Why NO ONE is Using Parabolic Soft-boxes on BIG Sets

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[@damiencooper]

What’s your favorite form of diffusion? Mine has to be a lite mat with a very close soft box on it

[@joshmcdzz6925]

I started with parabolic when doing portrait and group photography but realized they weren't so ideal for product photography and video so switched to strip and rectangular . My favorite is bounce diffusion ( it's takes a lot more skill to do especially when it comes to controlling the light spill but once you fully understand your angles of incidence and reflection along with flaging its easier and I get better results.. I still use diffusion though but for critical situations where I need the light very isolated in that case - hard light with scrims )

[@gopaladas]

Booklight, would be cool if you do a video on using booklights.

[@damiencooper]

@@gopaladas I will 😉

[@aklem001]

Fresnel with Tough Spun

[@lonnease6415]

Basically as the size of the set that needs lighting grows and your crew gets bigger, the logic moves from softboxes to frames. But if you're a solo gaffer/shooter, the set is relatively small, and you're not given much time to set up and take down, softboxes make a lot more sense than frames.

[@damiencooper]

yeah but keep in mind that video isn't about softboxes but PARABOLIC softboxes

[@RolandVolbeda]

Thanks for this video. You just opened my eyes a bit ( working with a 120 parabolic can be a hassle sometimes ) on WHY people use diff frames, might dabble into it soon. Much love from NL

[@hllvlly]

Great video! We agree, there is never one single solution in filmmaking, it is a matter of solving the problem in the most effiecent way for your specific case. We use Paras all the time, we also use diffusion frames all the time. It depends on what the project entails and the look you want to capture.

[@cinnamon-studio]

as much as I do agree on that parabolic softboxes are a marketing gimmick and make not much sense there are 2 things I would like to point out: 1. A lot of photographers are big fans of a"catchlight" and obviously a round catchlight in the eyes are preferable to a square or rectangular catchlight since it is a more natural shape (like the sun). Hence a round light modifier is king for this purpose - at least in still photography. 2. A butterfly and a massive light behind it is fantastic but you do need a big set for that, a big crew and a BIG budget. Somewhere in your clip you mentioned that moving a parabolic softbox ina residential space is difficult - a butterfly would be almost impossible and you might be better of bouncing your light off the wall or ceiling. All that being said - parabolic softboxes are really just a gimmick - however they look great to the client who visits the studio and has NO idea what all that stuff is anyway because it is BIG. Otherwise in my experience a simple Octabank gives you just the same light for less bugs and it takes less space. Oh and one more thing - most of those parabolic softboxes (as most of all other softboxes) do have 2 diffusers. The inner cloth and the outer one. I guess still photography is just a slightly different animal then cinematography ... happy shooting

[@_GhostGarden_]

Just found your channel, really love these lighting breakdowns, thank you.

[@noahyv]

I thought this would touch on several different things but you seem to have missed the most important main reasons. You explain mostly why we don't see regular softboxes, but you actually do see softboxes on big sets all the time, just not parabolic ones. Chimera and DOPChoice literally make very expensive, very popular softboxes for very popular arri/litepanels/etc lights that are quite common. 1. The main issue is that parabolic softboxes are a marketing phenomenon that occurred when Briese lights became very trendy maybe a decade ago or so. This caused "parabolic" to become a prosumer marketing buzzword that sold softboxes because real parabolics showed up on a ton of big commercial sets for a while because Brieses are awesome. The problem is parabolic softboxes just dont do the same thing as a Briese light at all because actual parabolic lights place a 360deg light source at the focal point of a parabolic reflector and parabolic softboxes are just regular softboxes that are extra deep and waste a lot of space but have the parabolic marketing term. This bled into the video world when cob lights started blurring the prosumer photo and video lighting markets and the pointless marketing photo terms became pointless marketing video terms. 2. Parabolic softboxes have to be 8-16rib round shapes which makes them pretty unnatural looking in reflections and from a motivated source shape standpoint since most film/video lighting revolves around some amount of naturalism and motivation from realistic sources, especially window light and windows aren't round so why would anyone use a round softbox that's extra deep if it's roundness is unnatural and its deepness just makes it more unbalanced and take up more space on set? Unfortunately this video seems to just further perpetuate the marketing gimmick that all softboxes are parabolic, which if all you know is Aputure's lineup, seems true but is problematic for the reasons I've outlined. Softboxes are great, octoboxes are great, actual parabolic lights are great, parabolic softboxes are pretty pointless. That said, I know a lot of people use Aputure's parabolic softboxes because they've really cornered the prosumer market and that's all they offer and I don't mean to say you can't do really nice lighting with them, I'm just saying you can do the same great lighting in less space with softboxes that aren't so unnecessarily deep and unbalanced.

