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 |
The Results : on camera flash diffusers
|
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 |
ConclusionsAs 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.