Controlling Portrait Lighting with Grid Spots

OK, so, by now,  you may have heard the term grid spot? No, not grid square, which is an area on a map, but grid spots. If you don’t know what they are, no worries. I’ll tell you all about these light modifiers below.

Once reserved for studio strobes, grid spots have found their way onto your Speedlights. And heck, you can even make these at home if you have enough patience to sit and cut black straws into little pieces, then glue them one by one to a piece of cardboard that is fashioned into a snoot. Take a look at my homemade grid spot, below, right. Looks kind of messy, huh. That’s because it is. I would be one that belongs in the, not so patient for homemade grid spots, category. I’m telling you that this thing was whipped together in a matter of a few minutes, OK, maybe 20 minutes. I didn’t even let the glue dry. I know this because it was dripping Elmer’s glue all over the carpet when I set this thing up for the shot I created. I’ll show you that later in this post. But my point is, if you have the patience, and time, and can locate the black straws (just for the record, I purchased my black straws from a Smart & Final store), then go for it! Make a grid or two, send me one as well!

Check this guys site out, he seems to have a good tutorial on building a homemade grid spots. And his doesn’t look like an elementary school project either. I know, I Still haven’t quite explained what they are, I’m getting to that. But first, more on the different types of grid spots.

Since the growth in popularity of the wireless Speedlights, there has been a boom in light modifiers for these flashguns. So rather than making your grid spot, you can purchase one that fits most, maybe all, flashguns (Speedlights). HONL makes many light modifiers for Speedlights, and this one from Amazon, is what HONL calls a 1/8″ grid and fits most flashguns. Now, what exactly does the 1/8″ refer to?

Traditionally, grid spots are referred to by their degrees. For example, you can get a 20 degree, 30 degree, or 40 degree grid spot. Some manufacturers make a 5 degree grid. The numbers in degree just refer to the size of the opening where the light passes through. So, a smaller degree, produces a tighter, more focused light beam. The larger the number, well you can figure it out, will produce a wider light source. Now, I’m assuming that with HONL and other similar manufacturers, they figured that the 20, 30, 40 degree thing was too confusing, so they just opted to use the actual opening size, which in the example above, is 1/8″.

I wanted to also note that aside from grid spots specifically made for your flashgun, you can purchase adapters like this one here, that attach to your studio dish and grid spot, like the one I have shown at left. This particular gird is a 40 degree grid for Bowen’s strobes, but I use a Bowen’s to Speedlight adapter to attache the dish and grid to my flashgun, so I get more bang for my buck. Actually, I get to cover more area then the smaller grid spots, and for some shots, I need larger, controlled coverage areas. I demonstrate the use of this grid along with my homemade one in the final portrait, below.

So, this brings us to what a grid spot is and does. Grids are used to control light, especially light spill by focusing the light into smaller areas. If you take your Speedlight and just trip it without attaching any light modifier, you will get a blast of light, which could spread out to about 135 degrees or wider, depending on the Speedlight you own. With a snoot, you can channel the light, controlling it’s beam. With gird spots, you can narrow the focus of that light even further. Actually, you can just look at grid spots as a lot of little snoots crammed together. And if you didn’t know what a snoot is, it’s another light modifier that controls the lights beam from spilling. Snoots are used often as hair lights, to add accent in a portrait. The snoot and grid differ in that the grid forces the light to pass through these tiny openings, further focusing the light and keeping it from spilling on to unwanted areas in your photo; in essence, they have a tighter focus than that of a snoot.

On a side note, black straws are used in the homemade versions because they absorb light. You know you probably thought black was used because it looks cool, which may be true, but with light, the darker the color, the more light is absorbed. If you where to use white straws, your light would spread outward at the ends of the grid, giving you a softer light. To keep the beam focused and tight, black is used.

Let’s take a look at the image to the left. I was working on a commercial stock shoot when I created this portrait. The martial arts studio I was photographing in had white walls all the way around it and one wall was just windows. Nothing but natural light pouring inside. If I could bottle up all that natural light, I would be a billionaire today. That’s how much natural light was spilling inside. And yes, this was photographed during the day, cloudy outside, but nevertheless, it was day time. However, using two grid spots, Aline Bee’s to be exact, and both 20 degree grids, I positioned them to each side of the model. Pulling him far away from the white wall in the background and stopping the camera way down, I was able to darken the room, even with the natural light pouring in, and focus the attention on the model using the grid spots.

I think the resulting image is quite dramatic, considering all the white walls and natural light. The grids certainly helped focus the light and keep it from bouncing all over the room. I converted the color image in Photoshop to a warmer toned photo.

 

Now, I’m ready to discuss the portrait I created using my homemade grid along with the grid for a Bowen’s studio strobe, attached to a Bowen’s to Speedring adapter. Let’s take a look at the overall setting. Here is my buddy, a willing participant, looking perplexed at me as I take the set-up shot. I don’t think he really quite knows what to expect. After all, I just shoved a cigar in his hands, and he doesn’t even smoke. More on the cigar later.