[@vaylx2253]

Hear hear! 🎉

[@aklem001]

I've done lighting for film and photography. We prefer skims and such over light boxes because we can control the hotspot. In every soft box, the light is in the middle of the unit. But if you have a skim setup and a free standing light, you can still get the diffusion but you also gain the flexibility to move the hotspot and add some direction to the light source. The only time we use fixed light housing is when we need a particular look, such as using a fresnel.

[@jamesburton1050]

Thanks. I've been looking for ideas to get bigger light sources in tight spaces.

[@meltysundae4540]

Because in commercial with high budget they use Arri light and they dint have bowens mount to aatch parabolic soft Box

[@sebastianFZE]

Hadn't thought about it like this, but it makes total sense

[@tbcmediaca]

Great breakdown of the simple stuff. Still been holding off buying one for over a year now and I never gave thought to attempting to use one overhead until just now noticing that most ceiling heights may not accommodate this. DC always bring light to the set of knowledge. 💪

[@damiencooper]

So glad to hear you appreciate it. There’s so little good content about these ordinary set topics. I’ll do a lot more of these in the future

[@tbcmediaca]

@@damiencooper absolutely! The last few years have been gear, gear, gear! No real exploration into how to use it and if we really need it. Still working to upgrade my C100MKii to a C70 for obvious reasons, but when I need the extra sharp or clean footage, the R6 seems to pull it off; just hard to match with the C100 in Multis. Thanks again man for all the time you put in making these vids. 🤘

[@thejackoss]

I've seen Briese with parabolic soft-boxes more times than I could count on big sets.

[@jaimeduncan6167]

He is correct, as far as I can tell, in all that he said, but, I believe I did not see a single Parabolic reflector in all the examples. Paras like the ones from Profoto and Broncolor can be focused and have a unique light that I like to call soft by sharp. Again he is correct you seldom see a Broncolor Para in a film set, they are built to illuminate a subject not ideal for a film.

[@AnthonyRodriguezz]

Such a good video bro!

[@electrotone2507]

Interesting timing. I am currently working on a video setup for a small room, and soon realised that it would be difficult to fit a parabolic softbox in the corner where I needed it. Which is where the 'workinG on' part comes from, as I paused at that point to reconsider. Now I am considering building a simple custom solution with a bunch of powerful, color corrected and directional LED lightbulbs, reflectors, diffusors and flat black flags instead.

[@damiencooper]

I would highly suggest using lite mats

[@electrotone2507]

@@damiencooper I might end up doing exactly that. Thanks. 😊

[@rowintheocean5014]

Just want to say I'm in love with your shot! Are you using any filters? Black Pro Mist?

[@damiencooper]

it's a 1/4 mist filter. Will do a breakdown of it next month

[@Sixth6Sense]

Great info, thx!

[@damiencooper]

Glad you liked it

[@Garbid]

May I ask a question. I have 90 cm deep parabolic. And same size umbrella with diffusion. As you said no difference except possiblity to use grid on softbox. However if i will take off outer diffusion and let only inner then that parabolic will be different?

[@MrMolotov69]

If you know your tools you’ll pick the right one for the job that will consider the location, budget, time restrictions etc. But I do agree these faux parabolic softboxes offer little light quality benefit over regular octaboxes in my opinion.

[@renebangura8138]

Its so refreshing to hear a filmmaker address a subject that the photography space on KZbin has been stating for years. It is a marketing gimmick at the end of the day and although i agree that you shouldn't sell them if you already have them, don't advertise to fans and people new to the space that its absolutely important to improve your content. You can achieve everything it can do with an octobox or beauty dish of the same size at a fraction of the cost with a smaller footprint. Better yet use a lightcloth kit.

