Here is a quick comparison of various lighting diffusers. I recently bought a softbox umbrella and a 23cm softbox from ebay for a play. Even though I use studio kit for PR and Commercial work I also use alot of Canon Speedlite flashes and accessories. We will quickly cover bare-bulb flash, stofen diffuser, shoot-through umbrella, tiny softbox, and a softbox shoot through umbrella.

I thought I'd do a brief run down of the difference between the the various options although I have to keep the discussion brief as I'm told the attention span of the modern human is shorter than......hello?...hello? (pay attention!)

Firstly the softbox: Looks like this.......

Soft box comes on a case and folds down flattish

To assemble you Velcro in these two layers... .inner quite close to flash!

Velcro secures softbox to flash

I don't this is going to work very well like this. ...maybe with a flash bracket

The Shoot through umbrella: Looks like this.....

It a white umbrella that the flash fires through

As well as the light coming forward you get quite a lot of spill backwards too

Bare Flash....  duh!

Softbox umbrella / brolly .... A shoot though umbrella with a capped end!

Shoot through diffuser creates big light

Capped back stops bounce back spill and gives more power

On camera flash with stofen diffuser

On camera flash with 23cm Softbox

On camera with bare flash

  Off Camera Results

Bare Flash = Hard shadows and small catchlights in the eyes (Catchlights are the reflections from the flash)

Shoot through umbrella: Nice big catchlights and an soft omni-lighting. It's a small light room so the spill out the back of the umbrella throw the light about

Shoot Through softbox umbrella : Slightly harder shadows and a more 'directional' feel than the normal shoot through umbrella.. just like a big round softbox...which essentially is what it is!

Small Soft box.. Small catchlights and a softened light compared to a bare bulb. It just shows that a small softbox does not do much

Conclusions

As I said before this is just a quick comparison and by no means a in-depth review. The main conclusion is actually don't bother with a small (23cm in this case) softbox for off camera flash work. If your a budding stobist your better off with a softbox umbrella. If your looking for a bigger softer more omni-directional flash then the open shoot through umbrella works great. It boosts the ambient by throwing light up and out around a small room and also give nice cathlights.

Hope I kept your attention..  :)
Cheers for popping by.
Doug


p.s. Thanks to the lovely Helen for my 5 minute model.