I'm looking at buying medium and large SilverDome NXT softboxes from Photoflex. I plan on shooting Canon 580ex's through them and I can't seem to figure out which speedrings I need for each, and which flash adapters I need. I know I also need stands. After selecting the speedrings and flash adapters, is there anything else that I'm missing?

http://tinyurl.com/24odwr

I have both Med and Large Photoflex SB and 580ex flash but I don't use them together. The 580ex would have trouble even filling a large SB evenly. I think you are throwing equipment at a problem you don't completely understand yet.

If you look at B&H you can find a smaller Photoflex SB kit designed for speedlight which has a speedring with a bracket to hold the flash. You might want to start with that and get your bearings.

Chuck

cgardner wrote:
I have both Med and Large Photoflex SB and 580ex flash but I don't use them together. The 580ex would have trouble even filling a large SB evenly. I think you are throwing equipment at a problem you don't completely understand yet.

If you look at B&H you can find a smaller Photoflex SB kit designed for speedlight which has a speedring with a bracket to hold the flash. You might want to start with that and get your bearings.

Chuck

Chuck, you're probably correct. I've been focusing on just using natural light, but am very interested in getting in to "creative" lighting. I have two 580 EXII's and am interested in practicing my head and full-body portrait photography skills. Would the extra small kit be the best place to start, or would it be good to start with that and a med-sized SB? I need to do some work with main/fill ratios, but I need a place to start. Thoughts?

Dameon

There are two basic ways to create soft lighting:

Big Key Light: A big key source used close will wrap around whatever is casting the shadow. It does the job of a key light, create the highlight / shadow pattern, then also tries to do the job of fill (control the tone of the shadows). Depending on key light distance the shadows may retain a dark core in the areas the wrap doesn't reach. Supplemental fill can be added to lighten the core shadow (second light or relflector) but the shadows will still remain two-toned because the net result is the sum of the overlapping sources.

Key overlapping Neutral Fill: Here a fill light is placed over the camera where it will illuminate every nook and cranny on the front of the face the camera sees. By adjusting its power the shadows can be independently made any tone desired: light for a soft look, dark for a harder look. Because fill already has lifted the shadows as desired for the mood of the shot, the key light overlapping it doesn't have a need to wrap and do the secondary job of fill. All the key light needs to do is create contrasting highlights on the higher parts of the face. Our brains equate highlight with high and shadow with low because that's how natural light which comes from overhead illuminates the world around us most of the time.

Both are to means to the same end: soft lighting. The advantages I find in the second approach is that is allows me to dial in whatever level of softness via fill and use smaller modifiers to achieve "soft" or "hard" lighting. The advantages of the second approach are obvious to me because I learned flash using two bare unmodified flashes in the same key overlapping fill sources from a master of lighting to shoot wedding receptions where carting around umbrellas just wasn't a viable option. It is is a very practical and convenient way to do location lighting with hot shoe flash.

I use a pair of 580exs with DIY diffusers most of the time.

Thanks Chuck. Just for clarification, if you're using A:B ratios of 1:1 to 1:8, where A is your fill and B is your main, are you just making B your main because the master flash always defaults to group A and, in your situation, is acting as the fill?

What happens if you take your fill off-camera and move it to where you would typically place a reflector? If you're using a third flash on-camera as a master, do you just set it not to fire and set up a ratio between A:B:C, or if your on-camera flash is set up not to fire, do you still just use an A:B ratio?

Lastly, in the same scenario, where both main and fill are off-camera, how do you dial up the ratios if you're using something like PocketWizards, with no master flash on-camera? Do you then lose your ability to change the ratios at the camera and need to set ratios at one of the off-camera flashes? More importantly, with PocketWizards, are you even still using the terms "master" and "slave," since one flash isn't responsible for triggering the others?

I could take this a lot of different directions based on your answers, so I'll hold off for now.

Dameon

Dameon wrote:
Thanks Chuck. Just for clarification, if you're using A:B ratios of 1:1 to 1:8, where A is your fill and B is your main, are you just making B your main because the master flash always defaults to group A and, in your situation, is acting as the fill?

What happens if you take your fill off-camera and move it to where you would typically place a reflector? If you're using a third flash on-camera as a master, do you just set it not to fire and set up a ratio between A:B:C, or if your on-camera flash is set up not to fire, do you still just use an A:B ratio?

Lastly, in the same scenario, where both main and fill are off-camera, how do you dial up the ratios if you're using something like PocketWizards, with no master flash on-camera? Do you then lose your ability to change the ratios at the camera and need to set ratios at one of the off-camera flashes? More importantly, with PocketWizards, are you even still using the terms "master" and "slave," since one flash isn't responsible for triggering the others?

I could take this a lot of different directions based on your answers, so I'll hold off for now.

Dameon

I think I've answered my own questions. Great tutorial Chuck.

cgardner wrote:

There are two basic ways to create soft lighting:

...Key overlapping Neutral Fill: Here a fill light is placed over the camera where it will illuminate every nook and cranny on the front of the face the camera sees. By adjusting its power the shadows can be independently made any tone desired: light for a soft look, dark for a harder look.

But is that really "soft light"?

Soft light, to me, means the line between light and shadow is indistinct, which is very different than low contrast between light and shadow.

One can have soft, high contrast; soft, low contrast; hard, high contrast; and hard, low contrast, depending on the size/shape of the sources (softness/hardness) and the ratio of intensity between the sources (contrast).

Dameon wrote: I'm looking at buying medium and large SilverDome NXT softboxes from Photoflex. I plan on shooting Canon 580ex's through them and I can't seem to figure out which speedrings I need for each, and which flash adapters I need.

If you want to go this route (and many do), I recommend you contact this company. They can probably advise you on which speedring(s) will work with their Speedlite adapters (shown below).

Here's the link: http://www.kaceyenterprises.com/?page_id=461