Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi Paul,TS

I recently discovered how unique the White PLM is by giving me soft all around lighting when shooting food, Almost mimicking natural light in a sense. The only trouble i seem to have when doing these type of shoots is, Depth of Field. So it brings me to this ?: Can i accomplish the same kind of look using a Extreme Silver PLM with a White Front Diffusion Fabric? or Soft Silver PLM with a White Front Diffusion Fabric? to increase my depth of field? but, still keeping my soft shadows and the nice wrap around light i get front using the White PLM. FYI- I normally keep my key light 5-8' from my Subject using the great Einstein.

Thanks

The shadows and wrap would be very similar. However, the most of the outputs of those units is gained by the focused nature of the light. Once the diffusion panel is in place, the focused light is spread, reducing intensity on any one spot (same amount of butter, bigger piece of bread). This means the metered light intensity will not vary greatly between the two setups. This can be seen in the "specifications" tab on each of the PLM's (varies about .4f).

Since you are shooting still life, I would presume the camera is on a tripod. In that case, reduce the ambient as much as possible (including lowering/shutting off the model lamps), use a long shutter speed, and fire the lights multiple times in one exposure. Two flashes will yeild one more stop. Four flashes will yield 2 stops. Eight flashes will yield 3 stops more than one flash.

For product shots, also look at tilt/shift lenses.
What f stop, lens and distance are you shooting at?