Softboxes are essential lighting accessories in photography that enlarge the light source and create a softer light. By using softboxes, you can achieve natural shadow transitions, eliminate flaws, and capture higher quality and more visually appealing photos. In other words, if you want to capture high-quality images, a softbox is indispensable.
A softbox consists of the reflector cloth, diffuser cloth, wireframe, and the mount, with some including a honeycomb grid. Softboxes come in various shapes and sizes, including square/rectangular, octagonal, deep parabolic, and spherical/lantern softboxes, ranging from as small as 40cm to over 2 meters. Every shape and size of softboxes create a different lighting effect, so it's important to know about softboxes under different shooting scenarios.
Creating Depth with Rectangular Softboxes
Rectangular softboxes, also known as square/rectangular softboxes, generally come in regular or narrow rectangular softboxes. They are commonly used as fill lights and can also be used as rim lights to outline subjects. When used vertically, they complement the body light in portrait photography and provide side lighting to create depth. Horizontally, they can be used as background lights or catchlights.
NEEWER SF6090Q (60 x 90cm) and SF30120Q (30 x 120cm) rectangular quick-setup softboxes offer easy installation and portability, suitable for portrait and still-life photography, as well as video streaming. By enlarging and diffusing the light, these softboxes create even illumination, softening the texture, eliminating spots and shadows, and enhancing the skin's smoothness and translucency. The included honeycomb grid and diffuser cloth help shape the light for contouring, resulting in a more three-dimensional look.
Octagonal Softboxes: A Must-Have for Photography Studios
Deep Parabolic Softboxes: The Portraits King
The deep parabolic translucent softbox, also known as the "The Portraits King," is undoubtedly the perfect lighting tool for capturing portrait photographs. This is due to its deep design, which allows light to bounce multiple times inside the box, resulting in remarkable softness and uniformity when combined with the diffusing fabric. The light produced is concentrated, creating beautiful catchlights and adding a sense of texture to the photos. It is suitable for shooting fashion portraits that emphasize the subject's contours, ideal for portrait photography and video shooting.
Lantern-Style Softboxes to Imitate Natural Light
NEEWER NS50L, NS65L, and NS90L Lantern-Style Softboxes feature an integrated design, allowing for quick setup, highly convenient to use. With the latch installation, where you simply need to place the softbox vertically on the ground, align it with the latch, and press down to secure it. The entire process takes only 2 seconds. These softboxes are available in sizes of 50cm, 65cm, and 90cm, and they come with a skirt that allows for flexible control of light shape and direction, catering to various lighting needs in different scenarios.
Summary
In practical photography, it is often necessary to use a combination of different softbox types to create partitioned lighting and achieve the desired lighting effects, thus elevating the quality of photos and videos to a higher level.
