PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book.

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PLUS: Donate any amount and I’ll send you a link to the hi-res print version of my studio lighting book. ||

Many of us are taught that there are two types of light: soft light and hard light, but I feel it’s an understatement to say this really doesn’t cover the nuance of light density available to us. Today, I’d like to dig a little deeper into the light that falls under the ‘hard light’ umbrella and talk about the potential ultimate hard light in the form of Nanlite’s Projection Attachment.

Most of us are aware of what soft light looks like as softboxes, and their easy-to-use soft light is the ABCs of day 1 photography. Softboxes can come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, but one defining characteristic that we all understand as a general rule is that the larger the softbox, the softer the light it’ll produce - I’m generalising here, but for the most part, this holds true.

But, although the bigger the modifier, the softer the light is true, sadly, the reverse isn't quite as simple. Yes, many hard light modifiers are small, but their size isn’t what defines their hard light, and today I’ll show you how the hardest light ironically comes from one of the largest hard light modifiers out there.

Preface: I am reviewing this modifier as a stills photographer not a videographer. Nanlite has sent me this Projection Attachment to review. I am not being paid, and they are not previewing or editing my review before I post it.

What is the Nanlite Projection Attachment?

Before I free-fall into the rabbit hole of nerd-talk about this modifier and what it can do versus other hard light modifiers, I should first get you up to speed on what the Projection Attachment actually is and what it sets out to achieve.

I’m not sure if the images here convey just how big this thing is, but the Nanlite Projection Attachment is an absolute beast, and all of its would-be hard light challengers pale in comparison. This modifier really does require a C-stand to support it, and it’s so big and heavy that you have to place the actual modifier on a light stand, not the light- The light then simply hangs off the back of it. This significantly helps with balance, as the lens on the front containing all that glass is very heavy.

Speaking of the lens, there are some options. The lens I have is the 36-degree one, which helps spread the light as quickly as possible, giving you a bigger spot in small spaces. There is also a 19-degree lens which creates a tighter spot, but that would be useful if you were mounting this a long way from the set or in a theatre, for example.

*Click to enlarge: The Projection Attachment is so large that a C-stand is a must and even then, you mount the modifier to the stand and the light to the modifier.*

More than just a very hard light

Of course, this Projection Attachment is more than just a very powerful hard light modifier; one of its primary functions is the ability to project gobos via its lens. For those that don’t know, a gobo or go-between is something placed between the light and the subject to create shadows. A modifier like this is purpose-built to accept metal disks (gobos) with patterns cut into them, which, in turn, project those patterns over great distances to shine onto your background or subject.

*Click to enlarge: As you can see, the projection attachment shines razor sharp light patterns over great distances via these interchangeable gobos.*

I’ve outlined the basics of what this Projection Attachment can do, and many photographers will, of course, opt to use it for its primary function of projection gobos as I shared above, but I’m personally more interested in its defining characteristic of being the ultimate hard light.

Defining Hard Light

To get a broader picture of what I mean when I talk about light density and the hardness of light, we should drill down into why we use hard light, what defines hard light, and what I personally look for when using hard light.

For me, hard light comes down to these three core aspects:

Control
Edge-to-edge quality
Shadow transitions

Control

This is the easiest one to discuss as we all understand what I mean when I say, ‘a tight spot of light is easy to control.’

As we know, hard light characteristics are typically bright highlights and very strong, dark shadows. This look is only possible in a studio when the light isn’t bouncing around everywhere and contaminating itself with reflected light. To this end, hard lights are often very controllable with small spots of light.

This is often counter to the extremely hard light of sunlight on a clear day, which is utterly uncontrolled, but the open space outside often limits the amount of bounced light filling in shadows. I mention the sun as an example of hard light here as you’ll often see photographers using bare-bulb lights to produce hard light, and although this is technically hard light due to the very small point of origin, that bare bulb is spreading light all over the studio and thus uncontrolled. As a result, the environment can often contaminate the hard light from bare bulbs, and the dark shadows that hard light may produce will be filled with bounced light.

Edge-to-Edge Quality

We’re getting into the weeds of the defining hard light now, and although controlling hard light is crucial in the studio, the final look of that hard light on our subject is far more nuanced than simply a pool of light. What’s surprising about this nuance is that many photographers simply aren’t aware of the difference until they’re shown it. Kinda like trying to explain great-tasting food. You really have to taste it, or in this case, see it, to understand what all the fuss is about.

Many hard light modifiers simply ‘channel’ the light and don’t technically focus it. And by channel, I mean those modifiers don’t let the light go in certain directions instead of actually focusing it where you want it. This channelling can result in the light bouncing around the modifier multiple times before it leaves the modifier, and the resulting light can often contain odd and unpleasant shadows in the final bright pool of light. Snoots and grinds/honeycombs are the biggest culprits of this.

