Portrait plate for camera flash

A portrait plate is known to photographers under a variety of names: a light converter or a soft-reflector, "beauty dip" or simply a "plate". There are two key characteristics of the plates:

- Colour;

Is the diameter.

Portrait plate - what is it and why?

The soft-reflector is sometimes equipped with additional equipment: a diffuser made of cloth and honeycombs. In fact, it is an ordinary reflector, but "brought to mind." The diameter of the dish is larger than the standard reflector, there are several additional design features.

To make the Profoto portrait dish better reflect light, in the center it is equipped with a divider (deflector). This part of the direct rays evenly distributes throughout the plate. A recess is provided for the direction of the light. The honeycomb will most accurately and efficiently distribute light. Put them on a portrait plate can be, if there is a border.

The most common are the following diameters of portrait plates:

- from 400 mm to 410 mm - these are the smallest;

- from 550 mm to 560 mm - these are classified as medium size;

- from 680 mm to 700 mm - large plates for a flash.

Diameter of 850 mm and more is almost impossible to find. Experts recommend to stop on plates of medium diameter. Small softreflektory useful in small photo studios, but the average most in demand, if the space for shooting is spacious. Large co-reflexers are suitable to do group portraits.

A portrait plate for a large-scale camera flash is a guarantee that the light will be soft. This is ensured by the fact that the object will be illuminated by a plate at each of its points, and this leads to a softening of the shadows. Compare this with the sunny and cloudy weather. If the sun's rays are forced to make their way through the clouds, partially reflected from them, they illuminate all objects on the street from different angles.

How to choose a "beauty dip"?

If the studio is relatively small, you need to remember that it will not be possible to put the dish at a sufficiently large distance from the subject of the survey. However, this will not be a problem if you want to photograph, for example, just a portrait, but the full-length pictures are no longer needed. In this case, a small diameter portrait dish is suitable. Flashes will be leveled with highlights when the quality of shooting is high. As for specific figures, the height of the head is usually within 30 cm, and the distance from the crown to the breast is no more than 1000 mm. When choosing a lens of 50 mm in a small studio (2-3 meters along a long wall, 1.5-2 meters in width), you can safely use a portrait plate 410 mm.

Soft-reflector of small diameter is an ideal choice for a home photo studio.

For an average studio, that is a room from 3 * 5 meters and more, it is recommended to stay on a portrait plate of medium diameter, that is 560 mm. An even larger size is needed in the case when the studio is really spacious and it is assumed that the model will need to be shot in full growth.

Plate for any situation

The most popular is the portrait plate for fashion photographs. Here as a model - a young girl with a beautiful, clean, well-groomed skin. The most effective way to submit it can be by resorting to the scheme of arrangement of equipment "butterfly". This allows you to get a drawing light.

Another important point is the color of the portrait plate. It is necessary to pay attention to the indentation. It is recommended to take a plate, in which it is painted in silver, as this increases the ability to reflect light. An effect like this can be obtained by applying a very high quality white paint, which is what many manufacturers are doing.

Portrait plate: with what to combine?

To narrow the light beam reflected from the plate, it is possible to install special honeycombs for the soft-reflector. Choosing a good honeycomb, you can thereby completely replace the spotlight. In the modern photo industry, the effects that a portrait plate with honeycombs give are widespread.

Honeycombs are quite expensive, and the most profitable and reliable option is to buy them complete with a plate. Separately, this will result in an even larger amount, but no one can give guarantees of compatibility. Popular among professional photographers are kits that include:

- a portrait plate;

- Reflector;

- honeycombs.

Another important addition to the portrait dish is the white diffuser. Having installed it, thereby the photographer receives at his disposal a full round softbox. The professionals do not resort to scatterer infrequently, nevertheless manufacturers almost always include it in a set to the plate.

Plate and umbrella: an excellent duet

Use a portrait plate can be complete with an umbrella. Collecting and disassembling it is simple, it takes a few seconds, and transportation does not cause problems, so this set is really common among modern photographers.

Choosing an umbrella to work with a portrait plate, you need to remember that the diameter should be at least one and a half meters. Combining allows you to get incredibly soft shadows - such when using only one plate can not be achieved. In this case, the plate provides an accurate geometry, since it reflects light in parallel, but the umbrella gives scattered light. You can choose an umbrella with a matte surface that reflects the rays of light. In combination with a portrait dish, this will achieve very soft light. True, there will be small losses of light.

But a silver umbrella when working with a portrait plate is completely useless. The effect is exactly the same as the plate, without amplifying or weakening it. But you can take an umbrella to the skylight. The size of the light source from the umbrella will not change, but this can be adjusted by means of a portrait dish. True, it can not soften the light, and just with it the umbrella will go through. It excludes the appearance of shadows in the center of the frame and smoothes out the shadow that the dish can create.

Softtreflektor own hands: is it possible?

Make a soft spotter for an external flash - the task is not very difficult. You should have at your disposal:

- two plastic bowls (20 cm and 12 cm in diameter);

- soldering iron;

- very strong thread;

- Instant glue;

- foil.

You can buy almost everything in any hardware store, it costs literally a penny. What to do about it?

How to make a "beauty dip" on your own?

A portrait plate is made by hand in the following way. First you need to take a bowl more and from the inside it is very accurately pasted with foil, using instant glue. The edges need to be treated with adhesive tape so that the foil does not bulge. A small bowl should be glued on the outside, also foil and also very carefully. Next, make a hole in the bottom of the bowl more - so that there could enter the flash head. In this case, four plastic lobes should be produced. They need to be saved. As a rule, plastic bowls are made of thick enough material, but brittle, so the petals can not be bent just like that, first you should warm up the folding places. A soldering iron will come here to help.

If you manage to keep all sizes, the nozzle will be worn tightly. In this case, there is no need to make any additional fastenings, and we can proceed to the next task - installing a bowl of smaller diameter inside its larger colleague. There is no secret here. First, with a soldering iron in the edges of both bowls, three holes are made, then they take a very strong thread and pass it through the holes obtained. Thread should be pulled evenly, then adjust the position of the inner bowl.

The system is completely ready, you can start testing.

If everything was done correctly, you can see that the shadows when using the nozzle have become less dense, their sharpness has decreased, but the glare has lost its brightness. The image obtained by using a self-made dish is more contrasted than without it. The edges of the shadows are softer, they are scattered, and in the center of the shadow density remains, providing expressiveness, reality, depth of the image.