Soft Goods
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Soft Goods is a category that refers to a variety of light-modifying fabrics used for diffusion, bounce, and reducing light. Soft goods come in a variety of sizes. The fabrics are stretched over square tube or speedrail frames of their corresponding sizes.
Color Code for Bolt Gear
- 6' x 6' - Red
- 8' x 8' - Black
- 12' x 12' - Blue
- 12' x 20' - Grey/Blue
- 20' x 20' - Grey
Uses
Diffusions
Some common diffusions are:
- Poly Silk - Synthetic white silk diffusion.
- Grid Cloth - Grid cloth comes in Full, Half (Lite) and Quarter varieties. Available in Silent and Noisy, the most popular by far being the “Silent” type, ideal for outdoor filming where wind might create sound issues.
- Half Soft Frost - Frosted vinyl that is a light diffusion. Often used for exteriors where you would just like to slightly soften the sun.
- Magic Cloth - Magic Cloth is a full white diffusion similar to the chimera full white. It also will eliminate the point source of a light creating very even specular reflections.
- Muslins - A heavy diffusion or bounce that is offered in “Bleached” and “Unbleached”. Unbleached muslin is used when you would like a warmer color temperature.
Bounces
Some common bounces are:
- Ultrabounce - Lightweight and waterproof. It has a white side that provides a soft, even bounce without any hot spot and a matte black side that can be used for negative fill. Can be used for a cool tent with the white side out.
- Griffylon - Griffylon features a tough, shiny dual surface, with bright white for reflected bounce light on one side, and solid black on the reverse. While they can be used as a bounce they have fallen out of fashion as they are much heavier and much harder quality than ultrabounce. As a result these are now mostly used as rain cover.
- Lamé - Comes in silver, gold, and checkered silver/gold bounce. This is a punchy bounce, like an oversized 4by shinny board.
Solids
- Solid - Solid is a black opaque fabric that is used for blacking out windows and/or negative fill.
Nets
- Single Net - Made with a green border, reduces the intensity of a source by a half stop.
- Double Net - Made with a red border, reduces the intensity of a source by a full stop.
There are other specialty soft goods like Green Screen, Blue Screen, or backings for backdrops.
More information on other fabrics can be found at The Rag Place