In short, we want a hard light modifier that focuses the light and not channels it. That said, even modifiers that focus the light can produce unpleasant edge-to-edge quality as they can sometimes vignette the light. Yes, they can produce clean, hard light, but their brighter centre and darker edges can be a pain to work with.

Click to enlarge—Edge-to-edge quality is extremely important, and not just because hard lights have a heavy vignette with darker edges. Some even produce shadow artefacts from snoots and grids. Here, we not only see a strong vignette but also the grid pattern from a grid/honeycomb hard light modifier.

Shadow Transitions

Again, this aspect of light and shadow isn’t readily apparent until you’re shown it. Sadly, once you’ve seen it, you can never unsee it.

I’ve spoken about this at length in previous articles, so I won’t bore you with it all again here, but I’m specifically talking about how to avoid those ugly double and even triple shadows when using certain hard light modifiers. This can happen when the light bounces around the modifier before leaving. The resulting light then casts a shadow from the bulb of the light, and then another one or two shadows are cast from the reflected light bounced off of the insides of the modifier.

If you want a more detailed breakdown of this ugly and very annoying look, you can check my previous article on it here: Refining Hard Light - Avoiding Double Shadows

Click to enlarge - It’s extremely clear how apparent these double shadows can get with more basic hard light modifiers. These ugly double and even triple shadows (top images) can leave an image looking messy very quickly. Also, note how much darker the shadow is from the modifier that does not produce double shadows (bottom images).

What does the Ultimate Hard Light look like?

Controllable

For me, the ultimate hard light needs to be extremely controllable. I don’t want any light bouncing around the studio and affecting my hard light with stray bounced light filling in those strong, dark shadows.

Clean

The hard light needs to be just that, hard ‘light.’ I don’t want any ugly, stray shadows contaminating the pure light that is falling onto the subject. I don’t want any odd shadow artefacts on the skin, and I also want that light to be the same exposure across the entire pool of light; AKA, I don’t want the edges to be a stop darker than the middle.

Shadow Quality

The hard light needs to be casting a single, strong shadow. As we know, the greatest hard light of all time is the sun on a clear day. That hard light casts a razor-sharp, single shadow, and I want my studio's hard light to do exactly that. I don’t want two or even three shadows creating ugly textures on the subjects’ skin.

The Typical Hard Light Contenders

Before we look at what the Nanlite Projection Attachment can do, we should first look at its primary hard light contenders. After all, the Projection Attachment is a serious piece of kit and is priced accordingly. Is it really that much better than its far less expensive counterparts?

Open Reflector Dish

First up is as basic as it gets, and everyone has used it at one point or another; the open reflector dish.

Control: 2 out of 5 - The light goes everywhere, but I guess it goes forward at least… mostly.
Edge Quality: 3 out of 5 - The edge of the spot is extremely vague… but it is smooth, at least.
Shadow Quality: Just Don’t - Triple shadows!!! Plus, due to no light control, light bounces around and fills in the shadows.

The Grid/Honeycomb

This is a slight upgrade from the reflector dish… or is it?!?

Control: 4 out of 5 - The grids do a good job of controlling the light and wider and tighter grids offer even more control.
Edge Quality: I swear I’m not making this up - This has to be worst edge transition of all time - Just look at it.
Shadow Quality: 3 out 5 - This is not too bad and if you can cope with the other flaws, the shadows cast are ok.

The Snoot

Snoots are pretty cheap, and we all have a few kicking about the kit cupboard.

Control: 4 out of 5 - This particular snoot is pretty good, but it needs some distance to get a good-sized spot.
Edge Quality: 3 out of 5 - A very slow but clean transition. There’s hardly any pure white light at the centre though.
Shadow Quality: 3 out of 5- A pretty clean shadow with only a very slight ghost of a double shadow.

The Optical Snoot

These are the focusing modifiers with an actual lens at the front to give more accurate control of the light.

Control: 3 out of 5 - These lenses require a lot of light to produce this spot.
Edge Quality: 3 out of 5 - The vignette is very stong on these and can contain artefacts from the lens.
Shadow Quality: 4 out of 5 - Due to the lens on the front, the shadow quality on these is actually very good.

Conclusion

Those results speak for themselves, and it’s pretty surprising how bad some of these everyday hard light modifiers actually are. That said, most of them are very cheap. If you’re just looking for an edge light or a hair light, these will do an okay job, but I would personally never use any of these on the skin for a key light, for example.

Is the Nanlite Projection Attachment up to the challenge?

I fully appreciate you’ve likely found yourself here because you were interested in seeing if the Nanlite Projection Attachment was any good. Still, I think we needed to define the job of a true hard light modifier like the PJ and how other hard light modifiers fall short rather than me just showing you some cool shots and saying, ‘Trust me, bro.’ This isn’t YouTube after all.

Now that we know what qualities a true hard light has to have let’s examine how the Projection Attachment fares when faced with these aforementioned requirements.