What Diffusion & Bounce Cards?

[Jonathan Pears]

Wanted to ask what diffusion people are using for their LED panels, Flourscents and any square shaped light source where a traditional softbox can't be used?

Also interested in any specific bounce cards/boards are used out there?

Thanks for taking the time....

 

[Michael Notar]

diffusion- opal frost, 250 (1/2 white diffusion).

bounces- 4x8 1 or 1.5 in foam sheets of insulation from home depot. available with a hard silver side and a slightly textured white side (that we use all the time to bounce lights off of). some brands of foam have a matte silver side. they will run you $10-15 for sheet you can cut several out of.

 

[Peter Mosiman]

I don't use LEDs all that much, but I'm constantly using kinos...bouncing off muslin is phenomenal. 251/250/216 are all fantastic as well, and in their own ways.

 

[Christopher Mills]

I use Rosco 250
and tracing paper and light grid cloth on LEDs sandwiched with minus green hard gel... not all three difusions at once, one at a time.

 

[Jonathan Pears]

Michael, what are you using to position those bounce boards? What stands will hold the foam securely?

 

[Matt W.]

Michael, what are you using to position those bounce boards? What stands will hold the foam securely?

C-stands (or combo stands with lollipops when outside) and duck bills but of course (or gator grips or grip heads in a pinch when all the duck bills are playing)...

But ask your key grip! This is gripping 101, rigging up bead and diff.

I personally dig opal on kinoflos. Softens them just a bit. I like opal on everything. To get truly soft and textured half grid is nice, 216 is nice, grid cloth is nice but it eats a lot of stop. I've seen kinos bouncing straight up onto 2x4s of bead board (a gobo arm with a piece of bead board bouncing down mounted onto a c-stand with the kinoflo mounted onto the same c-stand bouncing up to hit the bead--almost simulating a bounce onto a white ceiling but angled a bit more toward the subject) to soften fill light into sourceless light and it worked great, the issue being that it spills everywhere and so is more appropriate for filling a darker space. But for a brighter space you might not need fill or you could bounce against a wall or ceiling in the first place. But this provided a lot of softness without losing a ton of stop.

I typically use opal, 250, and either 216 or some variety of grid cloth on kinoflos and the like. Grid cloth is nice because it doesn't rustle in the wind and it has a thicker texture that allows it to wrap a little more, but the difference between grid cloth and 216 is subtle and way beyond me tbh, though I pretend I can totally differentiate between the quality of light the two offer.

For whatever reason I usually mount the diff to the unit itself and don't use a frame with kinoflos. I guess because the unit is already big and you're changing the texture, not the size of the source.