As a result of the whole Afrigadget saga (which, frankly, is overwhelming), a question that has come up plenty of times is: “Did it work?”, and “Do you have photos that were lit by the cardboard lights?”. Here’s a unedited photo I took of Mbithi using the two units I made:

There. Nice, clean light.And a top-view schematic of the set-up:

A – 5-bulb unit
B – 10-bulb unit (with tracing paper diffuser)

Light B casts the softer, more-pleasing light on Mbithi (because of the tracing paper), and light A casts the harder light on the back of his head. This is a setup I frequently use in my photo shoots, the theory works exactly the same with continuous light.

The other question: “Does it work?”. Well, yes. I did manage to light the indoor shots that were later used in the Fly music promo, and the light was easier to control than the sunlight that I used in the Maisha and Lalalalala promos (if you watch them closely, you’ll notice that the light on the subjects is sorta flickery, like a candle – that was because the reflectors used to direct the sun kept moving around with the wind – a nice, but unintentional effect).

Next I’d like to make a 20 or 40 bulb unit and see the difference.