Photography: Light Modifiers

Video Transcript

"Ok, a modifier is something that you stick, on front of your, on the front of your light, because normally you have your light, just with the basic reflector. And this, these are great, these are very efficient, they send a lot of light out, but it's a very harsh light. And so, it's usually not a very good looking light, usually use this for backlighting or maybe illuminating a room, or something like that. But, a lot of times when you're on your subject, you want to use a modifier, and that's just anything that you can throw in front of a light, to soften it up. Usually what you're trying to do, is soften it, or focus it. A grid like this, is something that does kind of both, and actually focuses the light very nicely. And then, also softens it up a little bit. It can be something simple, like a piece of diffusion, like what's inside this modifier, with a set of barn doors. Gives you a little bit of direction with the light. Next other popular thing is umbrellas. This is probably the most common and widely used modifier. It softens up the light, and also covers a nice wide area. I'd prefer to use soft boxes. Soft boxes are really nice, because they present like a nice window light. It's very directional, it's directional, it's very soft. It usually presents a very pretty light, especially nice on portraits. All these things will help make the light look a lot better."