codis wrote:
I was planning on purchasing a grid set of 10,20,30,40.  I was also looking at a snoot which brings the light down to 20degrees as well.  My question is, will the light look the same coming from the snoot as the 20degree honeycomb grid?  Or does the snoot provide a smaller spotlight?

snoot has a 10 or 20 in it, but the end is snooted.  much more focused...

Palasade wrote:
If I may add to this question: Will light travel further if shot through a snoot vs a grid? One would think so since it is a concentrated beam of light

I dont know about the grids, but the light loss for the snoot is 3.5fstops

Anthony Stubbs wrote:
A grid will give a light that drops off rapidly from the center to the outer.

The snoot will give you a reasonably even beam of light.

Barn doors keep the cows in.

Yeah.

Isaac Klotz wrote:
""...a snoot will likely have a sharper fall off between light and shadow"

That's what I really wanted to say and demonstrate (in reverse though), a grid will likely have a softer fall off between light and shadow...but I failed...glad someone said it correctly BTW love your work.

~ Alex

Fat Puppy Studio wrote:
Snoot doesn't have the same spread (or effect) as a grid.

20 degree Honeycomb grid example:

Thank you for the example.  Do you have a similar snoot photo to compare?

Brian Diaz wrote:

Thank you for the example.  Do you have a similar snoot photo to compare?

Unfortunately, the only thing I have available online with is snoot is this picture.



I tend to use a snoot for a hair or rim light, I almost always use it to create a "highlight on the side of a models face. The snoot has a small enough foot print that it doesn't spill onto the models body, or the rest of the scene for that matter. Hope that helps a little. I'm sure someone can provide a  better example.

Rolando Gomez wrote:
NO snoots, use CINEFOIL!  For $27 at your local theatrical store and some camera stores, buy 50-feet of Rosco Cinefoil and mold it to any shape you want.  It's black on both sides, heavy-duty aluminum foil, very reusable.  That one roll will last many photographers ten-years!  It comes in 12-inch (the roll above) and up to 48-inches in width, very useful for masking off areas like the front of a soft box.

Now for the grids, I have the kit from 10-40, use mainly the 10 & 20 more, but I place my grids inside my 7-inch reflector that is mounted on my flash head.  I sometimes "double grid" too.  You can read more about this in my glamour photography books, but it's a cool technique.  I guess I'll write about it for my blog.

Everyone should have a roll of cinefoil handy but it's a waste of time if what you want is a snoot. You can just slap the snoot on the light. You'll spend time screwing around to get the foil right and then it will need readjustment if you take it off.

Brian Diaz wrote:
Thank you for the example.  Do you have a similar snoot photo to compare?

Unfortunately, the only thing I have available online with is snoot is this picture.

Fat Puppy Studio wrote:
I tend to use a snoot for a hair or rim light, I almost always use it to create a "highlight on the side of a models face. The snoot has a small enough foot print that it doesn't spill onto the models body, or the rest of the scene for that matter. Hope that helps a little. I'm sure someone can provide a  better example.

I suspect it may not be clear to those who haven't used a snoot exactly what the snoot contribution is.  If anyone has an image of snoot only, other lights w/o snoot, and snoot plus other lights...

( ANT ) Mgaphoto wrote:
lol.. everyone is asking questions. there should be a lighting thread just for serious questions and answers, not one where some jackass can say that is a dumb question or getting popcorn so I can have 10K posts

There is such a thing ... http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

I don't understand how some jackass posting a dumb question will help you get 10K posts though.

abSolute KeLviN  wrote:
Grid is the only way to go. I'll never go back to snoots - too much spill, and too much loss of volume.
. . .

Fat Puppy Studio wrote:
I tend to use a snoot for a hair or rim light, I almost always use it to create a "highlight on the side of a models face. The snoot has a small enough foot print that it doesn't spill onto the models body, or the rest of the scene for that matter. Hope that helps a little. I'm sure someone can provide a  better example.

Well, several  photographers have expressed different views on whether the snoot spills or contains more than a grid. Let alone the quality of light question.

Very interesting nonetheless. Carry on.

Anyone care to just pop off a couple shots with both on the same set up and post as an example?

Chip Morton wrote:

abSolute KeLviN  wrote:
Grid is the only way to go. I'll never go back to snoots - too much spill, and too much loss of volume.
. . .

Well, several  photographers have expressed different views on whether the snoot spills or contains more than a grid. Let alone the quality of light question.

Very interesting nonetheless. Carry on.

Anyone care to just pop off a couple shots with both on the same set up and post as an example?

It's actually a question of the most amount of control that you could get out of either a snoot or a grid. With a 20 degree grid, I would probably have to have a 3" diameter x 36" long snoot to get the same focused spot. Most snoots don't have more then a 12" long tube, so they tend to have lots of spill instead of focus.

If you wanted to light like this Albert Watson - (Christy Turlington)

I'd use a 10 degree grid with a piece of cardboard with a 2" circle cut out taped over it.

I've tried this with a packing tube that was 18" and had way too much spill to pull it off.

Rolando Gomez wrote:
NO snoots, use CINEFOIL!  For $27 at your local theatrical store and some camera stores, buy 50-feet of Rosco Cinefoil and mold it to any shape you want.  It's black on both sides, heavy-duty aluminum foil, very reusable.  That one roll will last many photographers ten-years!  It comes in 12-inch (the roll above) and up to 48-inches in width, very useful for masking off areas like the front of a soft box.

Now for the grids, I have the kit from 10-40, use mainly the 10 & 20 more, but I place my grids inside my 7-inch reflector that is mounted on my flash head.  I sometimes "double grid" too.  You can read more about this in my glamour photography books, but it's a cool technique.  I guess I'll write about it for my blog.

Wishing you the best, rg sends!

Very useful suggestions Rolando, thanks (and congratulations for your work!)
Checking your blog right now..

Charles Zachritz wrote:
Get a snoot AND a grid for the snoot-hole.  Double the fun.  Seriously it's a great cobo.

I agree, having both grids AND a snoot will provide lots of flexibility and control.

David Pankhurst Photo wrote:
In fact, if you study the physics of light, as you might in a lighting course, you will come to understand that light travels in straight lines from source to object unless it is either reflected by bouncing from something or refracted, as through a piece of glass and bent.  If you place a tube which narrows along its length (a snoot) on a relector, only the light emitted from the centre of the bulb (flashtube) will travel the length of the snoot - some smll additional amount of light rays will bounce around and join the original incident rays...this provides a narrow beam of light use for accents..like hairlights.  It is not a focussed beam in any sense unless you add a lens as in a fresnel spot.

The grids are a crosshatch arrangement which merely forces almost all of the available light to travel in straight lines creating a parallel beam...also useful for highlighting.  While the volume of light emitted is greater than a snoot, the beam appears broader giving the impression of less sharpness or focus.

Oddly, with the invention of digital cameras, I find that simplistic physics descriptions  kind of fail to explain light the way I've come to know it.

To me, light acts more like a substance that has volume, and is prone to stray or expand the moment it becomes unconfined. As soon as it leaves the snoot or grid, it seems to expand it's volume considerably near the point of release and travel in multiple directions, but as distance increases, the main volume of light travels in a relatively straight line.

In practice, the effect of the light from either device is considerably different at 1' then it is at 20'.

The same is true of a softbox. After 15ft, it starts to look more like a hard light source, without any wrap. In very close distances, a snoot will usually "wrap" more than a grid will.