Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
In this tutorial I will explain how I built the softbox used to take the image on the left. It is a 40cm X 40cm foamboard softbox that accepts a strobe. Kinda similar in size and effect to the Photoflex LiteDome XS which I use a lot out of the studio.
On the left image this softbox was used as key, see this lighting setup for another use of the softbox as fill.
It is a simple softbox to make and it takes about half an hour if you have mediocre cutting skills.[Read More…]
A softbox is a studio thingy that professional photographers use on their studios. Why? for a couple of reasons.
For one thing, softboxes create a smoother light – less hotspots (yea – those are the bright, burnt our noses in your photos), anther is smoother shadows. Most professional models are shot with softboxes to get that glamorous, look. Softboxes are also great for macro shots – they produce even diffused light.
The only trouble starts when you head down the road to the store and want to get one of them nice wonders. They usually cost something like a small county side house. In this article I will demonstrate how to build a homemade studio softbox for just a few $$.[Read More…]
Reflectors are one of the most valuable tools a portrait photographer can own. And we’re not talking about monetary value, but usefulness. Their cost is relatively inexpensive, but the value they can bring to your images can be pretty immense. But what if you’re just starting out and don’t want to buy one or several reflectors of varying sizes? Or what if you just don’t have the size and shape of reflector you need in an emergency?
Well, here’s Jay P Morgan from The Slanted Lens here to save the day with three DIY options that you can repurpose for use as very effective reflectors. You might already even own one or all of the things he shows off in the video and not even thought about using it as a reflector before.
I got me some of these new compact & foldable Godox softboxes AD-S60S, AD-S65W, AD-S85S, etc. for my Godox AD300Pros. They work just fine but I wanted to use the magnetic colour gels from my AK-R1 kit with them. So I decided to design my own gel holder compatible with the AD300 Pro.
There’s a moment that comes to everybody who eventually starts breaking away from using solely natural light and moving towards artificial lights to give you a bit more control and consistency. Whether you’re a photographer, filmmaker or YouTuber, you’re going to one day have to decide on what to buy to be your first, or perhaps only softbox.
In this video, Sam Holland walks us through the differences between a hard bare light, a small softbox and a large softbox to let us see the kind of light it produces as well as the benefits of each type of hard, slightly soft and very soft light. In the context of Sam’s video, it’s largely based on the YouTube or presenter style lighting with just a single modifier, but which deserves your money?
Sometimes you need fancy equipment to create a great photo, and sometimes you just need a towel. In the video above, photographer Robert Harris shoots a female boxer using an interesting trait of light. The way that light wraps about objects.
So before the film school nerds explode, let me just explain what a ‘scrim’ actually is and what the term colloquially means to us photographers.
Technically scrims are large sheets of black woven fabric that reduce the brightness of a light when placed in front of them (these are usually constant HMI lights that don’t have individual brightness adjusters).
There are alternative large sheets of fabric that are placed in front of lights called ‘silks’ and these are actually white in colour. When ‘silks’ are placed in front of the lights, they diffuse the light and spread it over a far wider area resulting in very soft lighting. You could consider that a softbox is actually just a small silk as it has a large sheet of diffusion material in front of the light that softens it as it passes through it.
Bored of being stuck indoors yet? Shooting against the same white background all the time can get tiresome, so why not switch it up with some creative DIY alternatives.
Early on in my photographic career, I spent literally thousands of hours photographing subjects in front of white walls. This was an incredibly popular look in the 90’s as we moved away from the grey and brown cloudy backdrops of the 1980’s, but times are changing once again as we tire of the stark and clinical look of a pure white backdrop.
There can be many reasons why you don’t have a softbox, but there can also be many situations when you could really use one. I know I’ve had them. If you can relate, this awesome tutorial from SLR Lounge’s Pye Jirsa is just what you need. In this video, he shows you how to turn your on-camera flash into an off-camera softbox and get the flattering, soft light. You will need around $30 worth of gear for this, but you know what’s great? You probably already have it at home.
There are a lot of LED panels out there these days with no real access to add modifiers. Sure, there are some that are Bowens mount that let you use the same sorts of things you’d use with strobes, but for panels, not so much. There are also a lot of Fresnels out there, that can be a pain to attach softboxes to as well. DOP Choice’s Universal Snapbag solves that problem by attaching directly to the barndoors on the front of the light. We spoke with DOP Choice at IBC 2019 to find out more.
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