I am always looking for new and easy ways to light part of an object or create interesting light in an image, well I think I have found the perfect tool for just that and so much more! The optical snoot from Pixapro has opened up a more efficient way to be able to do this.
Its an Optical snoot which accepts EF mount lenses, and by simply inserting a gobo between the mounted lens and the light.
It projects the pattern of the gobo onto any surface you choose.
I don't think I have been this excited about a lighting product for a good while now, I mean, no longer do I need to use card cut outs to create these patterns (time saving) which did result in jagged edges when using card! Not just the ability to project a pattern on a background I have never found it easier to light part of an object, say a label on a bottle or an area you want highlighted, simply adding a zoom lens to this snoot allows me to really zoom in on the area I want to highlight! so easy and efficient.
Using the zoom lens made it easy to add a spot of light around the logo on this test shot and by swapping out the gobo allowed me to add the strip of light behind the bottle on a piece of card used as the background, a very quick process, and what's more impressive is you can also defocus the light using the focus ring on the mounted lens resulting in very hard sharp lines like in these images below,
or choose to soften the edge of the light to your taste.
The wider the lens the bigger the projection, you can easily fake a window light see the test images below.
Easily add a little extra to the image by using the window gobo and making the most of the ambient light.
Add gels for more creative options and the possibilities go on! What draws me to versatile tools like this is its portable, can be used with studio strobes ,portable strobes, speedlites and video lights. In the video below I used this snoot on the Pixapro 100d Mkii so it has many uses and I love tools like this!
I predict I will be using this tool loads!! I will link below to the snoot and gobos so feel free to check them out.
Optical Snoot. https://amzn.to/2uZsTT0
Gobo Set A. https://amzn.to/2VNOXff
Gobo Set B. https://amzn.to/2X6d5cZ
Gobo Set C. https://amzn.to/2v8xmCF
Gobo Set D. https://amzn.to/2V00Ilg