I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
Many of us are taught that there are two types of light: soft light and hard light, but I feel it’s an understatement to say this really doesn’t cover the nuance of light density available to us. Today, I’d like to dig a little deeper into the light that falls under the ‘hard light’ umbrella and talk about the potential ultimate hard light in the form of Nanlite’s Projection Attachment.
Most of us are aware of what soft light looks like as softboxes, and their easy-to-use soft light is the ABCs of day 1 photography. Softboxes can come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, but one defining characteristic that we all understand as a general rule is that the larger the softbox, the softer the light it’ll produce - I’m generalising here, but for the most part, this holds true.
But, although the bigger the modifier, the softer the light is true, sadly, the reverse isn't quite as simple. Yes, many hard light modifiers are small, but their size isn’t what defines their hard light, and today I’ll show you how the hardest light ironically comes from one of the largest hard light modifiers out there.
Preface: I am reviewing this modifier as a stills photographer not a videographer. Nanlite has sent me this Projection Attachment to review. I am not being paid, and they are not previewing or editing my review before I post it.
What is the Nanlite Projection Attachment?
Before I free-fall into the rabbit hole of nerd-talk about this modifier and what it can do versus other hard light modifiers, I should first get you up to speed on what the Projection Attachment actually is and what it sets out to achieve.
I’m not sure if the images here convey just how big this thing is, but the Nanlite Projection Attachment is an absolute beast, and all of its would-be hard light challengers pale in comparison. This modifier really does require a C-stand to support it, and it’s so big and heavy that you have to place the actual modifier on a light stand, not the light- The light then simply hangs off the back of it. This significantly helps with balance, as the lens on the front containing all that glass is very heavy.
Speaking of the lens, there are some options. The lens I have is the 36-degree one, which helps spread the light as quickly as possible, giving you a bigger spot in small spaces. There is also a 19-degree lens which creates a tighter spot, but that would be useful if you were mounting this a long way from the set or in a theatre, for example.
Click to enlarge: The Projection Attachment is so large that a C-stand is a must and even then, you mount the modifier to the stand and the light to the modifier.
Click to enlarge: The entire modifier is made of metal, making very durable, but also very heavy.
Click to enlarge: You can see the 36-degree lens section of the modifier here and that whole lens can be swapped out for a 19-degree tighter spot.
More than just a very hard light
Of course, this Projection Attachment is more than just a very powerful hard light modifier; one of its primary functions is the ability to project gobos via its lens. For those that don’t know, a gobo or go-between is something placed between the light and the subject to create shadows. A modifier like this is purpose-built to accept metal disks (gobos) with patterns cut into them, which, in turn, project those patterns over great distances to shine onto your background or subject.
Click to enlarge: The Projection Attachment is designed to accept and project these custom-cut metal gobos.
Click to enlarge: The unit comes with a selection of gobos, but there are hundreds available. Note: When taking these product shots, I accidentally inserted the gobo in the wrong slot - It should be in the slot behind.
Click to enlarge: As you can see, the projection attachment shines razor sharp light patterns over great distances via these interchangeable gobos.
I’ve outlined the basics of what this Projection Attachment can do, and many photographers will, of course, opt to use it for its primary function of projection gobos as I shared above, but I’m personally more interested in its defining characteristic of being the ultimate hard light.
Defining Hard Light
To get a broader picture of what I mean when I talk about light density and the hardness of light, we should drill down into why we use hard light, what defines hard light, and what I personally look for when using hard light.
For me, hard light comes down to these three core aspects:
Control
Edge-to-edge quality
Shadow transitions
In its most basic form, a hard light should be able to produce a controllable spot of light.
Control
This is the easiest one to discuss as we all understand what I mean when I say, ‘a tight spot of light is easy to control.’
As we know, hard light characteristics are typically bright highlights and very strong, dark shadows. This look is only possible in a studio when the light isn’t bouncing around everywhere and contaminating itself with reflected light. To this end, hard lights are often very controllable with small spots of light.
This is often counter to the extremely hard light of sunlight on a clear day, which is utterly uncontrolled, but the open space outside often limits the amount of bounced light filling in shadows. I mention the sun as an example of hard light here as you’ll often see photographers using bare-bulb lights to produce hard light, and although this is technically hard light due to the very small point of origin, that bare bulb is spreading light all over the studio and thus uncontrolled. As a result, the environment can often contaminate the hard light from bare bulbs, and the dark shadows that hard light may produce will be filled with bounced light.