[@damiencooper]

Trying to address topics not everyone talks about ;)

[@mrg6424]

A gimmick!? SMH. How quickly people like you who jump to such conclusions, show your inexperience.

[@renebangura8138]

@@mrg6424 The fact that you don't even know the definition of parabolic in relation to light, nor can you explain how light is meant to behave inside a parabolic when you adjust its distance speaks volumes of your experience. There is a reason why photographers don't use them and film productions favour book light, cove light and bounce light techniques when staging and blocking scenes.

[@captainfilmmaking]

"What the farmer not knows, he's not eating." ;) bzw. "The technique, is a dog." Diese Sprichwörter mögen auf den ersten Blick vielleicht etwas merkwürdig klingen, sind aber sprachlich "one wall free".

[@damiencooper]

haha

[@davebird5362]

Great video. I want to cross key light two person podcast conversations with two set and forget parabolic softboxes. Would you recommend two of the SMALLRIG RA-D85 softboxes?

[@damiencooper]

if you don't have the lights yet, get some led light mats

[@kristianvaarvik]

Love your listing of things they’d rather use lol. Also cool background

[@damiencooper]

Haha, thank you. Breakdown video of my youtube setup coming soon :)

[@mauraece]

There’s always been softboxes for hot lights.

[@alexlubensky]

There's so many things in this video that are actually not that correct. Chimera made softboxes for tungsten since 1980's, there was Dedo and Lowel all-in one softbox solutions aswell. Nowadays people often use DOPchoice solutions for modern lights, and those are pretty gigantic ones as softboxes (some of them are around 3m tall). The thing is that a proper softbox is basically a skirted butterfly frame. You want to use one when you need to control the spill of the light - frames often bounce a lot of light back into the studio and if it's not a black box - usually you want to avoid that bounce. While the positive side of the framed diffusion is that it actually can scale up to your set needs - be it 12x20, 20x20 or even 20x60 and skirted. Sometimes people also use so-called waterfall layer of diffusion (an actual roll of diffusion going all it's long 1x11m).

[@NaimJRu]

This video was commenting specifically about *parabolic* soft-boxes. Your comment seems to make different points about soft-boxes in general and light frames in a small studio, which are good considerations but do not appear to contradict anything I saw in the video. Can you please clarify? Thanks!

[@damiencooper]

All valid points. But as it has pointed out, this video is purely about *parabolic* softboxes. Not softboxes in general

[@alexlubensky]

@@damiencooper I really don't think there's any viable difference going parabolic or rectangular, mostly it does end up to the taste of the shape in the reflections - the working principle on all of them is actually the same - as a skirted butterfly frame, you have the textile and walls to shape the light. My point is that there's no real reason to oppose softboxes - or parabolic softboxes - to butterfly frames at all. All are made to shape light and should be used depending on use scenario and DP's needs and wants. And I was referencing to DOPchoise parabolic ones for Skypanels (the 60, 360 etc). And no, I've been to and seen lots of huge sets from the world class commercials and music videos utilize the parabolic softboxes nowadays, be it DOPchoice or Aputure Light Dome. I personally use the DOPchoice 8ft DoubleHEX octabox on a lot of productions. Sure you don't use them on a lift, just because it's more simple to rig a frame and the desired size is often 12ft and more, but I totally disagree on the point that professional sets don't use the octa's ana parabolics

[@damiencooper]

@@alexlubensky the big difference is that the parabolic shape adds lots of unnecessary space. I love softboxes and I use them all the time. But the size of a parabolic softbox makes it really impractical

[@profdaddy8870]

Nice content. What mic did you use for the sound of this recording.

[@damiencooper]

Deity s-mic2s. Will do a breakdown of my talking head setups soon

[@profdaddy8870]

@@damiencooper deity mics are underrated. They mics produce such good quality

[@damiencooper]

@@profdaddy8870 💯. Especially for the price

[@JoATTech]

There are plenty of videos proving parabolic softbox is just a gimmick ... if used as a softbox with diffusion .Different story is when it's used as intended ... light mounted on the rod without diffusion layers ... then it creates unique look, but it's the look used in beauty or high-end fashion shoots ... not in movies. So for movies I would use 8x8, 12x12 or book lightning faster than parabolic. As you said more control with flags and floppies then any grid.

