January 17, 2007

  • Q39 X-small softbox

    I was inspired by Phil, a.k.a. Pfiltz on DPReview.com with his use of a small softbox for shooting portrait that i bought my own softbox.  I'm not talking about the big one that you see in a studio, everyone know those thing are sweeeeet! and they give off such nice soft light but required a seperate power pack.  The one I'm talking about here is the extra small softbox.  The main reason i choose it was b/c of it portability, it's small enough to be handheld instead of mounting it on a stand. 

    In this spontanious shoot, Shelly didn't know she was going to be my first test subject.  She was hesistant at first but after about 10 minutes of laying down my charms, she warm up to the idea.  The shoot lasted about 5 minutes and I got about two dozen frames.  The setting was her new couch (atleast to me since it's my first time seeing it). 

    The setup was straight forward.  A canon 580EX on my 5D as Master, a 430EX on the softbox as Slave triggered by the flash's wireless feature.  Camera in my right hand, softbox in my left trying to aim at a 45 degree angle to the subject.  That's basically it!  I finished the photo in photoshop.  I'm still researching on a way to modify the canon off shoe cord from 2ft (although I didn't use it this time) to about 20-25ft for my next shoot.  I want to move back a bit with my 5D so I can use my favorite lens, the 70-200mm f2.8 IS.  At that distance I can't depend on the wireless system to work everytime. 

    For portrait work, I would definitely use it over my LightSphere PJII.  I would still use my Lightsphere for shooting hectic and fast pace weddings.  But if I'm shooting something where I can slow thing down a bit, I'll definitely bring out the softbox. 

    Don't you think she's a natural?  All I did was push the button, the rest is her doing. 

    Here she is about 10mins earlier... not wanting any part of the shoot. 

    curling up in her blanket watching tv...
        

    Let her know that she made the right decision by participating in my experiment.

Comments (23)

  • gorgeous photos!!

  • Beautiful.......

  • She is beautiful, the first one is so nice I like how warm the conversion is on that one.

  • Great work! Wonderful lighting.

  • Wow really great light from that softbox, I might have to check it out!

  • Beautiful Shots!

  • niceeeeeee

  • Wow, I like the shots!  How did you edit her eyes?  They look great!

  • mimsmua - thanks! a lot of people asked me about the eyes too. i think i'll write a tutorial about it and post it.

  • dang awesome photos! such gorgeous eyes! =)

  • that's one heck of a great job jason. i've always wanted to invest in some softboxes but didn't know how many and which ones. perhaps i should look into these!!! great job againjason!

  • hey jason, i love how the soft and white the softbox produced!!! I have a question though. it says it uses the hot shoe flash as the light source. my main concern is, is the flash activated through the wireless system on the camera? that is a problem for me b/c my d50 don't have that capability. = other than that this is a must have for me!!

  • D_Nguyen - no worries. you can buy an off camera cord that attaches to the end of your flash and the other end to the camera flash mount. i know nikon have one. it's about 2ft in lenght and around $50. now you know why i'm researching so that i can modified my cable to be longer.

  • Jason, I mentioned you on my blog, thanks for sending me some photos! all the best. See you at WPPI?

  • wow...she's definitely photogenic.  nice work, man! =]

  • So incredibly beautiful, she should let you photograph her more often!  Great job!  Thanks for the softbox info!!

  • Wow sweet little tutorial here man. I'm just dropping by from Scott's site :) Keep up the great work, those 3 shots are awesome, perfect lighting (to me at least)!

  • btw what lens were you using with your 5D?

  • Kudos to both of you!!! Love those 5 Ds!!!!! She is beautiful and you obviously made her feel comfortable to get those shots and you did a beautiful lighting job!

    She must love these!!!

    Kerri

  • xTstyles - the lens is Tamron 28-75mm f2.8

  • Great shots man. I really like your style.

  • Great shots!! I have a question about your flash setup. I shoot with a 20D and I'm thinking about getting a second 550EX flash. How do you set up you flash system in order to differing amounts of main and fill?

  • djbigdog - i don't have a 550EX, but on my 580EX... i can get to the Ratio menu by keep hitting the Mode button. You might want to look up Ratio in your flash manual. In these shots, i didn't setup any type of light ratio. I just set my main 580ex to not fire (actually the main will always fired, but it's just to trigger the secondary flash). That small burst doesn't contribute much to the overall picture. My main light source is from my secondary 430ex flash.

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