Light Matters.
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Parabolix Light-Focusing System™
It could be argued that lighting is the most important component of photography. After all, light is the only thing a camera captures - nothing more. At Parabolix, we understand the importance of great lighting. Lighting can make or break your images. The Parabolix Light-Focusing System™ was designed to give you high-end light quality that will set your photos apart. Our system uses an indirect lighting approach with a focusable light mount, which allows you to position the light source inside the reflector. This fixes the problems of conventional light modifiers that often cause lighting hotspots, uneven spread, and loss of detail. As a result, our system produces a beautifully smooth light that is physically accurate, giving you gorgeous contrast and even coverage that is rich with detail. In fact, the Parabolix™ Light-Focusing System is excellent for both studio and location photography, because it compliments the way natural light behaves.
The system consists of the Light-Focusing Mount, a Parabolic Reflector, and one of our Indirect Strobe Adapters for your existing strobe heads. The Light-Focusing Mount allows you to move the strobe head in and out of the focus position of each reflector, allowing you to get a range of light qualities from a single reflector. As a result, the light works for you instead of against you. You control the shape and focus of your light. You control the spread and falloff. Take your images to the next level with the Parabolix Light-Focusing System™.
Key Features:
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High-end light quality - gives dimensionality, smooth and even light coverage, and rich skin detail.
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Focusability - by adjusting the focusing rod, you get a range of lighting qualities from one reflector, from hard/specular to soft/diffused.
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Indirect lighting system - ensures an even spread of light, natural highlights, smooth mid-tone and shadow transitions, and no hotspots - something that "direct-facing" light modifiers can never achieve.
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Maximum subject detail - our system delivers a crisp and clean light that is impossible to achieve with any "direct-facing" strobe or "shoot-through" softbox approach.
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Highly efficient light output - because our system harnesses the entire output of your strobe, and the parabolic curvature creates a clean light beam without relying on diffusion, it is much more efficient with light output than traditional modifiers. In most cases, a 600Ws strobe head will provide more than enough output power.
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Versatility - works with any brand of strobe or speedlite.
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Affordability - our system delivers the same light quality as the most expensive European brands, at a fraction of the cost!
*Patent-Pending*
Light Quality
High Dynamic Range Lighting
Light quality is our top priority. The quality of your light is fundamental to the quality of your imagery. After all, light is the only thing that is captured in a photograph. Great lighting will make your subject look attractive and valuable, while bad lighting will make things look cheap and unappealing. But not all lighting tools produce high quality light. Conventional softboxes produce overly diffused and unfocused light, eliminating much of the detail of your subject - specifically in the highlights and mid-tones - often resulting in a "muddy" or "plastic" looking light. This is especially noticeable on human skin. Direct-facing "dish" reflectors deliver detail and specularity, but have very harsh hotspots and uneven light spread due to the bulb facing the subject, giving an overly contrasty look.
The Parabolix Light-Focusing System™ fixes all these problems. Your highlights are crisp and detailed without any blown-out hotspots. The detail on skin and fabric is stunning, producing depth and proper contrast that make your photos stand out. And because the light spread is so even, you get a beautiful wrapped fall-off which gives your photos amazing dimensionality. The result is a lighting system that gives you a true High Dynamic Range, allowing you capture the full shape, form and detail of your subject. Basically, the ideal light. We use the term "High Dynamic Range Lighting" because no matter how good your camera is, if your light is not rendering a full and balanced spectrum of your subject, your images will fall short. Again, light is the only thing a photograph captures - nothing else.
"High-End" Lighting Explained
Hard and Soft Light in One!
The so-called "secret" to high-end lighting is having a system that delivers both hard and soft light in one unit. But what does this mean? It means having a light that renders the maximum detail, dimensionality and specularity of your subject, while producing a even spread of light from top to bottom without hotspots.
Hard light has more direct rays, is more specular, and shows more detail in your subject.
Soft light is more diffused, has wider coverage, softer shadows, and more "wrap".
In the past, photographers "in the know" achieved this by combining 2 separate lights - a hard light for the "punch" and detail, and a soft/diffused light for the even coverage and "wrap". The Parabolix™ Light Focusing System combines both of these light qualities in a single lighting reflector - a light that is both specular and diffused at the same time. Because of the mathematical precision of the parabolic curvature, the hard light from the strobe is uniformly distributed along the parabolic surface, and that surface reflects evenly-spread yet directional rays onto your subject. Viola!
Hard strobe source aimed into the reflector
+ Precise light distribution from the parabolic curvature
= Even light rays with specular detail, punch, and perfect spread!
Versatility & Modularity
Parabolix™ is designed to work with your existing equipment. It works with any brand of strobe head, including speedlites. There are brand-specific strobe adapters, as well as a Universal Adapter, which is an adjustable bracket that fits the dimensions of any brand of strobe you use. It even works with speedlites, using the Horizontal Speedlite Adapter combined with the Universal Strobe Adapter. You can get great focusable parabolic light-shaping using your existing speedlites with our system.
Works with all strobe brands - including speedlites!
Cage Mount for Most Strobe Brands
Universal Strobe Adapter
for Larger Lamps & Monolights
Speedlite Adapter
Affordability
Great lighting should not come at a premium cost!
Up until now, a lighting system like ours would cost many thousands of dollars. But we believe that high-quality lighting should be available to more than just those with deep pockets. Parabolix is about bringing high-end lighting to an affordable price point. Each component of our system is studied and manufactured to give you an affordable price, while maintaining premium performance and durability.
Lighting Discussion
Learn more why the Parabolix indirect lighting approach will give better results than a conventional direct lighting method.
See our Tutorials and Education section to help you improve your lighting!