Barndoors & Gobos

Barndoors

The whole point of a studio is for the photographer to control the lighting and atmosphere. When photographing outside, you really don’t have much control over anything. Here to help you have even more control over your studio lighting is a barndoor! A barndoor is a black metal flap with hinges that attach to the front of a light, and can be used to put the light in a certain direction. These are useful if you want a certain light off of your subject, face or body, or if for some reason you want to keep the light off of a background. Barndoors fit in front of almost any light, but can only attach to the larger ones. Barndoors are a great idea if you’re constantly doing different things and experimenting with your photos.

Gobos

Gobos are usually made up of some sort of steel or glass. They are placed inside a beam of light, so the light will project a pattern onto the gobo. This, in turn, projects the pattern into whatever direction the light is facing. The further away you place the gobo away from the light, the smaller and more intricate the pattern is. This is called a ‘grid’ or a ‘cookie’. These offer very unique portraits and patterns, and can spark good ideas that may become a success later, if not at that particular moment. There are different types of gobos for different sizes of light. The reason for this is because if you’ve got a small light and a large gobo, placing the gobo in front of the light could cause the light to be blocked out completely. Or, the situation can be turned around. If you’ve got a small gobo and a large light, the pattern probably will not be big enough to achieve the look you want. Some gobos, usually the metal ones, are placed in front of the light. Others can be attached onto the light, and these are usually thinner and less heavy. Glass gobos are good for creating somewhat of a rainbow effect upon the photo.

Barndoors And Gobos

Though these are two big helpers for photography, this isn’t all. There are also things that can help enhance your photography lighting, such as flags and scrims. Scrims fit in front of your light, to kind of dim the light down. Scrims can also be used to hold gels that you’d normally put right on the face of the light. The disadvantage of putting the gel straight onto the light is that for one, it can be hard to get off, and for two, if you use the light for a long time, the gel can melt onto the face of the light, give off the wrong color, and completely ruin your light. With scrims, this will not happen. A flag is a piece of thick black material hung in front of a light to prevent the light from going into certain places of the studio. Bigger flags are called ‘cutters’. The term ‘frosted flags’ means that the flag is glass and diffuse the glass onto a different area.