Lighting with Fresnels

In my last post, "Retro Glam," I touched on lighting with Fresnels. For lack of a better idea, I thought I'd talk about that a wee bit more.

If anyone followed the Fresnel link I provided in the Retro Glam post, you learned (if you didn't already know) that the Fresnel lens was invented by a French guy, Augustin-Jean Fresnel. (Pictured Left.)

Does this mean we should call it a Freedom Lens? I don't know. I don't want to turn this blog polititical and I ain't gonna do so. But I do know that, French guy or not, Fresnel's contribution to photography--a contribution made before what we would call, "photography," even existed--remains impressive.

Fresnel, as you might know, didn't intend his lens for photographic lighting. He invented it for use in lighthouses. Regardless, his work is still incorporated in the design and manufacture of many modern-day lighting instruments-- from tungsten to HMIs and beyond.

Using Fresnels, whether you do so with hotlights or strobes, is a great way to change the look and style of your images. Fresnels manipulate light in ways that produce characteristics that are quite aesthetically pleasing; at least, to my eyes they are. And they're not merely used for giving a cinematic look to your images.

Lighting instruments that incorporate a Fresnel lens allow you to focus the light, i.e., by allowing you to adjust the distance between the lighting source (the lamp) and the lens, thus producing a wider or narrower beam of light.

By also producing hard shadows and certain lighting "fall-off" characteristics, Fresnels can be creatively used to artistically enhance your images, especially when shooting people. Although using Fresnels in your lighting setups often produces images that seem to have a "retro" feel to them, I don't believe this is always so. After all, as photographers we're only limited by our imagination. And our imagination should extend to the creative use of our gear and tools if, as shooters, we're going to be (to paraphrase the Marines), "all we can be."

As a filmmaker, I'm accustomed to using lighting instruments with Fresnel lenses. As a photographer, I'm less accustomed to doing so. As a rule, I don't shoot with hotlights when I'm shooting still images. Mostly, I use strobes or daylight or a combination of the two.

Not too long ago, I gutted and modified an old Mole-Richardson 1K "Baby," one that had seen way better days, to accomodate a monolight. I did this because I wanted to incorporate the lighting look of a Fresnel with the power of a strobe.

Below are two pics of the mutant I put together. I call it my "Frankenlight." By utilizing some of the "guts" of the Mole, I was able to McGuyver this abomination so I could still focus the light.



And here's one of the very first images I shot with my Frankenlight. For its debut, I let it work solo without any other lights which would add highlights or fill. The model is Margo. She's as beautiful as she is fun to work with.



Ebay is a great place to find old lights like a Mole-Richardson "Baby," or other brands or models. If you're persistent in your search, you might also find a Fresnel lens itself. Doing so wouild allow you to build a chassis of your own design. Often, these lights and/or lenses are fairly inexpensive. And it doesn't take a degree in Engineering to figure out how to rig the instrument to accept a monolight or a head or to put something together with the lens. I did it! And if you knew how mechanically un-inclined I am you'd fully undestand how easy it is to put something like this together. So try it! I think you'll find it adds a whole new dimension to some of your work, whether you use it as a single-source or as part of a larger setup.