[@BillAshtonNelo]

Thx

[@mikes978]

0:53 sorry, pepper head here, you mean Carolina reaper lol. A California reaper is thing, it’s a cross between jays peach ghost scorpion but is not a very commonly known variety… yes I’m fun at parties I swear 😅

[@damiencooper]

oops, you're totally right :D

[@ScoobieDee]

Somthing I have been thinking for a while

[@joshmoxey.]

The Hagrid moment took me out bro 😂

[@joshmoxey.]

(Rest in peace)

[@cokebottles6919]

I've used them regularly, even on my large(ish) commercial sets. They're an amazing and efficient tool in the right situation, but it's just one of many. Light domes and soft boxes are basically just pre-assembled book lights, which is amazing, but they don't come close to the flexibility of a full frame kit.

[@damiencooper]

small crews and one person bands they're still one of the best tools. I just don't understand why it has to be so big. A regular softbox should also do the trick

[@Supercon57]

Softboxes are convenient but I wouldn't compare it to a book light Not as soft The advantage of a book light is it's bounced light that then passes through diffusion With most softboxes you can see the spot of the light through the softbox

[@cokebottles6919]

@@Supercon57 I always use boxes with a second diffusion or internal reflector to avoid the hard point. At the end of the day, softness is determined by the size of the light source in relation to the subject. Whether the light is bounced or double/triple diffused doesn’t matter, so long as it spreads across the final piece of diffusion the same. The major advantage of book lights is how much you can scale them up, you can go as big as your light source and rags will allow you to go.

[@ekphotography]

Not so sure I agree, For the last 7 years or so, The Brieses parabolic umbrellas paired with their lights has been one of the most used lights on music videos sets and on 90% of my video projects hands down. And I still use parabolic umbrellas on most of my sets. Ofcourse their lights are tubular and are long to fill the whole parabolic umbrellas they "invented". So it does give a special light that NO other brands has achieved in my opinion and is the reason they were used on most beauty music videos sets worldwide for the last 7-8 years if not longer.

[@damiencooper]

Those are quite the unique exception in my opinion

[@tokekkk]

Considering buying 150 cm parabolic, now i guess im okay with 90 😅

[@KenOja]

Round reflections from parabolic soft- boxes can feel wierd aswell.

[@damiencooper]

true.. talked about this in my lighting for glasses video

[@Veypurr1]

This is a good video

[@damiencooper]

Glad you liked it

[@evocati6523]

A fresnel does the same thing, ie focusing the light

[@damiencooper]

true

[@sammorganmoore]

Not really. a parabolic reflector will emit parralel beams of light, a lens will have light coming straight (like all light rays) from a point.. a parabola creates a cyclinder of light, a lens (fresnel is just an efficiently sized lens) creates a cone of light. As mentionioned true parabolic reflectors (which could usually have the fixture pointing backwards) are quite rare and costly.

[@tarheelace]

Parabolic reflector or parabolic softbox?? Would make no sense to diffuse a focused light. I imagine that’s why nobody uses them in professional crews. Softbox or parabolic relector . . . pick one or the other. (ok, he more or less gets to this at the end)

[@noahyv]

Does he? I feel like he thinks he's saying this but what he actually says makes no sense... Parabolics are specifically designed to create uniform single source light? And adding diffusion prevents that? How? Doesn't pretty much any light diffusion or softbox aim to create uniform single source light? It doesn't even make sense, but I feel like he thought he was describing the point of the parabolic reflector shape but just completely forgot to say it or got it wrong.

[@aperturefilm]

Yippee ki-yay

[@carstenortlieb5040]

Wo bis' Du denn von wech? Westfale? 😀

[@damiencooper]

korrekt. Geboren in Remscheid

[@sammorganmoore]

NIce vid. Even on small corpoates where you may have to move three to six times (roun a factory or office) in a day getting a 'box through a door or up a lift is a horror. Do that once and you have 3.3 or 4.4 diffusors for the next job. If one is after max power output, as boxes dont leak (spill) a box is good at getting all the lumens to go where you want. I have an Ap 600 light and in the sun one is pushing for every lumen and a box can work.. but Id still pick a bigger fixture and tradidional mofifiers if I had the money.

