Mola Dishes Out Lighting Tips
Turns out Mola, the funky-looking beauty dish manufacturer, actually has a pretty cool blog. Lots of neat examples and more than a few lighting diagrams. All featuring Mola beauty dishes, natch.
I saw it this week when they profiled Brad "My Lighting Volume Knob Goes to Eleven" Trent, who is a frequent user of the ridged reflectors. Definitely worth a look.
:: Mola Softlights Blog ::
:: Damn Ugly Photography (Brad Trent) ::
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Posted at 11:39 AM.
11 Comments:
New technology? My dad who was a professional photographer used these BD in the early 50s. They where about 30" in diameter mounted on rolling stands and used I think about 1K watt photoflood bulb. He had two BD setups. I have some old slides of his that have the same look. I would like to have a set of these if I could ever find them. Thanks for your good information. Maybe some day I will understand the automatic functions on my new digital camera.
I have had the Mola-Light Blog in my reader for quite some time and thanks to that, I just made the plunge and ordered the Euro.
There is also a small flickr group of currently 64 members sharing experiences and images made with Mola dishes.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/mola-light/
Holy deep pockets Batman!!
I just checked them out on B&H and pricing on these dishes are on the high end to say the least! And the speedlight bracket alone costs the same as their cheapest dish model!
Definitely out of my league at the moment!
Great blog though!
I've been using Molas for a couple of years now and they've pretty much replaced all my softboxes, umbrellas, and other modifiers. What might be of interest to strobist-style shooters is that while not particularly portable (they're light but don't collapse) they are incredibly efficient. They're probably 2 stops more efficient than a medium softbox and 3 stops more efficient than an umbrella. Put a sto-fen on your speedlight, mount it in the dish, and you'd be golden.
I am a little confused. With the heavy amount of retouching in most of these images, it is hard to know what is the strobe and what is the retoucher?? And I say this as a prof retoucher....
Rick was a little confused: "...it is hard to know what is the strobe and what is the retoucher??"
Awwww..c'mon, Rick...it shouldn't be that hard to figure out, especially for a professional retoucher!
RAW: Bon Jovi RAW File
Retouched: Bon Jovi Retouched File
As you can see...the lighting effect doesn't change just because of the amount of post work I do to the image. It's still just one light, up high, skimming across his body...that I choose to desaturate the colors and mess with the contrast doesn't mean I still don't hafta know how to light!
And as for the rest of the images of mine that Mola chose to use on their blog, they're all remarkably simple...and despite what you say, not that messed with! In fact, the Bon Jovi shot has the most amount of work, but the rest are all kinda normal for me!
BT
I also love shooting with the Mola Softlights - Using the 43.5" Mantti and 28" Setti. I rarely use anything else, especially when the wind is involved down here in Australia.
I have had a setup come down in the wind, on the odd occasion, and I have never damaged anything. (my 60" softliter didnt fare as well when it blew over :( )
For me the small amount of effort transporting and getting them on location, it is worth every minute and more. The light output is just unlike anything I've ever used or shot with before.
Thanks BT for the before and after!
I may be easily led, but I just ordered a Demi and the Lumi bracket for my SB 800. This way, I can use it on location and in the studio too. I'd have purchased the mount for a studio strobe, but I'm still undecided on purchasing Profoto or Elinchrom.
Ed
Has anyone compared the light quality out of a Mola vs other alternatives like the Kacey or Speedtron 22" BDs? I'm in the market for one and the Mola pricetag makes me cringe.
I've got the Mola Demi and the Dynalite 4040 with the speedring adaptor for the 4040. I'm trying to figure out a quick way to change out the Dynalite and use a speedlight if I want or need to.
I was thinking I could buy the Dynalite bayonet part directly from Dynalite, then bore out the center, and attach a Bogen Manfrotto 2971 Camera_Stud underneath the bayonet which would have the angled bracket from the Chimera 2795 Speed Ring... that way I could swap the Dynalite head for the speedlight in about 30 seconds... just have to find out the cost of the bayonet part from Dynalite.
I would love to try Mola's out. I've had my eye on them forever, but I've never pulled the trigger.
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