Getting a Profoto Giant Reflector-like result from a Chimera 5 or 7 ft Octo

[sam_chan4]

Now, I know some of you (and a voice inside of me as well) will say "the best

way to get your answer is to actually try it yourself" ... however, I'm

ridiculously busy right now with my "day job" and just don't have time to set

up a test.

 

And so here I am - to see if you've had this thought before: Are there any of

you who own a Chimera 5 or 7 ft Octo, which is great for what it is as a very

soft light, but are doing a shoot where you wish you had a Profoto Giant

Reflector to get those more brilliant, specular hilites? That extra "pop"?

Well one way is to go and rent yourself a Giant Reflector. But how about this:

Setup the chimera octo onto a stand using a grip head (w/adapter), but with

none of the diffusers / screens, and no head. Then, put the head on another

stand and position it wherever you want - could be where the Profoto Giant

Reflector would have placed it - and voila, you've got a more flexible

version .. perhaps approaching a Plume.

 

Has anyone tried this and can comment on how well this works? I'm not

interested in the setup time - the answer is clear. Just wanna know about the

light, and thinking about things like how the curvature of a Profoto giant vs

that of the chimera octo differ, etc.

 

Thanks in advance for your collective expertise,

Sam

[ellis_vener_photography]

sounds like a fine idea to me! Experiment with and with out the internal baffles and also experiment with having the the head on a second stand and short book pointing back into the open faced Chimera, especially if its got a silver lining.

 

(BTW many years ago I did exactly what you propose but with a Plume Wafer 100 softbox)

[clay_ransom]

Sounds in theroy like it will work. You will have to use 2 lights. One to hold the box and one to fire into it. Run some test shots to get your distance for the look you want.

[sam_chan4]

Thanks for the responses so far guys. There's nothing like the fun of creatively solving a problem instead of giving into the apparent limitations.

 

Clay, I can actually use just one head / strobe / light, since to mount the octo box to a stand I can use a grip head and an adapter. The octo's speedring is attached onto the adapter using some screws, then the adapter is held by the grip head, and the grip head is then mounted to the light stand. This is how anyone who plays it safe typically mounts a 5 ft or larger octo box onto a stand, and you can see the adapter that I'm talking about at the Chimera Web site somewhere.