating everything as a single source with all other light reflected like the sun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS2AeX_cbCk

K-flect might be the new name or something. From a concept and budget standpoint it is just too cool. Plus in many cases a lot cleaner set as you can just place these panels where you need them without running cable or taking up too much space.

Battistella
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This is awesome!
 
ericyoung said:
I can certainly see many uses for this, especially in available light and run & gun limited budget shoots, but I don't see how a small panel can truly replicate a large area source for soft lighting. Eg, the 10x10cm panel is always going to be a small source on a drama set even if the falloff is soft. And even a 100x100cm panel won't look the same as a 20x20ft ultra bounce.
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You raise some good points but you have to look at these almost in terms of how you look at lenses. They are projectors as much as they are reflectors and each type has a kind of light it reflects or projects. So in order to get the effect of a 20x20 you might have to combine four 1mx1m of a specific number to get the same effect.

as you see in the samples above the panels can acts as floods or spots, but it is a question I will ask for sure!

Battistella
 
I need to see more, but I am interested at this point.

Thanks.

Stephen
 
Hello,

This system is the "copy" of the originally made by Christian Berger Reflecting Light System. I've used the system and the results are impressive and a joy to play with (less calbes, stands, weight, extremely power saving...).

For more infos about the original product by Pani see here :

http://www.christianberger.at/crls/

The light beam wich has an optical noise is the key to get most out of the system.

Ps Christian Berger is IMHO one of the best DP out there.
 
Patrick Tresch said:
Hello,

This system is the "copy" of the originally made by Christian Berger Reflecting Light System. I've used the system and the results are impressive and a joy to play with (less calbes, stands, weight, extremely power saving...).

Ps Christian Berger is IMHO one of the best DP out there.
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Hey Patrick,

You are correct, this was all conceived by Christian Berger and developed and executed by the current owner of Kflect. So it's the same panels basically and not really a "copy", it's really the authentic original materials and reflectors.

But it's true Berger is genius and very talented and came up with this whole conceptually. I'm not sure that pani stuff is even available anymore, so it's good that we still have this option for this excellent tech.

Battistella
 
David Battistella said:
Hey Patrick,

You are correct, this was all conceived by Christian Berger and developed and executed by the current owner of Kflect. So it's the same panels basically and not really a "copy", it's really the authentic original materials and reflectors.

But it's true Berger is genius and very talented and came up with this whole conceptually. I'm not sure that pani stuff is even available anymore, so it's good that we still have this option for this excellent tech.

Battistella
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Hello Battistella,

It's great that you put some effort to make this great way of lightning public. Last time I've seen Christian Berger he was kind of "not happy" about Kaceck's offer. I was wondering if there was some legal stuff going on between them... I was interested to buy it but I'm a poor man ;-).

Have a nice day shooting!

Pat
 
I'm specifically interested in learning whether it can effectively work with ANY hard light source. We have a number of HMIs, Source Fours, tungsten fresnels, etc., which were made by several different manufacturers. If it's just as simple as aiming any HMI at a reflector system, then it could be of considerable help in our shooting. If it really is fairly light dependent (you mention a K5600 above), then probably not.

And then there is price.

Thanks much.

Stephen
 
Patrick Tresch said:
Hello Battistella,

It's great that you put some effort to make this great way of lightning public. Last time I've seen Christian Berger he was kind of "not happy" about Kaceck's offer. I was wondering if there was some legal stuff going on between them... I was interested to buy it but I'm a poor man ;-).

Have a nice day shooting!

Pat
Click to expand...

Not sure about any of that stuff. I will ask and report back here. From what I understand there is a great amount of respect for Christian Berger as a person and cinematographer. The youtube link posted here is from about seven years ago and it's a great example of a really interesting approach to lighting and cinematography.

Battistella
 
Interesting stuff.
It remind me some panel Néstor Almendros designed for the movie the wild child in 1970.
François Truffaut didn't want to use electrical sources for this movie, so the director of photography designed big panel made of litle squares mirors all independant and orientated individually.
B.
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
I'm specifically interested in learning whether it can effectively work with ANY hard light source. We have a number of HMIs, Source Fours, tungsten fresnels, etc., which were made by several different manufacturers. If it's just as simple as aiming any HMI at a reflector system, then it could be of considerable help in our shooting. If it really is fairly light dependent (you mention a K5600 above), then probably not.

And then there is price.

Thanks much.

Stephen
Click to expand...

The reflective material is working with every light source. You get most out of it (best reflective efficience KiloWatt/Lumen) with the optical noise (beam) wich gets you a parrallel ray of light. This is not the only approach possible but the most efficient. This way you also eliminate any spill light from a non parallell light source.

Pat
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
I'm specifically interested in learning whether it can effectively work with ANY hard light source. We have a number of HMIs, Source Fours, tungsten fresnels, etc., which were made by several different manufacturers. If it's just as simple as aiming any HMI at a reflector system, then it could be of considerable help in our shooting. If it really is fairly light dependent (you mention a K5600 above), then probably not.

And then there is price.

Thanks much.

Stephen
Click to expand...

It's a reflector system so it will work with any light source. I have used it with my 1K Lupo (daylight), the sun, and I will do some tungsten lighting tests this week. What the par abeam does it it makes a single light source highly efficient. For example, if you got 3000 lumins at 20meters from an HMI, then with the parabeam you would be looking at more than ten times more light from the same bulb. So it would be 50000 lumens at the same distance making the light highly efficient.

With a normal Jokerbug 800, if you added a par abeam that same bulb would produce more than 10x the light output because of how efficient the reflector is and how it concentrates light on the beam. Then, using variations of that same material on panels you basically take one light, and each panel you use to reflect that light becomes another light.

So, in the case of my small tabletop example above, I was able to take 1 Lupo and turn it into three "sources" with three panels, just by reflecting it back on the subject. The panels are also very efficient, but have also been designed to emulate different sources, slashes, soft light, hard light, dappled light, depending on the panel you want.

IN the "interview" samples, I just used 1 light and two panels and mixed and matched "reflector styles" to achieve different looks. But I was using the same 3x3 inch panels to light the head shots. The shadows are left on the wall intentionally to show how the "source light" changes the falloff. I might want some larger panels depending on how large an area I would want to light.

In the case of tabletop, three little panels can give you:

1. An overall soft base light
2. A hard spot
3. a dappled light
4. an effect slash or secondary hard source.

all from one light.

Battistella

Pricing should be coming soon. For the little Kit I have been testing with which comes with some grip stuff in a hard case it is less than 680€ retail so I expect some Reduser pricing as well. I don't have any details on pricing just yet.
 
Bob Gundu said:
Wow, that K-Beam 40 JB is pricey! But it also can turn my Joker 800 into a monster!
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I heard that for a BSC demo a while back they actually lit an entire parking lot with a 1.2K source and a bunch of panels. People were reaching for their light meters to see if the light was actually as bright as they were seeing. I would love to duplicate a demo like that somewhere.

For some sets it could eliminate the need for a lot of extra truck, gear, crew, etc. In a some tight locations it could be a real alternative.

Battistella
 
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