lens shade (how to)

[adrian tyler]

i'm making pictures of lions (stone ones, beautiful stone ones) and working with 2 strobes (small softboxes) about 20 degrees foreward 2 yards from each side, simple stuff.

thing is to get the close up head shots with my 240 g-claron i need to move slightly forward of the strobe, although i haven't seen the neg yet, the polas showed a bit of flare, i shielded the lens with my hand for the shots, so we'll see what happens...

any ideas for a lens shade solution?

thanks, adrian

[Henry Ambrose]

Hi Adrian,

I'd flag off the light(s). Place another stand with a black card between the offending light and the camera. Or clip the card onto the side of the light. Anything that blocks light will do the job.

And I'd surely look at Robert Zeichner's barndoor lens shade idea. It was discussed here recently.

Both a flag and a lens shade will help.

[Ralph Barker]

Flags on the lights and a shade, as Henry suggested would be good. Strips of foam core taped to the side of the softboxes should work. In fact, you might also fashion a shade from black/white foam core to slip over the lens, as well.

With the camera forward of the strobes, I'm surprised that you'd be getting direct flare from the lights, though. The flare may be coming from something else the lens is seeing, which might modify how you solve the problem.

[Henry Ambrose]

I have to admit I thought maybe Adrian mis-typed about the relationship of the camera and lights. So pay attention to what Ralph wrote.

If you end up with lots of flary stuff reflecting back into the camera then a compendium shade might be in order. Lacking that I've made a tunnel of foamboard surrounding the lens to exclude all light not used to form the image. Sort of a monster compendium.

[Robert A. Zeichner]

Adrian, The latest issue of Photo Techniques contains my article on building a very effective shade for just about any lens. It involves the use of a small barn door from a lighting fixture and some filter adapter rings. It's pretty easy to make and accomplishes some very important objectives: Eliminating virtually all non-image forming light from entering the lens and any bellows flare that might be a result of incomplete shading. It takes into consideration any movements you employ and any format of film you might be using. With just a couple of adapter rings, this fits eveything in my kit from 110mm to 450mm.

[adrian tyler]

thanks guys, i'll check the negs out today, i'm hoping it was defective polaroid (2 months out of date), ralph, i don't think i'm getting any reflections although the background is white the lights are too accute an angle i think. i think i'll make a shade all the same.

robert, i had a look at the Photo Techniques web and i'm afraid i can't get it here in time for the job.

adrian