Light Modifiers
AI-FREE ZONE
Does that headline make you breathe a sigh of relief, or does it get your blood pumping? It hardly matters - as long as you finish reading this paragraph. We ourselves enjoy using AI tools to automate repetitive workflows in our Hensel 360° Visual App. We are delighted if you do the same. After all, we want the time you save to encourage you to immerse yourself in your personal creative process - using your hands, heart and mind. Because the best ideas and solutions for that come from inside your own head.
Gathering, applying, and sharing experience is part of everyday life - and a source of recurring success, not just in the world of photography. That is why we love sharing our knowledge and experience with you, whether in schools or virtually. The possibilities offered by our light shapers are as diverse as a great prompt - only they are real, and the copyright belongs to you.
Give it a try - you’ll be amazed at how you can give wings to your own creativity.
To assist you - and specifically for educational purposes - we can offer you even greater confidence using the set.a.light 3D V3 app from our partner, elixxier Software. It allows you to access all our lights and light modifiers in a virtual environment, enabling you to plan your setups in advance.
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Softboxes
Highly acclaimed and widely praised. It is truly impressive to view Jan Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ or ‘The Milkmaid’. Consider the gentle light and soft, sweeping shadows that - paired with exquisite highlights - spread evenly across the canvas.
Had the 17th-century Dutch master known that photography would be invented some 175 years later, he could have easily explained the effect of a large softbox - a tool that, in his paintings, appears simply as a window. You can find modern "windows" of all sizes to suit your specific needs in our vast selection of softboxes. With the addition of compatible honeycomb grids, you can modulate the shadows even more precisely.
Lighting effects like these cannot be achieved with small speedlites and narrow beam angles. In these examples, the angle, distance, and uniform light-emitting surface of a large softbox make all the difference. Learning from the masters - and becoming one yourself - has never been easier!
Bounce Adapter
PURE PRECISION, brilliant light. When used with a range of the Hensel Octa and Grand softboxes, the Bounce Adapter delivers crisp light combined with brilliant shadow definition. The flash head’s rear-facing orientation ensures optimal light output - even at low power settings - and allows for radiant effects when shooting with a wide aperture, using minimal flash energy.
Light with character that leaves a lasting impression - including on your clients.
Reflectors
The use of reflectors stands in stark contrast to Vermeer’s soft lighting achieved with softboxes. Point light sources create hard shadows. Generations of photography trainees are well-versed in the famous "Rembrandt lighting": a luminous triangle appears beneath the eye in portraits when the shadow cast by the nose connects with the shadow on the cheek.
The deliberate use of shadow lends dignified class and depth to any image. Across all genres, it is well worth taking a close look at the complete bodies of work of photographers like Irving Penn. You will be amazed at the results you can achieve in this style using nothing more than a Hensel Beauty Dish from various angles and distances. Don't be afraid to embrace the shadows!
And if you worry about running out of "sunlight" in the studio, you will be pleasantly surprised by the "virtual Vitamin D" that a 14-inch reflector delivers from a greater distance.
Umbrellas
Whether in scorching sun or rain, an umbrella serves as the ideal compact, lightweight travel companion for photography - especially when speed is of the essence. Frequently used in fashion photography to mimic the look of a single light source (like the sun), it typically creates a clean, simple aesthetic with a distinct direction of light when used indirectly.
Shoot-through umbrellas, on the other hand, produce crisp hotspots accompanied by soft, broad gradients, even when positioned close to the subject. From carry-on luggage to flight cases, our range offers a wide variety of sizes and fabric types. All packed? Don’t forget your umbrella reflector!