Softbox or Softlight

[Don Hoey]

Following a question by Foxy Bob I have today been looking at Softbox v Softlight.

After much web trawling it appears that the UK is not well endowed by suppliers of medium sized softboxes. My unit now no longer appears to be available in the UK, but is in the States. The advantage a softbox gives over a brolley is easier control of spill light. With an eye to portraits I wondered what could be done to improve the light from a brollie.

I have a 32 inch diameter silver brolley and a 32 inch white one that I rarely use. With the white one in fire through, there is the possibility of the frame structure showing through. Both brollies were used for this test along with Metz 45 CL3 and Vivitar 283 flashguns.

A flash meter was used to determine the difference in light output between a single flash and twin flash. This turned out to be a half stop increase in light when two units were used so nothing dramatic there, but noticeable improvement in light spread.

The first test was to see the difference between firing the flash through the white brolley with the silver one reflecting stray light back, and then firing the flash at the silver brolley for max diffusion and the light exiting through the white brolley. In each case I took a picture of the resulting light pattern. See pic 2. All exposures were the same so you can see something of the effect of light loss. As can be seen it is all too easy to end up with the brolley frame showing through in a catchlight/reflection. At this point I removed the white brolley and substituted ( no expense spared here ) a doubled up piece of horticultural/garden fleece. See pic 3. Instant advantage was a light gain over the fire through with white brolley. I took a test shot of one corner of the workshop to see the lightspread.

The unit was placed 32 inches from, and head on to, the milling machine, so the shadows could be assesed. The pic was taken at a focal length of 14mm to see the light spread and is a full frame image.

All in all I am quite impressed with it as a softlight on a budget if you have a brollie. Of course wth a bit of effort you could temporarly line a large rain brolley with crumpled kitchen foil to achieve the same result.

As for the partly dismanted lens on the worktop ....................... another little project I am working on.

Don

[Canis Vulpes]

Softlight looks good especially with two flashes spreading light evenly. I am not sure about aiming flashes backward. The test reveals much more brolly framework and great evenness but is this a trick of the camera. Apart from catchlight I cannot imagine much difference with portraits with exception to greater power which means greater flexibility, of course.

The test does explain why I am not getting octagonal/round catchlights in portraits more oval using a single flash in shoot-through/softlight configuration

[Jon Sharp]

Another great idea for working on a budget. I personally couldn't work without my softboxes, old portalite models, being an older model they are a bit fiddly to put up and take down, (that's an improvement project I've got to look at), looking at your brolly set up I think that would be easier.

Would be fun to see the reacton of clients setting something like that up, they already give me funny looks when I produce various cake boards and other shapes of card coated in tin foil to use as reflectors!