Photography: Lighting Softboxes

Video Transcript

"In this segment we are going to talk about softboxes, and softboxes are actually my favorite light modifier. What I like about them, is they are really easy to use, they are very easy to set up, they're, and they produce a really pretty light, it's directional, it's, but it's also soft so it has a nice wrap if you're lighting a portrait on somebody, you don't get, you can get a nice graduation from light to dark on someone's face but without it being too hard. This is actually a nice medium size one, small if you're actually in the Chimera brand. This is the, this is probably the most standard size that you use. It's considered, it's called a medium, and then I actually like to use, and then here's a super small one, this I usually use more with my battery operated flashes and kind of keep this with me in an emergency, better than nothing. But they actually work pretty well, has a particular look if you're looking for it. Sometimes these actually work really nice on small still-lifes. Also consider Octa Lites, as softboxes, this is actually a Photek Illuminata, it's one that actually bounces the light into the center of the flash and around and out and it actually produces a really nice and even pretty light. When using a softbox, you usually need a ring, this is actually a standard Chimera ring, they are all pretty much the same, it's usually four posts. Some of them on this, have a lot more and require specialized rings but they all, you know they kind of assemble very similar to a pup tent. Just noticed that I am using the sAoftbox as a four different posts. Sometimes these break when your assistants are a little too strong in trying to take these apart. The trick is with these, is that they are very easy to assemble but can be very difficult to disassemble, the trick is you want to take your thumb and put it right above where you take it out and then lift up on the posts as you pull it out. It's always a good, you know for a first time assistant to give them one and tell them to take it down, probably take them about an hour to figure it out. But these are actually very easy to take up, to take down and produce great light. You know, make sure you have the right softbox holder for each light"