As you can see, I’m not using the studio for this shot, but a living room, dining area, and a hallway. You don’t really need a fancy studio for portrait work, just some space to work in. Take note of the larger grid directly in front of my buddy. This is the key, or main light. I’m using the larger surface area so that I can cover more of the subject, especially his face. I have  Nikon SB800 mounted to the grid as well as an SB800 mounted on a boom, with my infamous homemade grid, positioned directly above the subject. He just had to dodge the dripping Elmer’s glue from time to time. (As a side note, if you do make your own grid spot, use super glue, it doesn’t drip.)

In the second set-up shot, left, you can see the white walls, I can’t seem to escape these things, and a nice mirror, ready to bounce the light every which way. Oh, and that’s me snapping the photo of my buddy, sitting in the chair, posing. personally, I think he enjoyed playing model for the day.

Even though I turned all the lights of and closed the blinds, you would still get light spilling and reflecting all over the room by using flash units. However, using the grids, helps control the light, and allows me, or the photographer, to focus that light and avoid the bounce and spill it would normally cause.

Take a look at the final portrait, below. Please note, this photo was not manipulated in Photoshop. This is the power of grid spots. The key light, as mentioned earlier, was attached to a 6.5″ 40 degree grid spot and positioned directly in front of the subject. There where no gels attached to the SB800. However, the homemade grid spot had a blue gel attached to it in order to give the smoke rising from the cigar, some color. This is why I handed my buddy a cigar, I wanted to demonstrate the separation of light using grids, plus create a cool portrait. The two grids allowed me to isolate the colors and light and focus them on to their respective areas on the subject. Again, this was done in a room with lots of reflective properties; white wall and mirror.

As a side note to the subjects wardrobe, I had him wear black so that parts of his body where the grid spot did not strike, would blend into the darkness. Also, if you look close, you will notice a little blue light spillage on his finger tips. You could solve this problem by either using Photoshop to change the color, or by changing the angle of the grid and experimenting. Honestly, I had spent the last 9 hours on a commercial photo shoot and was too tired to mess with the lighting for this demonstration.

So, let’s recap about grid spots:

• Grids are a way to channel light and focus their beams.
• They are traditionally referred to by their degrees, or the size of their grids. The smaller the degree, the more focused the light.
• Grids differ from snoots because of their ability to focus the light beam tighter then a snoot.
• Grids are typically black and this is to avoid light spreading at their ends. If they where white or a lighter color, the light would spread at their ends, causing a softer light, rather than a more focused light.
• One thing I did not mention earlier is that the shorter the grid, the more light spread you will have. The longer the grid, the more focused the light. The same holds true for snoots.
• You can make snoots, if you have the patience and time, buy them specifically designed for your flash, or use a studio strobe sized grid attached to a dish on a studio light to Speedring adapter.

Now, I recommend you go out and experiment with grids and your flashgun. If you do, let me know and I’ll post your images here.

 

4 Responses to “Controlling Portrait Lighting with Grid Spots”

1. Donald Schwartz says:

   September 2, 2011 at 10:42 am

   I’m just learning this stuff. Albeit, grids, barn doors, all well and good, but coming from a hotlight background I’d love to see “affordable” Fresnel strobes.

   Reply
   • Alyn says:

     September 2, 2011 at 10:56 am

     Donald, that would be a nice idea, an affordable Fresnel strobe. I have a couple of the hot lights myself, but find that I rarely use them. I can focus my Speedlights like you would on a Fresnel and as far as the warm light they give off, I just gel the flash units. Plus, the flashguns are much more portable and easier to store than a Fresnel. Best of luck on the learning. Let me know if I can point you in the right direction of any resources.

     Reply
2. Donald Schwartz says:

   September 2, 2011 at 11:27 am

   IMHO just believe speedlights haven’t enough oomph. The strength of focus-able Fresnels has always been a hard, clearly definable edge and a limitation on spread even without barn doors.

   Right now I’m learning on ABs and then when I have the $$$ I look at something better.

   I saw some 16-inch beauty dishes on e-bay with grids and barn doors–can’t say how well made they are. The idea of feathering the lights appeals to me.

   Cheers, ds

   Reply
   • Alyn says:

     September 2, 2011 at 1:50 pm

     You know Donal, for the most part you are correct. The Speedlightt don’t pack the same power a strobe does. I have found myself often doubling up the units to get the power. I do prefer strobes, but sometimes, it’s just not practical on some of my commercial shoots.

     AB’s are good, inexpensive units. The image of the first photo, the athlete with his arms out, was shot with two AB800′s and grids. But you do get what you pay for. They sometimes fall apart, however, on the good side, the company has good service and will get them working for you again.

     You know, I have quite a few light modifiers from eBay. Some are nice and solid, others are not worth the cardboard they where shipped in. It all depends on who makes it. My suggestion, don’t over use them and when you don’t use them, store them properly and they should last a while.

     Reply