What is a Snoot and How to Use it

In this tutorial video, photographer Jay P. Morgan (from the Slanted Lens) takes a look at the basics of using a snoot for lighting.

A snoot is just a funny name for a piece of equipment that fits over a studio light or portable flash and allows the photographer to control the direction or area of coverage of the light and basically makes the light more concentrated. Morgan remembers that when he worked in film, he used black wrap to create snoots – basically black aluminum foil that can be formed into a funnel and molded to the light.

This video looks at how a snoot behaves, what it covers and how it compares to a grid which is also used for directional lighting (tip – the edge of a light which uses a grid is softer than that of a light with a snoot). As Morgan explains it – “Snoots do have the advantage of being any size you want them to be when using black wrap to create them. Grids only have four sizes. They both have a place on set, though, and I hope you learned as much as I did from this video”.

You can find all of Jay P. Morgan’s videos here on LensVid on the following link. As always you can find more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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