A Honl Photo system grid spot was used to capture this harmonica player.

It’s extremely common to see photographers mount a dome diffuser of some kind on their hotshoe flash. This is great when you want the light to go everywhere, such as when you’re shooting in a room and can utilize bounced light off the walls and ceiling, or when you’ve got the speedlight attached to a softbox or umbrella and need a wide spread. Sometimes though we want the opposite effect. It’s not just what you are lighting that’s important, it’s what you are not lighting.

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Restricting the spread of light is an essential and oftentimes overlooked skill and that’s where grid spots come in handy. Grid spots have a honeycomb pattern that help create tight beams of focused light that has a hard edge to it. The key point is that is stops the light from spilling over into areas that we don’t want it to. This is particularly useful when there’s no physical way to separate the subject from the background, or when shooting outdoors in bright sunlight using small apertures and unable to make use of high-speed sync.

The left photo shows bare flash coverage. The right photo shows coverage with a 1/4\

Honl Photo produces an excellent set of accessories that attach by means of a velcro speed strap to your flash. Attaching the grid spot takes a second or so and you’re good to go. I highly recommend checking them out.

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