Glossary of photographic terms

Photographic lighting equipment:

• see also: studio flash & flash modifiers

• soft box:

  • large but light frame attached to a light source. It has a reflector surface in its rear & a diffusing material at the front to produce an even broad light source.

• snoot:

  • a conical device which is attached to a light source to limit the spread of light to a smaller circle.

• barn doors:

  • adjustable flaps used with a studio light to control the width and height of the emitted light.

• honeycomb grid:

  • a grid the shape of a honeycomb which when placed in front of a light source to make the light more directional. Often used for controlling the light quality of hair lights.

• scrim:

  • a sheet of metal gauze used to soften lights (usually tungsten lights).

• gobo (UK):

  • a perforated metal sheet, which when slotted into a studio light, projects a focused image onto the background.

• gobo (USA):

  • a device used to shield a light source so that areas of the scene are shaded from it (eg. a sheet of cardboard)

• monolite or monobloc flash head:

  • a self-contained studio flash, usually powered by AC power source and allows various attachments to allow the light to be modified.

  • usually have variable output settings full, half, quarter and some of the better ones even go to 1/32nd power.

  • usually have input for a PC sync cable to directly be triggered by your camera's PC sync outlet

  • usually have a optical slave trigger which can be set so the flash is triggered when it "sees" another flash go off - may be issues with AF cameras which have pre-flash flash firings.

  • usually have a modelling light 50-320W whose output can vary to match the output of the flash setting.

• quad flash head:

  • a flash head powered by a power pack or generator.

• generator:

  • usually a floor-standing box which can be used to power a number of quad flash heads, and usually have a power of 1500-6000w/s.

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