A snoot is:
A. Something your baby excretes from their nose.
B. A photography snob
C. A device used to focus light in a particularly tight pattern.
The answer is C, although I get A and C mixed up all the time. A snoot allows photographers to provide a hair light without illuminating the entire head and shoulders. It can also be used to draw attention to the face or some other point of interest. They can be expensive (for what you get) at around $100 and most aren't designed to be used with the external flashes that I like to use. While put-zing around Home Depot, I noticed that some PVC pipe was about the same size as my Canon 580 EX II flash head. Turns out by cutting a 1/2" square from each side, the pipe slides onto my flash perfectly. Add 1" corrugated plastic pipe and the beam of light is equivalent to a ~135mm zoom. The entire project cost less than $5 and the snoot doubles as a baby chew toy. Just another way I try to save my baby photography clients a few coins. For other neat articles, I'm building out a set of resources for parents learning photography with the first few articles discussing basic equipment choices.
Okay, for the pros out there, this is technically a DIY grid but the light pattern is more akin to a snoot and I couldn't think of a multiple choice question for the word grid. Coming Monday, my death defying "commercial" photo shoot.
5 comments:
Interesting snoot. I will have to try that.
Hi,
The light from this would be very similar to a snoot, right? So, do you perceive any advantages of using this grid as opposed to a regular DIY snoot?
How do you think the use of black corrugated material/ straws would make a difference. The light would be much tighter, right?
Regards,
R
Rishi - the light is similar to a snoot in that it is pretty tight, but different in that the edge of the light tends to be more gradual. I prefer the look of a grid more, but have to admit a snoot is easier to carry with you. Using black straws does make the light tighter (I have one with black straws) since it doesn't reflect as much and for the same reason the amount of light is less too.
I really love this project and is probably the best looking DIY snoot or grid I have seen out there, I tried finding a PVC piece like this at my local Lowes but was not able to find one, I will be trying my local Home Depot soon to see if its something that is store specific. But in case I am unable to spot one, where at in the store are these pieces found, in the same area as all the PVC piping and joints?
Thanks for your help, I truly appreciate it!
Hey Joey, it is PVC however, it's located near the rain gutters which, at least for the Home Depot near me, is in a completely different place than the rest of the PVC pipes. Good luck with that and would love to see a pic of your grid, or better yet some photography using a grid, when you're done.
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