SNAPBAG^® LANTERN & FLYBALL

Lanterns spread soft light evenly in all directions (360°), making them ideal for ambient fill, overhead lighting, or lighting entire spaces with a natural, room-tone feel. They’re great when you want general illumination without hard shadows.

Softboxes, on the other hand, direct soft light forward in a more controlled beam. They’re perfect for key lighting, shaping faces, and creating defined lighting zones with soft shadows.

Use a Lantern for ambient or practical fill. Use a Softbox when you need directional, focused soft light.

Lanterns provide soft, omnidirectional light from a single source, making them fast to rig and easy to control with optional skirts. They’re great for creating natural ambient light in a room or soft top light over a scene.

Bounced light reflects off a surface like a wall, ceiling, or reflector, creating a more indirect, wrap-around quality. It offers more flexibility in shaping the light’s direction and softness, but typically requires more space and setup time.

Use a Lantern when you need fast, contained ambient light. Use bounced light when you want broader, more diffused illumination and have the space to control it.

Skirts help you control the light spill from a lantern, blocking unwanted light from hitting certain areas like walls, ceilings, or the background.

Use skirts when you want to direct the soft light more precisely—such as keeping it off the camera lens, shaping the light on your subject, or creating mood by limiting ambient fill. They’re especially helpful in tighter setups or when working with mixed lighting zones.

You can adjust the height (or depth) of SNAPBAG^® Lanterns using an elastic drawstring and cord stopper, which flexes the internal poles and changes the lantern’s shape.

A taller shape gives you a broader light spread with more ambient fill, while a shorter shape focuses the light downward for more directional control—especially useful when paired with a skirt. This flexibility lets you fine-tune the look and spill of the light to suit your scene.

Both Lanterns and Spacelights are used to create soft, ambient overhead lighting—but they differ in design, output, and flexibility.

Lanterns are lightweight, quick to set up, and attach directly to modern LED fixtures. They offer 360° soft light and are easy to control with optional skirts. Ideal for smaller sets, fast-paced shooting, or when portability matters.

Spacelights are traditionally bulkier, designed for high-output tungsten or HMI sources, and are often rigged from above in studio setups. They deliver powerful, broad top-down light and are typically used for lighting large spaces evenly.

Use a Lantern for flexible, on-the-go ambient lighting. Use a Spacelight when you need high-intensity overhead light in controlled environments.

DoPchoice offers a range of high-quality diffusion fabrics for SNAPBAGS^®, each designed to shape light with different levels of softness:

• Quarter Grid Diffusion: Lightest diffusion — softens shadows while maintaining contrast and punch.
• Half Grid Diffusion: Balanced option — softens light with moderate diffusion and natural falloff.
• Full Grid Diffusion: Strong diffusion — creates a very soft, even light with reduced shadow definition.
• SNAPCLOTH^™: Extra-soft diffusion — delivers a beautifully smooth, flattering wrap, ideal for talent.

Special Diffusions:

• HiLite: Maximum softness — for the most gentle light output and ultra-smooth transitions.
• Silent Diffusions: Specially designed for sound-sensitive environments — no crinkle or rustle on set.
  Each fabric is selected to match lighting goals, from punchy looks to the softest wrap.