Hot answers tagged softbox
13
I have the Lumiquest Softbox III that's mentioned, and I find it useful as a super-portable softbox that's better than nothing. Given the option to have a huge softbox that would be my first choice, but the small softbox, placed very close to a subject, works really well and provides a much softer directional light than one would get with a bare flash or ...
13
[This answer is a work in progress at the moment -- illustrations will take some time. The illustrations that I have managed to include so far should be good enough to get going with -- the rest are just for clarity. But we're getting closer to a complete answer.]
Umbrellas and scrims (suggested in other answers here) will work, but they leak light all over ...
11
The best diffuser I ever found was two-side-matte drafting film (either mylar or acetate). You get excellent diffusion and minimal light loss. The only problems with it are:
it burnishes, so you have to be careful with pressure and rubs when transporting or storing it; and
it's relatively stiff, so there are fewer options when constructing things out of ...
11
Soft boxes typically have a more focused and sometimes more powerful quality of light while remaining soft. The biggest reason you might want to use a soft box over an umbrella is to control the spill of light.
Where an umbrella will reflect light into a scene as well as transmit through the material, a soft box will force all light to either die or be ...
8
An octabox will give you nice round catchlights and produce generally more natural looking highlights and reflections. The straight edge of a softbox often sticks out when shooting with reflective surfaces more than a more organic curve or circle.
On the other hand softboxes are easier to mask and gobo due to the straight edges, and more suitable to certain ...
8
There are a few reasons that I'm aware of to combine soft-box and an additional diffuser:
With smaller softboxes and hotter lights (read: flashes) the softbox isn't always able to completely diffuse the light source, which causes a 'hotspot'... Essentially the center of the diffusion 'square' is brighter than the edges. It's better than a 'nekkid' flash, ...
7
Consider a 2D cross section ABCD straight through a cell of the grid, parallel to (and containing) the lighting axis. AD = BC is the depth of the cell and AB = CD is the length of the opening (horizontally, vertically, or even at an angle).
In this diagram light can come anywhere from the left in any direction (created by your softbox or otherwise). The ...
6
Assuming square grid bins, the dimensions of each grid bin are WxWxD, where D is the depth of the grid and W is the square edge length. Then, using trigonometry, we know that:
tan(A) = W / D
where A is the beam angle (from center line - axis - to one side). But, when considering rays passing through the square corners, there are two more angles to ...
6
At its simplest... stick this thing from Ikea on your light and fire away.
I have no idea how well it actually works. However, it's probably quick and cheap enough that you could try it on a lark.
If you want to take a step up, DIYPhotography has a bunch of articles on exactly this topic.
I myself have made a PVC-and-cotton light tent along these lines. ...
5
You can translate cd/m^2 + Area directly into lumen.
lumen = cd/m^2 x m^2.
That is, 1 lumen of light energy will illuminate a square metre of area with a brightness of one candela.
So your 1000 cd/m^2 source over 0.5 m^2 = 1000 x 0.5 = 500 lumen.
Modern available LEDs are achieving 200 l/W (just) (Cree XM-L2 top flux bin, lowest Vf), with LEDs with ...
5
The ribs will be visible if you shoot a photo of the umbrella, but they are not visible on a subject in the normal position. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_old_curmudgeon/5207772689/in/photostream and the following photos, where I varied the zoom level of the strobe to see how much coverage of the umbrella as its varied.
The light is uniform for all ...
5
Let's put it this way: even a cheap softbox is better than nothing. That said, the larger the softbox, the better, although it will look a bit odd on your flash. (I have one that's like 8in. square.) And, in those situations where you don't have much else, it is better than nothing.
Like @dpollitt says, I would first attempt to bounce the flash, but when it ...
4
White tracing paper, or white tissue paper (used for wrapping) works really well. I found that tracing paper was more expensive than white tissue paper, so I went with the later.
With regards to color cast, by using a greycard, and your camera's white balance setting, you can get around most basic color casts.
The downside to paper is that it's very easy ...
4
catch lights: round/octagonal with umbrellas, square with softboxes
ease of setup - umbrellas are generally much easier to set up and attach to a stand
stability - umbrellas tend to catch the wind outdoors and tumble more than soft boxes
spill - umbrellas will spill more light which can be a problem in close quarters (however there are so-called umbrella ...
