Four Square info

while looking for some info on a totally different subject I stumbled on to what's called a four square with softbox from { www.lightwaredirect.co​m }

After a quick search on here the only threads I found on it were more talking about the techniques the person was using and not on the actual equiptment itself. exp 8 spedlights for HSS shooting

So I'm wondering has anyone used the four square block and any of the soft boxes. while I doubt I'd use it to go out and buy four 580ex's to use. But since I already have a couple of flashes and can borrow a couple others when needed I'm more curious about how sturdy it is and do the softboxes actually work well? as opposed to making or buying something that holds only 2-3 flashes

to my way of thinking, if you were using 580's,430's, sb-700's or sb-900's you may as well buy an alian bee strobe and a power pack of your choice. only thing i can see that this would be usefull for is HSS,

les_au wrote in post #12872347
to my way of thinking, if you were using 580's,430's, sb-700's or sb-900's you may as well buy an alian bee strobe and a power pack of your choice. only thing i can see that this would be usefull for is HSS,

True and I do agree with you totally on the HSS angle, that's how I stumbled on to it.

But....{you knew it was coming right } in my case where I already have 3-4 speedlights, it looks like a simple way to use them all at once for less money than an AB/power pack combo, most of the brackets I'm seen for multiple speedlights don't have a softbox that fits well.. that's what I was curious about. If you already have the speedlights, what is the quality of the softbox and how well it works.

As you have already stated, most people start off with 2-4 speedlites before they move up to studio lights. If this is the case, then this system is GREAT. Works as it should, but also as Les pointed out, it's really ONLY good for HSS. When shooting your speedlites in Manual Power Settings, you'll have to constantly change your power to as many as 4 speedlites in order to get the right exposure by constantly opening and closing the box. We all know that it's difficult enough to change the power settings on 1 or 2 speedlites, let along 4. However, when using HSS, you never have to touch the speedlites once their mounted into the box and turned on because the settings happen remotely from the camera. I bought this system about a year and a half ago, used it on one shoot, and was like HELL FCUKING NO!!! The build quality is TOP NOTCH on both the bracket and softbox, again, it's just the constant changing of the power settings when shooting in manual mode. But as stated, if you are a HSS Shooter, THIS IS PERFECT FOR YOU!!!

I've used the Foursqaure bracket and soft box for the better part of a year. I've used 4x 550ex's all with their own PW Flex TT5 on it - full power control from camera and lots of power when I need it. The soft box provides nice even light (not as nice and even as my Elinchrom boxes) and is very flexible. It is well made and has stood up well to a years worth of heavy use. If you need more power from it, you can just pull the diffuser off too for nice direct light.

Take a look at what Dave Black does with a four square, or two.

http://www.daveblackph​otography.com/workshop​/11-2010.htm

ean36 wrote in post #12875354
Take a look at what Dave Black does with a four square, or two.

http://www.daveblackph​otography.com/workshop​/11-2010.htm

thanks for linking that

that's the site or guy of how I found the 4-square stuff,, the couple old threads I saw on him when I searched seemed to be more about his pictures and cost of equiptment than the actual device. since I'm not too regular on here I didn't know if that was a senstive topic that sends people off and running.

I was trying ( and very poorly) to get some sports photo's at twilight where there is just enough ambient to mess it up, then started cluelessly playing with HSS.

While I doubt I was use it like he does, certainly not with eight 580's, but more like three, I would be using it for sports maybe once a month, {at best} so I was more curious to see how adaptable it is just as a regular softbox. I realize regular studio strobes are better for many things, this [4-square] just caught my eye since I was using a couple speedlights and didnt' have a really good way of putting them together, I could have borrowed another one but didn't since I didn't want to use three lightstands where I was space wise.

Try this http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …Flash_Bracket_b​y_Joe.html into a silver umbrella. I have the older version, works well.

Why you even need the softbox, why not use bunch of bare speedlites? There are flash brackets to let you install 3 flashes or more. Get them. Look at Micheal Bass's website. There is another one, posted named elv something. He hangs on flickr and nicely made brackets.

bobbyz wrote in post #12877793
Why you even need the softbox, why not use bunch of bare speedlites? There are flash brackets to let you install 3 flashes or more. Get them. Look at Micheal Bass's website. There is another one, posted named elv something. He hangs on flickr and nicely made brackets.

thanks for the tip.. I never checked out MB website before. and you have a great point, ditch the Sbox and go commando. good thinking

Gaarryy wrote in post #12878260
thanks for the tip.. I never checked out MB website before. and you have a great point, ditch the Sbox and go commando. good thinking

There is a triflash bracket also from lasolite. never used one. One thing if you go into HSS mode you will loose 2.5 stops power. Then for every stop of increase in ss, you loose one stop in power. So pretty soon you need bunch of speedites to do what Dave Black does. Look at some of his shots and they taken quite later in the day.

If you thinking of HSS mode then you may want to look at PW mini/flex setup to get HyperSync. I tried HyperSync on my 1dmk2 and I can push that max sync speed from 1/320 to 1/640. There is some loss in power but lot less compared to using HSS mode.