ncphotoguy wrote in post #17836452
Thanks all for the advice so far, it's appreciated. I'm novice in the portrait realm so I am unsure of what's utter crap and what's not. Looking at links to suggested products, I don't see an obvious massive difference between what I posted and that, except for mostly that you get more stuff for same $, which I guess is a tipoff. I wasn't TRYING to post the cheapest garbage I could find, just going off of apparent value vs. reviews. I greatly appreciate pointers in the right direction.
I've heard softboxes are better than umbrellas?
Heya,
Neither is better than the other. It's a tool with different properties. I like both. I use both.
Softboxes control spill better and are more directional. They can also be gridded. They also weigh more. Cost more.
Umbrellas can be small, medium, large, big, super big, huge (7 feet!) and are light, portable, and much cheaper, spill more but offer a massive surface area.
Lately, I've been preferring umbrella-style softboxes. Basically, umbrellas that open up with a reflective surface on their inner side, that have velcro for attaching a white liner. Turning it into a softbox. I have a 31" and a 47" and I love how light weight, fast to setup, and simple they are, while making really great soft light. I have a 48" EZPro Octa that I use with my 600ws strobe, and it's really great. But it's heavy and bulky, and frankly, speedlites and my brolly-softboxes are faster to setup and so much much lighter on top of that, which I really like when I'm just setting up for a single quick shoot. When setting up for a big long dedicated session, that's different and I don't mind a longer setup process with heavier stuff. Also, umbrella-softboxes collapse down to umbrellas. So they literally store in a tube if you want. So small. So portable. And they're ultra-inexpensive. See the ones I linked again. $35 for a huge, huge 47" softbox that is of good quality, it's just an umbrella which is why. I also use 60" umbrellas for a huge, huge surface which is nice. But you have to have room to use that size modifier.
To avoid buying garbage, whatever you do, solid stands are the way to go. A boom stand is so useful. I would just get a decent quality relatively heavy duty stand first (maybe not super heavy duty, just heavy duty enough to handle a boom with a little weight at the end like a speedlite + modifier). See my links above. That stand for the money is very capable and is a one-time-end-game buy basically. If you want to step it up a notch, get the Cheetah boom stand from Cheetah ($120).
I use my umbrellas & umbrella softboxes outside with speedlites and strobes. They're well made. And cheap. So indoor use is a no brainer. You don't need super expensive modifiers to get good light.
Frankly, you could take some cardboard and some paper towels and make a really nice softlight softbox. Totally doable. Might look bad. But you get the point. But don't cheap out on the stand. That will be holding your flash and modifier, and when they hit the floor, you'll be cursing.
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Here's an example of using a bare flash, flash behind an umbrella, and a boom stand. Very portable. I use this kind of stuff outside even. And here's examples of the kind of output, outside, in the sun. So inside, they output way enough light to handle anything.
$20 umbrella (Westscott 43")
$50 flashes (Yongnuo 560 III)
Cheetahboom stand ($120) (this holds my 6lb 600ws strobe even, let alone some speedlites)
Generic stand in the back ($15, Impact or neewer?)
by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/BfytrL IMG_6096 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
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I literally switched over to umbrella-style softboxes to replace a few umbrellas that I've destroyed over time. They were inexpensive, and really, I wanted them because they put the surface closer to the stand, so I can get even closer to the subject if I want and keeping everything closer to the stand seems more stable to me in the wind (not an issue inside). Mainly though, I like them because the umbrella portion goes backwards and is reflective, while the surface is forwards and literally inline with the light and stand. I just like how it takes up space differently. I like the flat surface better than the umbrellas. And I really like the reflected light onto a large surface better. You can get reflective umbrellas, I have those too, but so far, reflective surface umbrellas that take a liner and become a softbox are just really great to me, cheap, light weight, softbox style light, umbrella style storage and cost, love it).
I use these:
Neewer 47" Umbrella Softbox ($35)Godox 31" Umbrella Softbox ($21)Get two boom stands, or one boom stand, and one normal stand. For you, you can do fine with two normal stands probably. I still suggest a boom stand.
Very best,
I've been doing the headshots in the lobby of our building which generally gets pretty nice natural light (lots of skylights and glass everywhere), but for that and better family events I'd like to do a little better with perhaps a light kit or softbox plus my flash. I don't want cheap garbage, but I don't need top of the line. I've been looking at something like this:
