{"id":4409,"date":"2015-01-06T08:40:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T08:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/?p=4409"},"modified":"2015-01-15T13:38:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T13:38:17","slug":"softbox-size-vs-soft-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/?p=4409","title":{"rendered":"Softbox Size vs Soft Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the primary uses of a softbox is to give soft lighting, but with so many sizes available, which one should you use?<\/p>\n<p>The answer in part comes from the classic rule with soft lighting which is this. The bigger the light source (relative to the subject) the softer the light produced. In other words bigger softboxes give softer light and as long as your softbox is close to your subject that holds true. To test it out I got my <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/GLSBSM28PPFP.html?KBID=67338\">28&#8243; Parapop softbox<\/a><\/strong> from Adorama, a medium sized softbox and borrowed a giant <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/WEUSLP7.html?KBID=67338\">7&#8242; Westcott umbrella softbox<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4410 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-640x119.jpg\" alt=\"soft-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-640x119.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-200x37.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-300x56.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-625x116.jpg 625w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-180x34.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-960x179.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1-350x65.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-1.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can see this in action in the\u00a0three photos above. In each shot the distance from light to the model was 1 meter and the light was metered at f\/8. Notice how the shadows blend in with the highlights as the softbox size increases and that\u2019s soft light in action.<\/p>\n<p>Now remember I said the softness of light is also relative to the subject size. Well here\u2019s what happens if you zoom out and shoot a larger, full length portrait. Once again the distance and settings are the same in all shots.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4411\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-640x141.jpg\" alt=\"soft-2\" width=\"640\" height=\"141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-640x141.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-200x44.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-300x66.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-625x138.jpg 625w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-180x40.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-960x212.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2-350x77.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/soft-2.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Look at the shadow behind the model. With the small and medium sized softboxes you\u2019ll see a sharper, harder edge to the shadow then the big softbox. You&#8217;ll also see that the smaller softbox gives a smaller spread of light compared to the more even illumination of the large softbox.<\/p>\n<p>So if you want to shoot full length portraits with soft light then an oversized softbox is one answer but it has another use to. Unless you want to spend time in Photoshop cloning out the light you\u2019ll need to back it up. Moving the light away from the subject makes it that much smaller and therefore harder. Oversized softboxes allow you to get soft light without the source being in the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at this video where I cover all of this and more.<br \/>\n[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a-rAnxVX9kE[\/youtube]<br \/>\nOf course there are a few downsizes to large softboxes, one of which is the lack of directional control. In the video above I add some control using Photoshop but in the next video I\u2019ll add it to the light.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gear used in this video<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Flashpoint RoveLight 600 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/FPLFRL600.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/FPLFRL600.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Glow ParaPop 28&#8243; R Softbox <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/GLSBSM28PPFP.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/GLSBSM28PPFP.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Westcott 7&#8242; Silver Parabolic Umbrella\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/WEUSLP7.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/WEUSLP7.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Westcott diffusing cover for 7&#8242; Umbrella\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/WE4631D.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/WE4631D.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Canon 5D Mark 2 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/ICA5DM3.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/ICA5DM3.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Canon 24-105L <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/CA24105AFU.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/CA24105AFU.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Black rapid RS-7 Strap <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/BRRS7.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/BRRS7.html?KBID=67338<br \/>\n<\/a>Sekonic L-308S Flashmate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/SKL308S.html?KBID=67338\">http:\/\/www.adorama.com\/SKL308S.html?KBID=67338<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the primary uses of a softbox is to give soft lighting, but with so many sizes available, which one should you use? The answer in part comes from the classic rule with soft lighting which is this. The bigger the light source (relative to the subject) the softer the light produced. In other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/?p=4409\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Softbox Size vs Soft Light<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[76,23,145,36,37,24,144,3],"class_list":["post-4409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videos","tag-adorama","tag-featured","tag-lighting","tag-photography","tag-portrait","tag-spotlight","tag-studio","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4409"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4417,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions\/4417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}