$99 Light Blaster™ Goes Against the $3,552 Broncolor Optical Spot For Jewels Photography

November 8, 2014 by Udi Tirosh 10 Comments

Alex Koloskov Of Photigy.com shared a comparison between two optical projectors, the $99-speedlight powered Light Blaster and the $3,550 Broncolor Optical spot beast. Well, it was not exactly a fair fight as the Broncolor exited the contest with a bang (pun intended) at 2:20.

Regardless of the tool though, Alex brings back the glory of an old and long forgotten device – the optical projector. It is pretty amazing how you can use a piece of gear once you understand the how it makes light work.

Alex opted to shoot a piece of jewelry for the demonstration, and instead of projecting a pattern on the stone, Alex projected a (pro gobo) Japanese sun pattern on a diffusion fabric. That pattern was then reflected by a piece of Plexi glass sheet where the stone was placed.

Alex does a full break down of the photo on Photigy where some more photos from that shoot are available.

P.S. as someone who has been “deeply involved” with the development of the Light Blaster, I am happy Alex did not decide to do a throw test on the light blaster.

P.P.S. Spiffy Gear who makes the Light Blaster are a sister company to DIYP.

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

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Fajar Ardina

eewwe!!
Wes Jones

Interesting. I had seen the Light Blaster but wasn’t quite sure how it could be used.
Gvido Mūrnieks

Here is even cheaper alternative to Light Blaster, made by me.
Works with B&W and slide film.
- Gvido Mūrnieks
  
  How do I make patterns, to project:
  
  B&W film:
  1) Make B&W pattern in Photoshop.
  2) Invert patterns colors.
  3) Take film camera with B&W film(reverses colors)
  4) Set up camera on tripod, in front of monitor, by filling the frame with previously made pattern.
  5) Shoot
  6) Develop film and place negatives into slides.
  
  Slide film:
  1) Make pattern in Photoshop.
  2) Take film camera with slide film.
  3) Set up camera on tripod, in front of monitor, by filling the frame with previously made pattern.
  4) Shoot
  5) Develop film and place film into slides.
  - udi tirosh
    
    you can also use one of the service here for printing slides: http://www.light-blaster.com/create-your-own/
    
    I have used them all and was quite satisfied.
    - Successor
      
      I think that printing on clear sticker paper should work well, as long as you have an inkjet printer.
- udi tirosh
  
  That look awfully similar to the first prototype
  - Gvido Mūrnieks
    
    This indeed is somewhat of a prototype. 🙂
    The reason I made it was, because I had an old m42 lens lying around and I decided to make this contraption, just for fun. The final result worked better, than I expected.
    Now, I am considering to make more solid version, that will work with monolights.
    - udi tirosh
      
      would love to put such a project on the blog if you cared to document it.
      - Successor
        
        I second this! I first thought that the lightblaster had some kind of lens inside and did not try to make my own one. No i am curious about it.