Edge-to-Edge Quality
We’re getting into the weeds of the defining hard light now, and although controlling hard light is crucial in the studio, the final look of that hard light on our subject is far more nuanced than simply a pool of light. What’s surprising about this nuance is that many photographers simply aren’t aware of the difference until they’re shown it. Kinda like trying to explain great-tasting food. You really have to taste it, or in this case, see it, to understand what all the fuss is about.
Many hard light modifiers simply ‘channel’ the light and don’t technically focus it. And by channel, I mean those modifiers don’t let the light go in certain directions instead of actually focusing it where you want it. This channelling can result in the light bouncing around the modifier multiple times before it leaves the modifier, and the resulting light can often contain odd and unpleasant shadows in the final bright pool of light. Snoots and grinds/honeycombs are the biggest culprits of this.
In short, we want a hard light modifier that focuses the light and not channels it. That said, even modifiers that focus the light can produce unpleasant edge-to-edge quality as they can sometimes vignette the light. Yes, they can produce clean, hard light, but their brighter centre and darker edges can be a pain to work with.
Click to enlarge—Edge-to-edge quality is extremely important, and not just because hard lights have a heavy vignette with darker edges. Some even produce shadow artefacts from snoots and grids. Here, we not only see a strong vignette but also the grid pattern from a grid/honeycomb hard light modifier.
Shadow Transitions
Again, this aspect of light and shadow isn’t readily apparent until you’re shown it. Sadly, once you’ve seen it, you can never unsee it.
I’ve spoken about this at length in previous articles, so I won’t bore you with it all again here, but I’m specifically talking about how to avoid those ugly double and even triple shadows when using certain hard light modifiers. This can happen when the light bounces around the modifier before leaving. The resulting light then casts a shadow from the bulb of the light, and then another one or two shadows are cast from the reflected light bounced off of the insides of the modifier.
If you want a more detailed breakdown of this ugly and very annoying look, you can check my previous article on it here: Refining Hard Light - Avoiding Double Shadows
Click to enlarge - It’s extremely clear how apparent these double shadows can get with more basic hard light modifiers. These ugly double and even triple shadows (top images) can leave an image looking messy very quickly. Also, note how much darker the shadow is from the modifier that does not produce double shadows (bottom images).
What does the Ultimate Hard Light look like?
Controllable
For me, the ultimate hard light needs to be extremely controllable. I don’t want any light bouncing around the studio and affecting my hard light with stray bounced light filling in those strong, dark shadows.
Clean
The hard light needs to be just that, hard ‘light.’ I don’t want any ugly, stray shadows contaminating the pure light that is falling onto the subject. I don’t want any odd shadow artefacts on the skin, and I also want that light to be the same exposure across the entire pool of light; AKA, I don’t want the edges to be a stop darker than the middle.
Shadow Quality
The hard light needs to be casting a single, strong shadow. As we know, the greatest hard light of all time is the sun on a clear day. That hard light casts a razor-sharp, single shadow, and I want my studio's hard light to do exactly that. I don’t want two or even three shadows creating ugly textures on the subjects’ skin.
The Typical Hard Light Contenders
Before we look at what the Nanlite Projection Attachment can do, we should first look at its primary hard light contenders. After all, the Projection Attachment is a serious piece of kit and is priced accordingly. Is it really that much better than its far less expensive counterparts?
Open Reflector Dish
First up is as basic as it gets, and everyone has used it at one point or another; the open reflector dish.
Click to enlarge
Control: 2 out of 5 - The light goes everywhere, but I guess it goes forward at least… mostly.
Edge Quality: 3 out of 5 - The edge of the spot is extremely vague… but it is smooth, at least.
Shadow Quality: Just Don’t - Triple shadows!!! Plus, due to no light control, light bounces around and fills in the shadows.
The Grid/Honeycomb
This is a slight upgrade from the reflector dish… or is it?!?
Click to enlarge
Control: 4 out of 5 - The grids do a good job of controlling the light and wider and tighter grids offer even more control.
Edge Quality: I swear I’m not making this up - This has to be worst edge transition of all time - Just look at it.
Shadow Quality: 3 out 5 - This is not too bad and if you can cope with the other flaws, the shadows cast are ok.
The Snoot
Snoots are pretty cheap, and we all have a few kicking about the kit cupboard.
Click to enlarge
Control: 4 out of 5 - This particular snoot is pretty good, but it needs some distance to get a good-sized spot.
