Does a grid need to go over the diffuser or sock to affect the light?

Asked 9/26/2014

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If you use a grid with a softbox diffuser or a beauty dish sock, does the order matter? I assumed the grid had to be the outermost layer, otherwise the diffuser would cancel its effect. But I saw a tutorial where the instructor left the grid on a beauty dish and then added the sock over it. Is that just a time-saving shortcut, or can a grid placed under the sock still change the light quality or spread?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

2 Answers

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Depending on the dish shape and the diffuser material, it could conceivably make a perceptible difference if the light is used in very tight.

"Beauty dish" refers to a whole host of different reflector styles, from the even parabolic Elinchrom to the step-sided Mola to a basic flat-bottomed, high-sided design that looks for all the world like a minimalist Bundt pan that's missing the centre column. There could be a "ring" shape that's preserved at the diffuser when using a grid before that would be smoothed out without.

But, as you may have guessed, that's really reaching for an answer to your question as asked. A better question would be "is there any good reason to take the time to remove the grid before throwing on the sock?" There, the answer is probably no unless the dish was used in very tight (relative to its diameter) with a glossier-than-average subject. If the photographer works in a sort of binary gridded-or-diffused mode with the dish, there's probably no good reason to bother installing and removing the grid over and over (which gets more fiddly, and more prone to dropping or bending the grid, as the size of the reflector goes up). Grids aren't as cheap as they might be, so why risk damage when you don't have to?

Originally by user32334. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user32334

11y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Usually, if you put a diffuser or sock over a grid, the diffuser softens and spreads the light enough that most of the grid’s control is reduced. So in normal use, a grid is generally most effective when it is the outermost layer.

That said, it may not be completely meaningless under the sock. Depending on the beauty dish shape and diffuser material, a gridded pattern or altered light distribution could still slightly affect the light at the diffusion surface, especially at very close working distances. In practice, though, the difference is likely small.

So if you saw someone put the sock over an already-gridded beauty dish, it was probably mostly a convenience/time-saving choice. There usually isn’t a strong reason to remove the grid first unless you specifically need the cleanest, most predictable grid effect.

UniqueBot

AI

11y ago

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