4
To complete the answer of whuber, the opening angle is α = tan⁻¹(2×diameter/length). My most often used grid is made of straws with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 3 cm = 30 mm, resulting in an opening angle of approximately 20°, or a beam that gets wider by about 33 cm after each meter (imho that's an easier way to imagine the opening angle). Latter is ...
3
Octaboxes tend to focus the light a bit more than square or rectangular softboxes. Some fashion and portrait photographers favor them for several reasons:
More light out of smaller box because of focusing effect
Interesting catchlights in the eyes. If you look at a lot of portraits, you can start to recognize the ones shot with beauty dishes, octabanks, ...
3
Hang a piece of white cloth in front of your light.
The suggestion of an umbrella is spot-on, and I would recommend that as the first thing to consider. In UK money, it would probably cost about 20 quid. But an even cheaper solution would be to simply hang a handkerchief (or something similar) a few inches in front of your light.
2
I can think of a couple of reasons why I might do that:
The minimum power on the strobe is still more light than I want and so extra diffusion is needed. It can happen... :)
The light duration is what I want, but the amount of it is too much. If I reduce the power on the strobe, I reduce the duration of the light, so this lets me reduce the amount of light ...
2
Think outside the (soft) box. :)
When I was in school we had a really simple table top rig that was just 6 to 8 under cabinet kitchen lights from the local home store. Looks like homedespot has something very similar for about $20: ...
2
Open-n-use has a similar meaning to the much more common "plug-n-play" adjective of computer peripherals, it means you just open it up like an umbrella and start using it right away.
Essentially it's an umbrella softbox hybrid that opens quickly like an umbrella, but has a front diffuser screen like a softbox, giving a softbox like quality of light but ...
2
For me the main difference is a softbox generally has better control of the direction of the light. The softbox will have a flat diffusion panel on the front and possibly a raised edge that stops light spilling off to the side. You can add a grid to it to control the spill even more. While an umbrella, has a curved surface that reflects or diffuses light in ...
2
I have had great success with the Gary Fong Lightsphere. You can see by the reviews on B&H that is is a very popular light modifier, especially among the wedding photography enthusiasts.
When they work the best for me is when I am in low light situations where bouncing my flash off of a white ceiling is not practical or possible.
They are not going to ...
2
I've seen one yesterday, and as a complement of my question, I can tell that there is a real problem with this kind of softbox. If the flash is inside the softbox, you can't incline it much, really not. It has to be almost always vertical. Don't even think of putting it at 45° with a single tripod because the base of the tube cannot go through the border of ...
1
I can think of a lot of uses for the Lumiquest Softbox III (or other type boxes), too many to answer your question directly. In fact I think you've already begun to answer your own question. I use a similar set up with a Lastolite Professional 15" softbox for pocket strobe. I often use this unit as a key for head-shots, both indoor and out and use it as a ...
1
Should i simply set it to "M" and adjust it on each picture depending
on the results, or should i use TTL?
There's not a single correct answer here other than do what works for you. If TTL gives you results that you like, great! That's what it's there for, right? Otherwise, manual mode is fine -- adjust parameters like the flash power, flash zoom, and ...
1
It sounds like the slave on the unit you bought doesn't know how to ignore the metering pre-flash, so the flash is firing before the shutter is opened. I'm not sure about the 60D, but most cameras I've used will skip the preflash when the flash is set to manual (guide number) mode, so the flash fires only after the shutter is open. You may have to use a ...
1
I've tried using tissue paper, and it worked well, but was pretty easy to tear.
I later tried out a couple layers of plastic drop cloth. It works reasonable well, is durable, but doesn't diffuse the light quite as well as the paper.
1
I have found that clipping the gel to the speedring of the modifier (e.g. large soft box) generally works well. You'll need a large gel (e.g. 1' x 1', or a longer roll, e.g. 1' x 3') to get good coverage.
Some manufacturers sell a flash bulb cover that adjusts color temperature. For example, this Profoto unit reduces effective color temp by 600K.
...
1
I haven't constructed this yet, but my plan is to mount a 7" stainless "stove burner cover" from Target to the speedring. The standoff (long bolts should be around 4" I figure, maybe 5 or 6. Then with the baffles off my silver lined 7' octa becomes a huge beauty dish. And, it should be straight forward to wrap a gel around those standoff bolts to ...
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