Recently I bought two Glow EZ softboxes and enjoy them, then noticed they have several lantern softboxes. I watched a few Youtube videos where several brands of lanterns were used, but the video selection is much less abundant than those for regular softboxes and beauty dishes.
Have any of you used lantern softboxes, and have you enjoyed what it adds?
I use my lantern more often than the SB. Its special feature is the skirt where each edge can be rolled up independently. Unlike a SB, lanterns are more of an area throw device, so small shooting spaces with strongly colored surfaces will not be a good fit.
My studio has a low ceiling but it's white. The walls have color but are about 14 feet or more away on any side, which seems ample distance from the subject.
In my studio with 8' ceilings, I've painted the walls and ceiling flat white (ceiling white). Instead of using a lantern soft box, I turn one of my octal soft boxes almost straight up and use a short stand, bouncing the light off the ceiling. The results that I get are very similar to using a lantern soft box. If I had a higher 10 or 12' studio ceiling the lantern style soft box would be more of a benefit. I borrowed one to try it, but decided that low ceilings and lantern soft boxes did not work all that well together.
I really like my aputure 26" lantern softbox for video work, specifically situations like 2-3 person interviews where they are facing each other on opposing sides of the frame and want a wide area of coverage.
For photo though, you're wasting a lot of light. Also unless you're using the "skirt" that the aputure version has, your lens is going to flare with the light source in frame, which essentially turns it into an awkwardly shaped softbox. In addition it doesn't allow for double diffusion inside, so I can't think of a situation where I'd prefer to use a lantern vs a softbox, especially considering a softbox is easier to control spill, feather and can take a grid.
As others have mentioned as well, the 26" one is pretty long and points down so you'll have issues getting it high enough vs a standard softbox. If you want to go larger like the 36" ones, it'll be even more awkward to use in a standard height room. We were recording in a room with 10 ft drop ceilings last week, and the 26" lantern + skirt was just barely out of top of frame with a 2 person seated interview
jlafferty wrote:
Whenever I’ve seen lanterns on set, they’re hung behind the subject to simultaneously work as rim/hair, and hit the background.
I like the idea Sung mentions - clever.
Thanks man, I suppose another way to do it would be to simply "choke" ie partially close a softlighter, and use clips to extend the diffusion down. This would be easier to boom overhead as well, as you have the strobe on the bottom rather than the top of the makeshift lantern
I’ve used them quite often, but for cinema. I’m a cinematographer and I’ve used them quite often. I used to have a Chimera one, that uses a high wattage color corrected bulb, either 3,200 Kelvin or 5,600. But those bulbs lasted just like 5 hours of usage. And you need to keep changing them and they create a lot of heat, but still, we used them a lot back in the day.
Lanterns were lightweight, and easy to rig, and they gave you 180 degrees or more of light. Before Kinoflos, they were very popular.
Even the paper ones, were used a lot with those bulbs or regular incandescent bulbs if you wanted something warmer.
My lantern is a now-discontinued medium Profoto HR. These are rated for continuous lights of a pretty high wattage, perhaps 1kW. I only use strobes so the fabric should not fade, yellow or catch fire any time soon.
They're a great way to mimic the typical room overhead light or 'horizontally' for a desired broader light with the ability to flag it off where desired with skirts. I've use(d) both the normal Aperture one with skirts and the Chimera Pancake for lower ceilings. Both work great. The Chimera is more durable for countless years of use and location shuffles, but it costs a ***-ton more, is heavier and more onerous to assemble vs. the Aperture model. Personally, I'd get the latter, use it until it breaks and replace it.
I have the Cheetah Stand 26" Quick Lantern version which I like.
I recently used it with a Godox UL150 to photograph my sister and her dog ( I figured the UL150's lack of sound and continuous light would give me a better chance to get a decisive moment).