Edge Quality: 3 out of 5 - A very slow but clean transition. There’s hardly any pure white light at the centre though.
Shadow Quality: 3 out of 5- A pretty clean shadow with only a very slight ghost of a double shadow.
The Optical Snoot
These are the focusing modifiers with an actual lens at the front to give more accurate control of the light.
Click to enlarge
Control: 3 out of 5 - These lenses require a lot of light to produce this spot.
Edge Quality: 3 out of 5 - The vignette is very stong on these and can contain artefacts from the lens.
Shadow Quality: 4 out of 5 - Due to the lens on the front, the shadow quality on these is actually very good.
Conclusion
Those results speak for themselves, and it’s pretty surprising how bad some of these everyday hard light modifiers actually are. That said, most of them are very cheap. If you’re just looking for an edge light or a hair light, these will do an okay job, but I would personally never use any of these on the skin for a key light, for example.
Is the Nanlite Projection Attachment up to the challenge?
I fully appreciate you’ve likely found yourself here because you were interested in seeing if the Nanlite Projection Attachment was any good. Still, I think we needed to define the job of a true hard light modifier like the PJ and how other hard light modifiers fall short rather than me just showing you some cool shots and saying, ‘Trust me, bro.’ This isn’t YouTube after all.
Now that we know what qualities a true hard light has to have let’s examine how the Projection Attachment fares when faced with these aforementioned requirements.
Control
Spoiler Alert: It’s already looking pretty damn impressive, right? When we talk about precise control of a light, it doesn’t come any more controllable than this razor-sharp spot of light.
It’s worth nothing here that if you didn’t want that razor-sharp edge to your pool of light, it’s simple enough to soften the edges via the lens-focusing knob at the bottom of the modifier.
Simply unscrew and move the lens of the Projection Attachment forward and back to adjust the hardness of the spots edge. This same mechanism will be required each time you set up your Projection Attachment, as you’ll have to refocus the spot based on its distance from the subject or background.
Click to enlarge: Focusing and de-focusing the Projection Attachment is as simple as unscrewing this knob and moving the lens in and out.
Edge-to-Edge Quality
As I mentioned above, this refers to how ‘clean’ this spot of light is. Are there any artefacts or dark spots in its centre, and are there any heavy vignettes at the edges?
In the initial test of the spot image above, we saw that it was very clean throughout, and there were no funky shadows of artefacts within the spot itself. I’ve also included a cropped image below with the spot underexposed by a stop to see if any vignettes appear at the edges. If we look closely, we can see some slight vignetting, but it's very minor, and it's only noticeable when you start to underexpose the spot, too.
Click to enlarge: As you can see, the entire spot of light is extremely clean with almost no artefacts and very minimal vignetting.
Shadow Transitions
As we know, the light is only half the story; we need to take a look at how it produces its shadows to get a clearer picture of what this modifier can do. Below, we can see how the Projection Attachment renders its shadows, and it should be clear to see how clean they are. No double or triple shadows, and the shadows that are being produced are strong with a smooth edge transition.
Click to enlarge: These shadow transitions are excellent with no double or triple shadows and the shadow itself is very dark as a result.
Some of you may still be sceptical if this hard light really makes that big of a difference in reality. Sure, with the cheaper hard light modifiers, the shadows may be a little brighter, you may have to take a little extra time to manage the vignette, and the double shadows aren’t crazy-noticeable all of the time. It is worth considering that I’m displaying this effect on the most basic 2-dimensional example I could find. All of these shadow issues scale up the more layers of depth you add to a shot. Take a look at a more detailed example below.
Click to enlarge: Image taken with basic hard light modifier
Click to enlarge: Image taken with the Projection Attachment
Without the Projection Attachment, all of the multiple shadows start to overlap and lose density and contrast. Not to mention that light is also bouncing around and filling them in. With the PJ, we still have strong, clean and contrasty shadows and the final shot maintains that extra layer of depth thanks to that contrast.
Practical Results - Model Portrait
Let’s take a break from the nerd-talk for a moment and look at a practical use case of the Projection Attachment. Below, I will share some shots from a recent model shoot where I used the Projection Attachment and one of its gobos to create beautiful-looking textured light.
Click on any of the images below to enlarge them.
