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Turn your bathroom into a natural light softbox for amazing portraits

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When most portrait photographers want to create a directional soft light look, they break out the strobes. Then they usually stick a big octabox on the front of it. But what if you don’t have all that gear? How else can you get soft directional light? Well, you may be able to use the window in your bathroom.

In this video, Jay P Morgan shows us how we can get great soft directional light using only what enters through the bathroom window. Or whatever room in which you happen to be shooting. It’s a great technique if you don’t have flash gear and want to practise your portraits.

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How to fake a softbox by light painting with tubes for product photography

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Softboxes are wonderful tools for product photography. They allow you to get nice soft shadows, and beautiful edge highlights to make your product shine. But if don’t own them already, and all you plan to shoot are a few photos for eBay, it can get expensive. There’s light stands, flashes, the softboxes themselves, possibly reflectors and other doohickies.

This video from commercial photographer Leo Rosas shows a fantastic technique to create an “invisible softbox” using lightpainting techniques. Using a long LED tube, Leo recreates the look of a large softbox over his product, without actually having a softbox. It’s a very neat and versatile technique if you’re limited on gear.

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Sundisc is a softbox that is totally flat

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Mirrorless cameras and high-power speedlights have reduced the size of gear, just like they promised. But the softbox still remains the largest piece and takes up a lot of space. Vincent Palma and Vilhelm von Platen wanted to change this, so they created Sundisc. It’s a light, compact and ultra-portable reversible softbox that fits in your camera bag and that you can carry everywhere. You can attach it directly to your speedlight, and it also doubles as a reflector with both warm and cool light.

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“The Shwop” lets you turn any softbox into a reflector

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I don’t know when mounting strobes the wrong way around inside softboxes became a thing. But, apparently it is. More mysterious than the “when”, though is the “why?”. The Shwop is a new product on Kickstarter that lets you do exactly this, though. Reverse mount a strobe inside a softbox.

They do list a few benefits of working this way on the campaign page, although I’m not entirely convinced. Putting me off even further is the fact that what essentially amounts to a fancy flash bracket costs more than the strobes it holds.

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How to build a cheap collapsible DIY light box

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Clear, well-lit photos of your projects are among the best ways to share your work with others. Few techniques highlight your project as well as an all white light box with soft, even, shadow-free lighting. Not only is the white background distraction free, it will also serve to bounce your light source onto your object from nearly all angles.

This is an effective, inexpensive, and easy way to build a light box for project and product photography. Plus, you can quickly break it down for flat storage, and set it back up in seconds!

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Watch how one photographer shoots flying food with a couple of strip softboxes

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This probably isn’t something you’ll want to try at your local coffee shop to get a quick photo for Instagram. But, if you’re a budding food photographer, or want to try something a little different, this is certainly an eye catching technique.

Seattle based commercial food photographer Steve Hansen has more than a few food lighting tricks up his sleeve. In this video we see how Steve side lights flying food with a pair of Westcott 12″ x 50″ Stripbanks. But he’s not using them quite the way you might expect.

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Make a cheap and easy DIY turntable for 360° product photography and video

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If you make a lot of product shots, especially with small items, I’ve found a wonderful DIY build for you. It’s a turntable you can make yourself, it requires no motor and it’s super-cheap. You’ll spend around $20 and a couple of minutes to make it, and get great results.

Motorized turntables for product photography are not that expensive (around $100). But if you can make your own for 5 times less money and in just a few minutes – why wouldn’t you? Jordan Carrasquillo of New Amsterdam Photo Video shows you how to build this great solution for 360 product videos and photos, along with some shooting and editing tips.

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How to use gridded strip softboxes as your main light source

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When it comes to setting up flash for a portrait, one might usually grab a big octabox or beauty dish. Normally, we wouldn’t consider something like a strip softbox. Strip softboxes are typically relegated to rim light duties. But they can also be extremely effective as a main light source.

In this Profoto Tiny Talk, photographer Neil van Niekerk talks us through how he uses his gridded strip softboxes for lighting portraits. He describes it as the most powerful tool he has both on location and in the studio. And, indeed, it is an extremely versatile modifier.

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How to quickly upgrade your 160 LED panel softbox for less than $3

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Cheap light panels and cheap softboxes to go along are a lifesaver when you’re on a tight budget. But softbox with a spongy strap can’t be attached quickly (especially if you’re clumsy). Also, it won’t stay in place when you attach it to the LED panel. This video by Macroscope Pictures will show you how to solve this problem in less than $3 and upgrade your softbox for any of your “run and gun” projects.

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How to use coloured gels with studio strobes and softboxes

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Using coloured gels with speedlights has become pretty common. Many people who shoot with speedlights have given it a go at least a couple of times. But speedlights are quite easy to gel. All you need is a small strip of gel which you then gaffer tape over the front of the head. Studio strobes, though, are a different matter entirely. They’re not flat on the front like speedlights, and they project light in all directions.

You could, of course, just cover the entire front of your softbox with a massive gel sheet. But that can get expensive if you use many different colours. So, what can we do? Photographer Robert Hall shows us two options in this video on the Godox AD600 strobe. The first is the way he has been doing things, although it does have a problem. White light is still able to come out of the front, without a second piece of gel attached. One of his viewers sent him a solution to try that seems to work brilliantly.

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