LASTOLITE HILITE SYSTEM - HOW?

EdinburghGary

EdinburghGary

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Gary
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Guys,

Anyone here fancy taking a chainsaw to their hilite, sawing it in half, and providing me with reverse engineered specs? :)...

Seriously though, how are they made? Anyone know?

1: How many "diffusion panels" are there? Just the one on the front? Are there any internally?

2: What's the EXTERNAL BACK, TOP and SIDES made of - what colour?

3: Internally, is it reflective material? If so, where?

4: Lastly, is two lights more effective or can one do the trick?


The reason I ask, I have framed out my wall, and I will have diffusion panels of 4 x 4 metre by late afternoon. Just not sure if there are any considerations I need to take for BEHIND the panels.

G.
 
Hey Gary

I can take another look tonight but from what I remember it doesnt really have any reflective material inside. Its literally just the difused front. Rest is just black fabric on back and the white material down the sides with zips in.

Two lights definately required for a 4x4 meter one. Especially as your aim for no PP
 
Inside of back, bottom, tops and sides I am pretty sure were reflective. No other diffusion and two lights gave a better more even spread of light than a single one.

I used to aim my two lights to the back and let the reflected light light the difussion panel thus preventing hotspots!
 
I'll try and get it up when I get home and take some pics.

I hear some people have more problems getting it down than getting it up though and sometime it takes two to get it down. Also it comes out slightly bone shaped after a while. As your going for a permanent erection you shouldnt have that worry. :naughty:
 
The only one I've stuck my head inside was some time ago in the Warehouse Express showroom in Norwich. It was still there a few weeks ago and they are helpful enough - ask them to take a peak. It's a big one.

As I recall, it was all white inside, with the corners of the side panels silvered, presumably to bounce a little more light in there. The front fabric was nothing special that I recall, but then I wasn't looking too closely.

The way they work is by being sealed so that there is only one way out for the light and it just bounces around until it gets to the front. I think 4m is too big unless you're going to use perhaps four lights. Why so big? Try it with two for sure, but be prepared to add more. Maybe two lower at the sides and a third from the top?

You will also need to increase the depth. The one I saw was about 18-20ins I think. Depth will help even out the diffusion. If you really get stuck I suppose you could carefully spray-paint areas of the back in light grey to help even things out. With your studio units you should still have plenty of power to make that work. If you don't get it as even as possible, you will be tempted to blast the light too high resulting in hot spots that will be way too far over-exposed.

Just thinking about it now, 4x4m is a tough call. I'm not sure why you need something that big and it could cause other problems (eg uneven wrap for subjects at the sides - could be overcome I guess with additional reflectors). However, the idea of painting the back grey in carefully selected areas should allow you to even out any variables, in theory, at the potential loss of maximum light level.
 
Cheers Guys,

With regards to the size of it, 4 meters tall is for aesthetics only...I will create an INTERNAL false ceiling at a height to be specified at a later date :D

The unit I am building is EXACTLY 20 inch deep, and I will be firing my studio lights OFF the backwall. The only place light will be able to escape is the front.

My current plan is to use TWO sheets separated by 1 to 2 inch, with a light on the left, and another on the right. I did consider a MIRROR on the right internal wall and shooting the LEFT LIGHT onto this mirror, which *might* free up a light for me?

All food for thought, I am so close to my no processing required stage, this is the final step of a very long and frustrating problem! :)

Gary.
 
Just a thought Gary, but how about a full false wall on runners (wardrobe door style)at the back of the studio? That way you can adjust the depth as required and put it away completely if more space is needed.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Just a thought Gary, but how about a full false wall on runners (wardrobe door style)at the back of the studio? That way you can adjust the depth as required and put it away completely if more space is needed.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a potential upgrade to this system, however my only issue is I need to make it a BOX at that point. Just now I am using the actual ceilings and walls as the sides and back....I have already framed it out and attached the velcro etc.

Really looking forward to showing you guys the results, with and without processing.

G.
 
EdinburghGary said:
Cheers Guys,

With regards to the size of it, 4 meters tall is for aesthetics only...I will create an INTERNAL false ceiling at a height to be specified at a later date :D

The unit I am building is EXACTLY 20 inch deep, and I will be firing my studio lights OFF the backwall. The only place light will be able to escape is the front.

My current plan is to use TWO sheets separated by 1 to 2 inch, with a light on the left, and another on the right. I did consider a MIRROR on the right internal wall and shooting the LEFT LIGHT onto this mirror, which *might* free up a light for me?

All food for thought, I am so close to my no processing required stage, this is the final step of a very long and frustrating problem! :)

Gary.
Click to expand...

What are you using for diffusion? Two layers of fabric positioned that will just fall together - will still help though, but absorb light. And I think diffusion layers are just the icing on the cake, they're no substitute for getting the light as even as you possibly can at source.

I don't think the mirror idea will work. If you mess with the inverse square law, which is what you're suggesting, you will lose ;)

I'm liking the grey paint idea to even things out. When you've got it up, shoot a few pics square on with blinkies enabled. If you vary the exposure the area of the blinkies will change and should give you a reasonable idea of where you need to darken, and by how much.

Of course, if you get the main shooting area pure white and even, you can clean up anything else in post but that doesn't fit your 'no PP' objective. That's not going to be easy but I have to say with a custom build like this it instinctively feels doable.

EdinburghGary said:
That sounds like a potential upgrade to this system, however my only issue is I need to make it a BOX at that point. Just now I am using the actual ceilings and walls as the sides and back....I have already framed it out and attached the velcro etc.

Really looking forward to showing you guys the results, with and without processing.

G.
Click to expand...

The sides have got to be sealed.
 
For diffusion, tightly fitting RIPSTOP NYLON style material. It is EXTREMELY close to the Bowens Softbox Nylon, almost no difference that I can see. It will be crease free, and very tight, with an exact copy of the sheet 2 inches behind...

I was thinking of also lining the innards in foil, all over the place, and pointing the flash guns at the backwall....

Lots of experimenting to do.

G.
 
EdinburghGary said:
For diffusion, tightly fitting RIPSTOP NYLON style material. It is EXTREMELY close to the Bowens Softbox Nylon, almost no difference that I can see. It will be crease free, and very tight, with an exact copy of the sheet 2 inches behind...

I was thinking of also lining the innards in foil, all over the place, and pointing the flash guns at the backwall....

Lots of experimenting to do.

G.
Click to expand...

Lining with foil will increase the efficiency, but will have no effect on evenness of coverage and you will almost certainly get specular highlights making it worse.

You don't want more light, you want even light. You can use foil to lighten dark areas like the corners, but the main problem I think will be reducing the hot spots immediately around the lights. Might be an idea to use strip light diffusers on the lights to help even them out at source, eg Bowens Wafer Strip 140 :thumbs:
 
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