Monday 27 March 2017

lighting modifiers - Are small on-flash softboxes useful, or a gimmick?


There are a number of "mini-softbox" products on the market. These are meant to mount on a hotshoe flash (usually with an elastic band).


fair-use small image from lumiquest
Lumiquest Softbox III




Are these worthwhile portable and low-space light modifiers, or are they more gimmick than useful? Are they large enough to meaningfully diffuse light for portraits? Are they too close to the flash?


What are the use cases that these are especially good for? What can't they do?


Are any particular designs better than others?



Answer



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 with just a simple diffuser such as an Omni-Bounce.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Why is the front element of a telephoto lens larger than a wide angle lens?

A wide angle lens has a wide angle of view, therefore it would make sense that the front of the lens would also be wide. A telephoto lens ha...