Barn Doors or Grids?

I have a limited space in my studio and find I need to adjust or aim or concentrate my lighting more, what would work best for this, I have 3 AB800 and not sure if I need Barn Doors or Grids or one of both.

I was thinking barn doors for the main light and a 20 or 30 degree grid for the second light but can you use these with a softbox?

Thanks to all,

Rick

There are separate grids for softboxes. Barndoors and honeycomb grids are both used to control light, but they have different uses. I have both, but I think if you are just going to get one then barndoors would be a good choice. Barndoors will allow you to change the spread of light whereas w/ a honeycomb you are stuck with one spread and would need to move the light toward or away from your subject to change the size of the area of illumination.

The best option would be to get a set of barndoors, a set of honeycomb grids, and possibly a grid for your softbox as well.

They have quite different uses.

Barndoors are pretty much flags that attach directly to the strobe - their job is to stop light spilling into unwanted areas (e.g. to stop the key light hitting the background or to stop an edge-light flaring into the lens.

Honeycombs concentrate the light into a round spot with a feathered edge and they have a much tighter spread than is achievable with barndoors so they are good for highlighting a certain element within a shot in a subtle way or putting a spot on the background with a consistent fall-off.

I have plenty of both and use them for different things. If you end up buying both make sure you have enough reflectors to use them separately as there aren't many scenarios which cal for having a grid and barndoors on a single strobe.

I am trying to stop spill over, when I shoot with a black background I get spill over onto the backdrop, I need to limit that, turning the strobe down does not fix it it makes the subject under exposed..

Do barndoors work correctly with a softbox or does the softbox defeat the purpose?

Thanks all..

cbr929rrerion wrote in post #6397246
I am trying to stop spill over, when I shoot with a black background I get spill over onto the backdrop, I need to limit that, turning the strobe down does not fix it it makes the subject under exposed..

Do barndoors work correctly with a softbox or does the softbox defeat the purpose?

Thanks all..

No barndoors with a softbox. You will want to use some sort of black flag (a peice of black cardboard, a black reflector, or something like that placed between the softbox anbd the background, but out of the frame.) to prevent spill onto the background with a softbox. A softbox grid may cut down the ammount of light hitting the BG as well depending on how the softbox is positioned. I would start out getting a large piece of foamcore and painting it black and then go from there.

Can you just pull your subject farther away from the backdrop and put your light closer to the subject?

No, I am limited on space, I wish I could...

Do you want lots of reading on this?

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=251549

At the end of that thread, it's continued in a second......