{"id":3725,"date":"2010-06-23T17:54:27","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T21:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=3725"},"modified":"2017-08-12T13:30:11","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T17:30:11","slug":"off-camera-flash-positioning-the-softbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/off-camera-flash-positioning-the-softbox\/","title":{"rendered":"off-camera flash photography: positioning the softbox"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/christine-david\/Christine-David-e161-edit-900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"599\" \/><\/p>\n<h1>off-camera flash photography: positioning the softbox<\/h1>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had a number of people ask for more pull-back shots during photo sessions where I use off-camera flash with a softbox. \u00a0During this recent <a href=\"http:\/\/oneperfectmoment.com\/newyork-photo-session-nyc\/\">photo session in New York<\/a>, with Christina and David, I did step back for a photo to include the softbox &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/christine-david\/Christine-David-e160-900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"599\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The placement of a softbox is <strong>generally<\/strong> around 45 to 60 degrees from the camera;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>at a height where the light is about 30 degrees above your subject&#8217;s head;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>and keeping in mind the &#8216;cone of light&#8217; coming from the softbox, and that you have it hit your subject&#8217;s head &amp; shoulders. \u00a0In other words, you need to aim the softbox at their upper body and head .. and specifically with that &#8216;sweet spot&#8217; of the light coming from the softbox, having to point at their heads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This way you get enough light in their eyes, at an angle that makes sense with the light coming from higher than their view.<\/p>\n<p>The specific softbox was once again the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/lastolite-ezybox\/\">Lastolite Ezybox softbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A softbox is a forgiving lightsource, so you have a fair amount of play in the angle, and it will still work. \u00a0The larger your light-source the more forgiving it is in how you place it. \u00a0However, if you use direct off-camera speedlights without some diffusion, then you have to be more precise in your placement of the flash.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the pull-back shot. \u00a0I was standing right next to the bicycle.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/christine-david\/Christine-David-e161-900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"599\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The image at the top had some editing done to it. \u00a0There was another photo session taking place in the background. \u00a0Damned photographers; you just can&#8217;t avoid them. \u00a0And then there was the motorbike in the background to camera right. \u00a0With the wide-angle perspective distortion, it looks like David is kicking a tiny motorbike around. \u00a0It looked too surreal, so I had to remove it with some use of the Clone tool and Healing tool in Photoshop.<\/p>\n<p>Back to the final image:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/christine-david\/Christine-David-e161-edit-900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"599\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In order to match the bright sunlight, I worked at maximum sync speed, and not high-speed sync. \u00a0Max flash sync speed is a sweet spot when we need to match bright sunlight, or even overpower the sun.<\/p>\n<p>I shot with wireless TTL flash, with the Master flashgun (SB-900) on my camera, aimed at the Slave flashgun mounted on the softbox. \u00a0The light was not too bright so that I wouldn&#8217;t be able to use the flash in a softbox, but was getting to the edge of what the speedlight is capable of when diffused with a softbox.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>camera settings &amp; photo gear (or equivalents) used in this photo session<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>1\/250 @ f8 @ 200 ISO .. TTL flash at\u00a0-0.3 EV<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nikon D3<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-24-70mm-f2-8g\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G AF-S<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\/ \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-24-70mm-f2-8-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\">Canon 24-70mm f\/2.8L II<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/nikon-sb-910-speedlight\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nikon SB-910 Speedlight<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\/ \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/canon-600ex-rt-speedlite\/\" target=\"_blank\">Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/recommends\/lastolite-ezybox-24x24-softbox\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lastolite EZYBOX 24\u00d724&#8243; softbox<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>related articles<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/off-camera-flash-vs-available-light\/\">off-camera flash for that extra bit of drama<\/a>\u00a0 (model: Olena)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/off-camera-flash-photography-distance-between-softbox-and-subject\/\">off-camera flash: distance between softbox and subject<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/off-camera-flash-short-lighting-and-broad-lighting\/\">off-camera flash: broad lighting &amp; short lighting<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0(model: Anelisa)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/lastolite-ezybox\/\">review: Lastolite Ezybox<\/a>\u00a0 (model: Jess B.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>off-camera flash photography: positioning the softbox I&#8217;ve had a number of people ask for more pull-back shots during photo sessions where I use off-camera flash with a softbox. \u00a0During this recent photo session in New York, with Christina and David, I did step back for a photo to include the softbox &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,22,110,31,32],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-lighting","9":"category-off-camera-flash","10":"category-photo-shoot","11":"category-photoshop","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3725"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26376,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3725\/revisions\/26376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3725"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}