Lighting Support & Accessories

Photographers need light to take a photo regardless of a bright light source or infrared. Sometimes photographers need more than a good light set up to achieve a certain photographic effect in their home, or work projects, especially when it comes to brightness and light intensity. It is important to research lighting support & accessories to fit any photographic desire through word of mouth, photo magazines, books, online information and, of course, personal review.

Lighting accessories serve to enhance lighting capabilities such as controlling the background wash, to preventing illumination or bleeding from the background color into the subject, to measuring the light reflected off a subject. This article gives a brief overview about some of the more popular devices used in home and studio photography lighting.

Barn doors, scrims, cookies, snoots and umbrellas make up a portion of accessories available to photography lighting. Such items can soften and diffuse hard lighting. Certain accessories have the ability to manipulate shadows, highlights and contrasts when used with proper lighting techniques.

In photography, an accessory known as a barn door allows the photographer to manipulate the light and keep it from brightening a specific area. Barn doors slide over the light source with a box like frame. Photographers move the four metal flaps on a barn door to allow, or block a part of the light beam. Hollywood moviemakers still use this technique in some films and photography.

Like barn doors, snoots slide over a light source. Unlike barn doors, snoots come in an unmovable cylinder shape that significantly reduces light. These are often used in hair lighting. Some snoots come with an adjustable focus to allow light softening, while other snoots allow a grid over the end for softer gradation on the light's edge.

A translucent panel set up in front of a light source to diffuse and soften is known as a scrim. Usually attached by a metal frame, or bar, scrims can diffuse multiple light sources at once. Moving a scrim closer, or further from the light changes the darkness and lightness in the final photos contrast.

Cookies in photography are shapes cut out of film, card, or plastic. Place one over a light source to cast the shape onto the subject and background.

Umbrellas come in many sizes, usually in white or silver color. These work as both a reflector and a diffuser for flash cameras. Umbrellas work well in portrait photography as they make the subject's eyes look more natural than without.