Electronic Flash Spotlight

I suppose this is a bit off topic, but CPF seems like the right place to ask this.

I want to take a studio electronic flash and modify the front end to make it into a "flash spotlight". In other words, I want the flash to be focused in a tight beam at considerable distance away.

Just in case anyone cares why I want to do that, here's what's going on. I photograph weddings and the reception halls are often large, dark rooms with high ceilings. Even though subjects are properly illuminated by on-camera flash, the walls and other background elements come out very dark. I have bounced a studio flash off the ceiling and that helps. But the lighting is usually uneven because it is coming from a corner of the room and locally lights up the walls/ceiling in that area.

What I would like to do is project a tight beam of flash to the middle of the ceiling — like a flashlight. That would radiate light down more or less evenly over the whole room. I have thought about various lens mods, including fresnel, but I'm not really sure how to accomplish that — or where to buy suitable parts for that matter.

A typical studio flash is shown here: http://white-lightning.com/7abr.html The cone shaped front reflector comes off so that other accessories can be attached. Any thoughts on how I could make this work?

Bill

Could you use a snoot? If you were to use a 1200 w/s strobe with a snoot you may be able to accomplish it.

How about wireless flashheads on extension poles on 45 deg. 8~10 feet up?

Thanks for the reply. The snoot is very useful for getting a small spot of light. But it does so by throwing away 99.9% of the light. A snoot blocks out light, but doesn't redirect any light at all. So almost all of the light is absorbed by the snoot. I need a good portion of the light to be redirected so it reaches the ceiling. Snoots are used all the time for hairlights and such, but there, only a small amount of light is needed and only a short distance is covered.

If I understand your second suggestion, that is what I am currently doing. I put a stand in the corner of the hall and raise the light up to about 10 feet and aim the light at 45 degrees toward the center of the room. When I do that though, there is still considerable spill onto the side walls and ceiling closer to the corner.

I also tried a fresnel lens, as used for enlarging text in a newspaper or book. That actually did some focusing, but I had to hold the lens about three feet away from the flashtube. I'm sure that a fresnel lens could be made with a different focal length, but I don't know if such a thing is made or where it could be obtained.

Paint the inside of the snoot white.
Get a more powerful flash with a zoom function.
Set a higher ISO
and/or set the camera to rear current sync.