Creating Warm Portrait Light with the OctoDome3

We brought into the studio a local model with fair skin and blond hair to help us to illustrate the unique features of the OctoDome³. Her skin tone and hair color will make more apparent the changes we make to the configuration of the soft box.

The OctoDome³ is really three soft boxes in one. When we apply the included color panels, we can change how the soft box performs on the subject at hand. For instance, we can set up the OctoDome without the interior panels and get the “normal” output from the white interior without any modification to the color of the subject.

If we want to warm our subject, we can simply add the gold panels to the OctoDome and change the output to a rich, warm tone.

If we want to increase the contrast of our light on our subject, we simply flip over the reversible color panels to the silver side. This is a great way to increase the contrast levels for black and white photograpy.


Using the White Interior

We connected a studio flash head to a Photoflex 3' OctoDome³ soft box, attached it to a Photoflex 2218 LiteStand, and positioned it to camera right close to our subject, pointing slightly downward. The Photoflex OctoDome is a great portrait light because it produces an even, diffused light that is as wide as it is tall and has a much narrower profile than a traditional soft box. This design also allows you to shoot more freely in limited spaces.

The first shot was taken without the color inserts installed in the OctoDome³ soft box. The white lining of the OctoDome will reflect the strobe light source without any color modifications (figure 1).

Note: Figure 1 is shown to represent the white lining of the OctoDome³. All of our model shots were taken with the inner baffle and diffusion face installed on the soft box.

To control the lighting ratio in this shot, we set up a Photoflex LiteDisc holder and attached a 32” soft gold / white LiteDisc with the white side as our fill (figures 2 and 3).

Since we were using flash for this lesson, we set the White Balance in the camera to daylight (5500 degrees Kelvin) to match the color temperature of the flash. We set the resolution to TIFF for the best image quality, set the ISO to 100 (the lowest setting), and set the exposure controls to Manual.

With the camera ready, we posed our model and shot the first result image (figure 4).

In figure 4, notice the clean wrapping effects of just this one light source. The Photoflex OctoDome3 has diffused the light from the flash head and has rendered a soft, natural-looking effect similar to a window light.

Using the Gold Inserts

To create a warming effect to our image we added the gold/silver reversible panels that are include with every OctoDome³ to the soft box. We installed the panels with the gold side exposed.

To do this, first remove the diffusion face and the inner baffle from the soft box. Find the Velcro® outlines sewn into the interior of the OctoDome. Each panel will span two of the eight sections of the OctoDome (figure 5).

Line up the corner of the panel with the corner of the Velcro strip and apply the panel to the strips on all four sides of the panel (figure 6).

There is a slit cut into the center of the colored panel for the Velcro tab that the interior baffle attaches to. With your finger, pull the tab through the slit (figure 7).

Repeat this action for the remaining three panels to completely fill in the OctoDome with the gold panels.

There is also a colored panel for the cowl cover, remove the cover from the soft box and attach the colored panel and replace it back on the OctoDome (figures 8 and 9).

Figure 10 shows all of the gold inserts installed.

Now re-install the inner baffle and the diffusion face to the OctoDome³ and place it back on the set in the same place.

With the gold panels in place, we were ready to pose the model and shoot our next set of result images (figure 11).

In figure 11 and 12 we can compare the two results so far, we can clearly see the warm light the gold panels add in figure 13.

To add more punch to the shot we repeated the steps in figures 5-9 and flipped the panels over to the silver side (figure 14).

We re-installed the inner baffle and diffusion face.

Once we had made the change we set the light back into position, posed the model and shot the next image (figure 15).

In figures 16 and 17, we compare the first result with the white interior with the silver interior. We can see the added contrast in the overall shot, but it’s most apparent in the shadows. We see more shadow detail in the first result (figure 16) and more punch to the highlights and less detail in the shadows in our results with the silver panels installed (figure 17).

If we were to convert this shot to a black and white image, the last shot we made would convert the best due to the increase in the overall contrast of the shot.

Figure 18 shows the results of each of the three available interiors of the OctoDome³. (Click on any photo to see a larger view.)

Now you can see why we feel the OctoDome³ is really three soft boxes in one. With this one light we have all the controls of three different light modifiers for a lot less money.