Reply to Fresnel lenses for strobes?

andyptak posted a reply:

Thanks guys. I am trying to mod it up in true Strobist style. This food thing is very new to me so it's lots of trial and error. I'm using a bunch of 285's and mirrors and although it's frustrating, it's also lots of fun.



I tried to reverse engineer some of the portfolio shots from food shooters and I couldn't figure out how they lit their setups until I thought of the Fresnel and I think that's how some of these guys do it.



I expect to pay a few bucks to get this right, but I don't want to spend the cost of my 285's all over again by buying real Fresnel lenses for movie hot lights. The cheap plastic magnifying sheets are all that I could think of but I'm not sure they'll work. I was going to trudge down to the local dollar store today and see what they had, but it's snowing like mad, so I think i'll stay in for the day!