I’ve been known to use the book light a time or two in my day. 👀
But to be honest, book lights take up a lot of space and require siders, toppers, and bottomers to control all the spill they create. Sometimes they are just more trouble than it’s worth!
I will say, if you have the time and resources to build a book light, it is a lovely soft source and will certainly impress the clients on set. There’s something to be said about the appearance of a “dog and pony show” (has anyone actually been to one? I’d love to attend 🐎) that comes with lighting a commercial shoot. You just need to strike that balance between the process looking “legit” and end result. Most clients don’t care one bit about the methods to achieve a look as long as the image on screen is good. But others may have different expectations.
However, if you’re like me and happen to be a little tired of “the dog and pony show” but still want a beautiful light for your interview, the @chimeralighting OctaPlus 6 is an excellent choice.
At six feet across, the OctaPlus 6 is big enough to be a soft key light, and the thing is built like a tank! Seriously, the quality of the materials used to manufacture these modifiers is something worth emphasizing. I love using the inner baffle to get super soft creamy highlights, and the way it wraps on the skin is just 🤌 Lastly, it has a bowens mount and pairs perfectly with the 1200D, so that rules.
For this interview setup we used the 1200D with OctaPlus 6 for our key and LiteMat 2L for an edge. No grids, on either! Just spray and pray, baby :) We put two 600Ds through 1/4 CTS to hold our “sunlight” through the windows all day long, and a couple floppies to block the real sun as it tracked across the sky. That’s it! No neg, no fill. Just easy breezy.
Production: @vocafilms
Director: @daniel_fickle
Producer: @brennahro
Coordinator: @thisiscallahan
AC: @rubenweaver
KG: @radicalghast
HMU: Lillian Marsh
Wardrobe: @jessicajeannestyling
Audio: @aarondelgrosso
Studio: @studioten6
Tyler Kaschke is a freelance gaffer with a grip truck based in Lafayette, Colorado serving Boulder, Denver, Golden, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs and the Rocky Mountain region at large.
For more about the Chimera OctaPlus6 and other lighting tips, follow me on Instagram @colorado_gaffer