Tangents

example: direct off-camera flash vs softbox (model: Ulorin Vex)

October 12, 2011

example: direct off-camera flash vs softbox (model: Ulorin Vex)

Ulorin Vex posing for us during part of the on-location session of the flash photography workshops which I presented in San Francisco earlier this year. Ulorin Vex is of course absolutely stunning, as always. While I often direct models how they should pose, this one is all her doing . Not even I can improve on that.

The image here at the top was shot with an off-camera softbox – my usual preferred Lastolite Ezybox softbox. The direction of the light here should immediately reveal the approximate position where the light was positioned. Just as comparison, we removed the two baffles of the Lastolite, to see how direct off-camera flash would compare. We kept the softbox hull in place, so it did help contain the spread of light a bit. As you’d expect, the results look more dramatic.

With this image, I did some additional processing of the image in Photoshop, using the Radlab action sets. Here is the pull-back shot. As you’d immediately notice as well, I cloned out the intercom box, and cleaned up some distracting spots and marks on the metallic areas.

With the two comparative images, I wanted to help give an idea of how different the results can be. While my own preference is for soft light, direct off-camera flash is always an option. A softbox (or large umbrella) is a more forgiving light source though than direct flash. You have more leeway in placing your light in relation to your subject if you make it a large light source and diffuse it.

camera settings and details for both images:
1/200 @ f5.6 @ 200 ISO
The 2nd image was over-exposed by around 1.5 stops.
This is due to the light being more concentrated to the center of the image, which will affect the TTL metering compared to the image at the top where the entire area is evenly lit. Since the setting is metallic, that had to affect the TTL exposure metering as well.
Canon 5D mark II (B&H); Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS (B&H)
The camera was hand-held with the lens zoomed to 28mm and 40mm respectively.

Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24″x24″) (B&H)
FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H); AC3 ZoneController (B&H)
set-up as explained in this article on wireless TTL triggers for Canon

image processing done with the RadLab action sets
(the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%)

other articles on Tangents, featuring Ulorin:

model – Ulorin Vex
Ulorin Vex in red (photo session 2)
Ulorin Vex – window light (photo session 3)
Ulorin Vex – Monaco foyer (photo session 4)
manual off-camera fill-flash (model – Ulorin Vex)

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10 Comments »

When using TTL, does your camera metering mode affect the way TTL meters for the scene? If you fill the frame with your model and activate FEL, would this take much of the reflectivity of the metal out of the equation?

Comment by Johnny Woods — October 12, 2011 @ 6:43 am
Johnny .. I haven’t been able to see any difference in TTL flash exposure between Spot-metering mode and Evaluative / Matrix mode, on the Canon and Nikon cameras that I’ve tried.

I wouldn’t take this as the absolute word on this, but *I* haven’t been able to find a difference in the TTL exposure.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — October 12, 2011 @ 7:00 am
Neil,
I am going to buy my first softbox, How big of a group can you do with one 24×24 box?? Should I go to a larger box? It will be my only box for a while. I will be using a lightstand so whats the biggest box I can use without it crashing?

Comment by mike — October 12, 2011 @ 7:23 am
Mike, I’ve lit up 8 people in a group with the softbox … but because I had to place it further back to get even light from left-to-right, the light gets contrasty. You’d be better off with a shoot-through umbrella then.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — October 12, 2011 @ 7:47 am
Lol Neil, i followed the link which showed you demonstrating the model pose and i nearly spit out my coffee laughing! The look on your face says it all….classic! Thanks!

Comment by Rbrong — October 12, 2011 @ 8:10 am
Must say that I expected the direct off-camera flash to be much harder.
Guess you balanced the flash with the ambient so the shadows are not as hard…

Erwin

Comment by Erwin Beckers — October 12, 2011 @ 9:09 am
Neil;

Again, a beautiful shot Neil. I am amazed at the lack of shadows with the use of the softbox. Great loop lighting on her face.

Comment by Kirk — November 1, 2011 @ 6:26 am
Regarding the comments about the light on her being more flattering than you’d expect from direct flash, it is a combination of posing her towards the light in such a way that there are no weird shadows. Also, I think that keeping the softbox box on the light-stick, might very well have made the light source a bit larger (and hence softer) than actual direct unmodified flash.

And then keep in mind that I did do some post-processing on the photo.

Even though, these examples show how there is a difference between diffused flash (with a softbox), and undiffused flash.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — November 1, 2011 @ 11:44 am
Hi, How about using a reflector and bouncing the ON-camera flash off of it?, instead of using a soft-box.

Comment by Howard — November 1, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
Howard, that works very well when you’re using flash in low-light scenarios. With brighter light, you need to get much more flash on your subject, and then bouncing into a reflector doesn’t give enough light.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — November 18, 2011 @ 11:50 am