Elinchrom Rotalux 135mm light distribution test

With reference to this discussion I decieded to test the light distribution of the rotalux 135mm octabox. Its a usual test with one twist I will use the 11cm deflector to improve distribution. My assumption was that the deflector will make the rotalux as even as the indirect octalites. Below are the results:

135 Octabox naked

Good test Abdul. That's pretty much what I found when using deflectors as well. The nature of the deflector is that it will enlarge the hot spot and smooth out the transition from hot spot to the areas surrounding it and it drops the level of that hot spot to bring it closer to those other areas.

Just be careful when using a modifier and deflector for portraiture and tight shots. The deflector does create a small donut that is blacked out. It's not noticeable on full length or half body shots but when you start doing head and shoulder or head shots you might find it distracting. I do.

Using the deflector is great for covering larger areas evenly and doing full length work.

EDIT: In your underexposed shots you can see the blacked out spot.

aahaan! Good to know you're enjoying your purchase..

TMR Design wrote in post #8383841
Good test Abdul. That's pretty much what I found when using deflectors as well. The nature of the deflector is that it will enlarge the hot spot and smooth out the transition from hot spot to the areas surrounding it and it drops the level of that hot spot to bring it closer to those other areas.

Just be careful when using a modifier and deflector for portraiture and tight shots. The deflector does create a small donut that is blacked out. It's not noticeable on full length or half body shots but when you start doing head and shoulder or head shots you might find it distracting. I do.

Using the deflector is great for covering larger areas evenly and doing full length work.

EDIT: In your underexposed shots you can see the blacked out spot.

true, I noticed this on the last (severely underexposed) shot. Since I never used this octa for head and shoulders I never noticed it's effects in such circumstances; got to try that out some day.

Spouse one can get the same results from 175cm 69" octabox, what would be the benefit of using the slightly larger but much more expensive 190cm indirect octabank?

[godfather wrote:
='[godfather];8383869'​]aahaan! Good to know you're enjoying your purchase..

Got to give credit where its due. I bought this octabox from Godfather. He saved me a bunch over buying from my distributor. For whatever reason 1m+ softboxes prices are so jacked up from Elinchrom in the ME region, it wasn't like that 7 months ago.

I took the octabox to the distributor and they were impressed by the speed it was delivered to me. It produces the same color temperature as my distributor supplied 100cm deep throat octabox and the materials are exact match. The only thing missing was the bag, which is nice but not essential.

I conducted similar tests when I got my 135cm Rotalux. I found the large translucent deflector without the inner baffle to work very well.

I found that the inner baffle created a more uneven surface around the edges IMHO.

steveathome wrote in post #8383936
I conducted similar tests when I got my 135cm Rotalux. I found the large translucent deflector without the inner baffle to work very well.

I found that the inner baffle created a more uneven surface around the edges IMHO.

Really? I never thought of using that arrangement. Just to make sure I understand what you did: you removed the internal diffusion panel and then placed a 17cm translucent disk and the outer diffusion materiel. This arrangement sounds more power efficient than using deflectors which cut power output by 1 stop.

abdul10000 wrote in post #8383965
Just to make sure I understand what you did: you removed the internal diffusion panel and then placed a 17cm translucent disk and the outer diffusion materiel.

Thats right.

abdul10000 wrote in post #8383917
Spouse one can get the same results from 175cm 69" octabox, what would be the benefit of using the slightly larger but much more expensive 190cm indirect octabank?

We know you dont think the Indirect bank is worth its money, its clear from the Rotalux thread.

Diffrences is mentioend in the thread, if they are enough or of importance to you that can only you answer.

Some people prefer shooting light into walls or big peices of foamcore (wich of course wont give you the same light in terms of eveness or control regardless of what some will claim) and good luck bringing that wall or 2x2 meter foamcore sheet on location...

Your unhappy about the ammount of money your RX600 costed you,so id say the Indirect banks isnt something you appreciate, sure they are silent (no fans), but they will most certainly flex when you squeeze em...

Here is a test using the 17cm translucent disc:

I wasn't very impressed with the results so I decided to go back to the deflector and try something different. Using the deflector with no internal diffuser provided the following results:

In reality, unless working very close up to the subject, you may never see the difference in the resulting images. No modifier is perfect.

Hi Abdul. I think that you have to look at this in two ways.

One is the technical aspects of the test that includes measurements and shooting the underexposed front of the modifier.

The other is to actually put the modifier to use with the various combinations to see if you can see the difference on your subject area and what those differences are.

Evening out the light is not always necessary or important. In the case of a strip light or when doing full length work it becomes very important. Natural falloff can actually be a good thing and at times it's more pleasing than a dead or dark spot.

As I said previously, I don't particularly care for the deflector on my main light when doing anything other than full length work.

I'd take the very slightly hot centre created by translucent deflector & both diffusers over the dead-spot created by the solid deflector.

As has been pointed out though, we're dealing in very minute differences here. Even-ness is one of the things Elinchrom's softboxes do have going for them - pointless worrying about half a stop here and there as it won't be noticeable in the final image.

Agreed. I"m always much more concerned about the transition from the hot spot to the area surrounding the hot spot than I am about center to edge falloff.