Brokeh System for Soft Lighting – First Look Review

by Graham SheldonAugust 9^th, 2022

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Brokeh is a unique system of diffusion printed either on transparency in the case of the facial anamorphic series or on magic cloth in the case of the Nature Series. Invented by John Tindall, this system is designed to take the edge off of harsh white LED lighting and make your on-site lighting feel more natural. Hop below for our first look video of the Brokeh diffusion system.

EDITOR’S NOTE (Dec 15, 2022): Due to a mistake in the original video, parts of this video were re-shot, re-edited and now re-published.

I originally discovered the Brokeh Instagram a few months ago, and I was instantly intrigued.

There aren’t many opportunities to switch up the status quo when it comes to the basic premise of key, fill and hair lighting, and Brokeh promises to create more realistic or natural feeling lighting when using their different diffusion types.

The system itself is broken up into two groups called the nature and facial series. Within the Nature Series, you have the following patterns printed on a base of magic cloth:

• Sante Fe
• New York Flat
• Rose Garden (pictured below)

A description of the Nature Series directly from Brokeh: “the series of patterns mimics soft natural environments with an honest and emotional impact that flat white light can not achieve.”

Within the Facial Series, you have the following patterns printed on transparency:

• Facial Anamorphic Key
• Facial Enhance Key
• Facial Anamorphic Fill

Here is a description from Brokeh for the Facial Series: “the filters are used on soft lights. Dominant and complementary skin tones are arranged on geometric shapes that enhance the radial curves of the face.”

Testing

We went ahead and tested each of the above patterns in 4×4 (Facial Series), 6×6 (Nature Series), and a custom cut of the Facial Series designed for a Litepanels Astra 6X Daylight softbox. You can watch the video for before and after views using the 6×6 Nature Series cuts and the Astra custom pieces for the Facial Series.

According to Brokeh, the Nature Series does a lot to reduce reflections on glass objections, and you can certainly see very minimal reflections in the glasses on the key side of my face. In this instance, the 6×6 Rose Garden frame was touching the floor five feet away on the camera’s right side.

I used the Litepanels Astra 6X Daylight as the light in all instances because I felt like many people might have access to a 1×1 LED fixture like this.

The 4×4 cuts and 6×6 cuts include grommets and straps for mounting to standard frames like those from Matthews, Westcott and others. Pricing varies from $123.00 for a 12″x12″ piece of Facial Anamorphic Key light to $595.00 for a 6×6 cut of the Nature series. Of course, pricing varies, and you could even create 20×20 pieces with the price naturally increasing as the dimensions expand. For more information, visit Brokeh’s online shop.

Conclusion

This video is billed as a “first look” and not a full review because I feel that I’m just scratching the surface with the Brokeh system. Both series of diffusion require additional experimentation in my opinion to find the best times to use each pattern.

I’m impressed by the initial results, however. The Nature Series, in particular, does create a natural feel on the face and I’m interested to continue testing the facial series.

What do you think of the Brokeh first look video? Would you like to see different tests? Are you considering adding the Brokeh system to your kit? Let us know in the comments below!