[@ones_flow5652]

Come on, I just bought light and softox from Neewer and now, you're telling me, they aren't state of the art and useful?! ;-) I hope, the rest of the video will tell a different story. 😀

[@damiencooper]

Oh they’re totally useful! Just depends on the scenario 😉

Mr Cooper. Parabolic Soft-boxes sind spezifische Lichtformer von Briese oder Godox, die mehr als 1000 Euro kosten. Diese sind für Beauty und Fashion unverzichtbar. Die Apature Boxen sind normale Lichtformer und man nennt sie nur so, dass ist aber falsch.

[@damiencooper]

okay. Dann zeig mir mal bitte eine Briese parabolic softbox. Ich hab noch keine gesehen

@@damiencooper der Unterschied ist eine TUBE - die sich rein und raus schieben lässt. _Die Charakteristik ist somit eine andere. Der Lichtkegel verschiebt sich. Das geht nur wenn der Schirm mathematisch genau geformt ist.

[@damiencooper]

@ Darum geht es aber in meinem Video gar nicht 😅 Du redest von einem parabolic lichtformer. Die haben sehr wohl Berechtigung. Briese macht diese. Eine SOFT Box diffusied das Licht aber wieder und die Form ist sinnlos. Mit oder ohne Kegel

[@damiencooper]

@ und Briese hat keine softboxes. Keine der parabolics hat vorne diffusion dran

@@damiencooper Wenn es in dem Video nicht darum geht, dann hast du ja alles richtig gemacht und ich habe es nur nicht verstanden. Ich habe auch immer das Problem, dass mein 150 Schirm nicht durch die Tür geht aber mein 8x8 Rahmen schon. Na ja, wie es eben so ist. 😀

[@user-zv7lm8uk7h]

Most german first 30 seconds ever.

[@mauraece]

There is NO SUCH THING as a “Parabolic Softbox”, PERIOD. A parabolic umbrella produces a FOCUSED circular light source which can be hard if focused on the center, soft if defocused, or pushed to the edges of the umbrella, thereby creating a giant ring light. It’s not a “softbox” and its effect cannot be duplicated with butterflies.

[@acedia4453]

Parabolic soft boxes are for photography sets, not film.

[@farawijayanti8405]

what this is

[@opqrst7]

There is no such a thing as parabolic softbox. It is nothing but a marketing nonsense. 1- They do not have a true parabolic shape (in the market there are only a few brands e.g., Briese, Broncolor or Parabolix that produce true parabolic-shaped reflectors), 2- As you roughly mentioned, once you put a diffusion (layer/fabric) on a parabolic reflector the light loses all its parabolic properties. Simply sad, the term "parabolic softbox" is like talking of a warm ice cream. 🍦

[@damiencooper]

exactly

[@noahyv]

​@@damiencooper I'm confused, it seems like you think you said this in the video but you didn't... At the end I think you're going to and then you say something else that makes no sense about uniform single source light being special to parabolics which doesn't make sense at all.

[@Lucy-dk5cz]

Not all heroes wear capes

[@shaolin95]

NO ONE? What a ridiculous click bait title.

[@kevinsoundmixer]

Hi, production sound mixer here who works on big sets. He's right.

[@jklphoto]

I literally cringed everytime you used the phrase "Parabolic Softbox". A standard octabox accomplishes the same thing with out being so cumbersome and front-heavy. A true parabolic light modifier uses no diffusion and has an adjustable mount that points the light source toward the rear of the parabolic. They provide a crisp, focusable light. Don't believe a random stranger? Watch Karl Taylor's impassioned video on the topic kzbin.info/www/bejne/on6YfnhqpJxsmKcsi=zji7-Og48RLB2Z06

[@damiencooper]

That’s exactly what the entire video is about 😂

[@Lucy-dk5cz]

Too much talking. Could have done in thirty seconds

[@broskies2598]

Good job not adding adds and being a sellout......

[@idrisso.g.6316]

Way to funny start BESTSOFAR #liebseinfach