Featured Model: Esmeralda_gb
Camera Settings
Camera - Nikon D850
Lens - 85mm 1.4
Shutter Speed - 1/125th
Aperture - f1.4
ISO - 100
Kelvin - 3500K
Focal Length - 85mm
Cut out & keep
TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation
Place model in front of white backdrop
Point Nanlite FC-500-C set to 2700K and Projection Attachment at model and backdrop
Insert desired Gobo
Set up large softbox behind you set to 7500K
Positon Nanlite FC-120C behind model pointed back at her - set to 2700K
Set camera to ~3700K
Setup Explanation
This technique is fairly simple, as it’s a familiar formation to many of us: Main light flooding the scene, hair light placed behind, and then a soft light to fill in the shadows. The only slightly more complicated part is the Kelvin manipulation.
Both the hard lights on the model are set to their warmest Kelvin, which is 2700K. That’s the FC-500C with the Projection Attachment in place, as well as the FC-120C behind the model. Note that I’m using an open dish as a hard light behind her. This is due to my needing a very quick spread of light and the fact that I’m not too concerned with the quantity of hard light when the light is placed behind and does not cast shadows on her. This light only casts highlights from where we are with the camera.
Once those two lights are set, we simply bring in the contrasting light in the form of the large softbox and set it to the polar opposite Kelvin, which is a very cool 7500K. Lastly, we just set cameras Kelvin to a midpoint between the lights on set, which is around 4000K. You’ll need to tweak this to your taste, but the goal is to show both cool and warm light from the lights on set, and our goal is not to neutralise any of them.
Lastly, you just need to tweak the gobo in the Projection Attachment. First, you’ll need to choose a Gobo that fits your look, and then you’ll need to decide how sharp and in-focus you want it. You’ll notice here in my shots that I have mine set very de-focused, for example.
Further Considerations
I’m going to start to wrap up my thoughts on this Projection Attachment, but first, I do want to dig a little deeper into the use of gobos with this modifier.
Whenever you use a lens in conjunction with light, you need to be mindful of how that lens is actually controlling that light. For example, we need to look at distortions and vignetting. We’ve already looked at the vignetting, but let's take a closer look at the distortions in this lens. By distortions, I mean how it warps edges and straight lines with these gobos.
I’m mentioning this for a couple of reasons, but I’ve been asked about it in the past, so I thought I’d address it here. These distortions happen for a few reasons, and they appear in every projection unit I’ve used. One reason is that the gobo, a very thin metal disc (it has to be very thin metal to get a sharp image), is heating up due to it being so close to the LED inside. As it gets hotter, this disc will warp, which is one cause of the distorted edges you see above. Secondly, all of my projection units have wide lenses like the 36-degree lens I’m using here. These wider lenses are great for throwing big images in small spaces, but they can also distort at the edges as they try to enlarge that projection so quickly.
This has never been an issue for me and I’ve yet to find a projection unit and gobo that doesn’t do this. One tip that helps is to keep the power of your light low, thereby keeping its temperature low, which will limit the amount of warped edges dramatically. Also, if you really cannot have any warping at all, opt for the longer 19-degree lens as that will also reduce the effect.
Final Considerations
As with all Nanlite products I’ve encountered, this Projection Attachment comes in its own case, but this one isn’t the standard dense polystyrene; this one gets its own hard case. This unit has a significant piece of expensive glass in the form of its lens, so it nice to see that its properly protected when traveling or simply not in use.
Plus, the unit also includes a handful of gobos as well as gel holder that sits snugly on the front… yunno, for those of you still using gels ;)
Closing Comments
I assure you I’m not exaggerating when I say a Projection unit like this is mandatory in my studio. For years, I used what I thought were ‘hard lights’ and although they did the job, after I upgraded to these far more refined Projection Attachments that have a big, clear lens on the front to truly focus that hard light, there is a night and day difference in the results.
If you ever get the chance to try this Projection Attachment, I’d urge you to do so. This modifier goes a long way toward giving your shots that final polish, and you can see that in the clean single shadows and clear, bright edge-to-edge light on the fine details I shared above.
Obviously, if you’re looking for the ultimate hard light, the Nanlite Projection Attachment is definitely it. This is an extremely high-quality unit from a company that genuinely listens to its customers and implements ideas and details into its products based on the feedback of its users who actually use this kit in the field. I look forward to using this unit on the majority of shoots moving forward.
Thanks so much for reading guys, if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below. Catch you in the next one.
I've always wanted my photography education on here to be free, so although there is no paywall to any of my -Technique Tuesdays-, any and all support is greatly appreciated. ❤️
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.
||
PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||
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I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube