Kino's and the Softlight Rule...

Hi Todd,
Large looking? The Kino Flo Diva is a rather small soft source much like the old Mole Richardson Zip light. I use the Diva when I want a harder looking soft key. You have to place a Diva very, very close to the subject to get a true "soft" look. You can increase the aperture of the Diva by hanging a piece of diffusion in front, but it's still a relatively small source. With the bare tubes, the fixture is actually rather hard, though certainly not as hard as a Fresnel. By the way, I almost never use my Kino's, of any size, without diffusion.

Remember the softlight rule:
"The softness of the light is directly proportional to the relative aperture of the source to the subject."

This means a small softlight, say a 2' x 3' is just as soft as a 4' x 6' source placed further away. Conversely, a 4' x 6' source produces a harder effect as it moves away from the subject because the aperture of the light is smaller in relation to the subject. A final example: direct sunlight harsh shadows because the light is coming from a relatively (to the subject) small point source even though the sun is a rather large source!

Look at the "catch-lights," the reflection of the light source in a glamour model's eyes and you will usually see a huge softlight reflected in the pupil. When we have a "challenging" subject we give them a "lighting face-lift" by making soft lights as large as 12' x 12' and placing them just out of frame. This works very well, especially when augmented by camera filters, but there's no substitute for 16 year-old skin; unless you lead a pure life as I do! By the way, the effect of pumping tons of light through unbleached muslin in truly magical.

I hope this helps.

Good shooting!
Leo