Can someone recommend me a nice softbox for the nikon sb 800?
I'm looking at portable lighting solutions which produce soft diffused light, mainly for portrait shots.
Thinking about the pros and cons between a flash based system and a portable outdoor strobe. Strobe + Softbox would be lovely but the weight and bulkiness really makes it not so portable as a SB800 + Flash.
This is what I use, off camera of course ... easy to work with CLS without cables or pocket wizards on the D200 ..either hold it with my left hand or on a stand ... big help on location for fill
butchM wrote:
This is what I use, off camera of course ... easy to work with CLS without cables or pocket wizards on the D200 ..either hold it with my left hand or on a stand ... big help on location for fill
This is looking good. Saw it at the shop today. Roughly 117 USD. Is this a fair price?
Btw, the sales person said that iTTL cannot be used with softboxes. How true is this? I would think it's just a matter of exposure compensation?
Btw butch, do you have any photo samples of the photoflex softbox in action? Would love to see what kind of effect it produces... I shoot mainly portraits, just want to see the kind of range / diffusion the sb800 and the photoflex would produce...
The link is to a web gallery sample ... flash with softbox is on a light stand camera left about 2 feet drom the the subject. Very overcast this day and went with the flash as my main so to speak. As far as softbox effect is is not typical wrap around effect becaucse of it's size, but I like the spread and control versus other types of modifiers and it is much less prone to wind problems than an umbrella.
It will work with CLS as long as the flash sensor can pick up the D200 on-camera flash signal ... this often forces you to set up the SB-800 to camera left and in front of the camera, as it's sensor is on the right side of the flash ... it does work ... you can use it camera right, however it means flipping the flash and softbox upside down so the sensor can pick up the signal ... this is a little tricky on a light stand ... but not if you have an assistant.
Comment about the flash being on the left - since the head swivels completely around, you can simply turn the flash so the sensor faces your commander - I'm pretty sure the commander (SB-800/SU-800) is what meters and controls the light, so the slave doesn't have to be "facing" the subject/umbrella. At least, it works that way for me!
Unfortunately, this is not an umbrella, it is a softbox. With an umbrella your options are a little easier. Because the softbox itself is so close to the flash body, the sensor has a narrow window of visibility. Reversing the flash on the bracket is a little more involved than simply rotating the flash head. It is MUCH easier to just rotate the entire combination ... fortunately the flash does not care if it is upside down.
True, the sensor on the flash does not do any of the flash metering, but it does recieve the signal when to fire. When ouside in fair light, if the flash sensor is too far off axis from my onboard flash on the D200 (set to commander mode) it can fail to trigger the SB-800. Indoors, the sensor seems to pick up easier, probably because of reflections off walls, etc.
I've got the Photoflex LightDome XS as well, and it's a very convenient little softbox. I like that it packs down tiny, so I always throw it into my light kit whether or not I'm planning to use it. It also can be used on a standard speedring (as opposed to the plastic one it comes with) so I can stick it on my Profoto heads as easily as my Speedlights. One thing, though: it really is small, so you lose the optimal characteristics of it once you place it more than a few feet from your subject. It makes a perfect keylight for portraits with some shadow modeling and contrast but don't plan on lighting multiple people or a wider area with it. If you're leaning that way, bump up to the small or medium LightDome size - not quite as convenient or cheap but much more versatile.
You can use pretty much any remote trigger with with an SB-800 (you'll just need a cable that ends in PC sync) but you'll lose TTL functionality...basically turning your Speedlight into a small battery-powered studio strobe. If you want to keep working with TTL you're going to want to find a way to keep CLS working or use a long TTL cable.
morris softbox from bh - i think around ~60
that includes a nice softbox, WITH SPEEDRING, all the hardware you need to put your shoe mount flash on, and a case.
