Understanding How Soft Boxes Work: Part

This lesson is a continuation of the basic lighting lesson on this site entitled, "Understanding How Soft Boxes Work: Part I", and compares the results of a few different scenarios in photographing this highly reflective pool ball to illustrate how to best control and modify your lighting.

Topics Covered:

  • The perils of built-in flash lighting
  • Lighting with a desk lamp
  • How soft boxes work and why they were developed
  • The closer the light source, the larger it becomes
  • How to create double diffusion

Lighting Equipment

  • Photoflex Boom
  • Photoflex LitePanel 39x39" Aluminum Frame
  • Photoflex LitePanel 39x39" Fabric Translucent
  • Photoflex LitePanel Accessories
  • Photoflex Litestand 2322
  • Photoflex Starlite Kit Medium
  • house hold lamp

Set / Background

  • 2 Folding sawhorses
  • 30 X 40 inch black foamcore

The Perils of Built-in Flash Lighting
First, we created a shooting surface by setting up two sawhorses in the corner of a small room and placed a 30x40" sheet of black foam core on top of them. We then mounted a typical point-and-shoot digital camera to a tripod, secured a pool ball to the foam core using some "ghee" (50/50 mixture of kneaded eraser and modeling clay) and framed up a horizontal shot (figures 1 and 2).


Figure 1


Figure 2

To demonstrate how most people would go about shooting an object like this, we set the camera to the Program (fully automatic) mode, activated the built-in flash and took a shot (figures 3 and 4).


Figure 3


Figure 4

The result is even worse than we expected it would be! Because the light from the flash is so small and projected straight from the camera, it does a terrible job of rendering the shape of the ball. And in fact the contrast is so stark with this lighting that the black areas of the ball are indistinguishable from the black background. The image looks more like a floating white dot with the number 8 in the middle than it does a pool ball.

Lighting with a Desk Lamp
For the next set-up, we replaced the point-and-shoot camera with a digital SLR camera and framed up the same shot. We then decided to use an ordinary desk lamp to illuminate the ball, but instead of lighting it from the front like a built-in flash, we decided to place it off to the side so that the side lighting would do a better job at revealing the shape of the ball.
We set the aperture to f/5.6 for a somewhat limited depth of field (to have the background go a little soft), set the shutter speed to 1/6th of a second, focused and took a shot (figures 5 and 6).


Figure 5


Figure 6

As you can see from the result, the improvement is fairly substantial. By simply placing the light off to the side, you can't help but improve the dimensional quality of the shot.
But since the light is still a relatively small light source (although significantly larger than the built-in flash), we do have an excessive amount of contrast to the shot. This will happen every time with reflective objects. Notice the overblown reflection of the lamp in the ball and the way the light falls off dramatically into shadow.

How Soft Boxes Work and Why They Were Developed
Soft boxes were invented to overcome the excessive contrast and harsh shadows created by "hard lights". By attaching what is in effect a large tent with diffusion fabric to their lights, photographers are now able to transform their "hard lights" (similar to the light quality of the sun) into "soft lights" (similar to the light quality of a cloudy day).
In the diagrams below, you can see how a soft box creates soft, diffused light similar to that of outdoor overcast lighting conditions (figures 7 and 8).


Figure 7


Figure 8

To create this diffused lighting, we removed the desk lamp, set up a Photoflex Medium Starlite Kit and attached it to a Photoflex Boom and Boom Stand. Instead of placing it off to the side like we did with the desk lamp, we decided to place it about 2 feet overhead to create balanced lighting on either side of the ball.
We kept the same the aperture setting of to f/5.6, but increased the shutter speed to 1/60th of a second to compensate for the increase in light output. We also created another CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE setting to match the color temperature of the Starlite Kit (3200 K), focused and took another shot (figures 9, 10 and 11).


Figure 9


Figure 10


Figure 11

Notice the dramatic difference the soft box has made. The ball has a broad, even reflection along the top and the shadow on the background is soft and unobtrusive. This one light alone has made a world of difference in rendering this highly reflective object.

Now let's look at the differences between these three different styles of lighting (figure 12).


Figure 12


As you can see from these results, the soft box creates the more natural looking result. Keep in mind too that these lighting principles apply to people as well as objects.

The Closer the Light Source, the Larger It Becomes
As we've mentioned before in other lighting lessons, we continually encounter people who think that if they move their soft box back, it will make the light softer and more even. But in fact what really happens is that the light becomes smaller and therefore higher in contrast, defeating the whole purpose of a soft box.
With a soft box, the closer you place it to your subject, the softer the light will be. To illustrate, we lowered the soft box as close as we could to the pool ball without it entering the frame (about 6 inches), increased the shutter speed to 1/80th of a second to compensate for the increase in light levels, and took another shot (figures 13, 14 and 15).


Figure 13


Figure 14

By simply moving the light in closer to the ball, we have created a dramatic difference. The shadow on the background has become even lighter and softer than before and the reflection in the ball, while being about four times larger, is sharp and crisp.
Many people would be happy with this as their final result, but let's say you wanted to modify the reflection so that it was a) even larger than it is now, b) softer along the edges so as not to draw attention to its shape, and c) had more of a gradation to create a better sense of dimension.
Sound like a tall order? In fact, it's really not. All you need to do is to apply a simple lighting technique that photographers call "double diffusion".


Figure 15

How to Create Double Diffusion
Even though a soft box creates soft, diffused light, there is still a distinct separation between the white diffusion face and the black outside edges that show up in reflective objects. So, the only way to soften these edges is to place another layer of diffusion between the crisp-edged soft box and the ball. That is where the Photoflex LitePanel comes in.
Our next step was to raise up the soft box up to about 2 feet again and place a Translucent 39x72" LitePanel just above the pool ball (about 6 inches). To secure the LitePanel in place, we placed 2 LiteStands on either side of the sawhorses and used Main & T Clamps to hold the LitePanel in place (about 18 inches below the soft box).
We slowed the shutter speed to 1/30th of a second to compensate for exposure and took another shot (figures 16 and 17).


Figure 16


Figure 17

The result shows that the reflection is now somewhat larger, has a subtle gradation, and that the edges are a little softer. However, after looking a little closer at the right side of the reflection, we realized that the LitePanel was now creating the sharp edge we were trying to eliminate with the soft box. This is because the soft box overhead was illuminating the entire LitePanel, making the edges distinct again.
To soften the edges, we simply lowered the soft box until we could see falloff at the edges of the LitePanel. This falloff would then be reflected in the pool ball, making for soft edges. Without making any changes to the camera, we took a final shot (figures 18 and 19).


Figure 18


Figure 19

Now the result is exactly where we wanted it to be. The edges of the reflection are much more subtle, the reflection overall is significantly larger and more gradual in tone, and the shadow on the background even softer and more diffused than in any of the other shots.
Now let's look at the results side by side (figure 20).


Figure 20


As you can see from these results, lighting tools and techniques play a crucial role in how your products (and portraits) will turn out.
And remember, by experimenting with your lighting setups often, you will become more familiar with how light works and hence become more confident in how you approach your subject matter.


Lighting Equipment

  • Photoflex Boom
  • Photoflex LitePanel 39x39" Aluminum Frame
  • Photoflex LitePanel 39x39" Fabric Translucent
  • Photoflex LitePanel Accessories
  • Photoflex Litestand 2322
  • Photoflex Starlite Kit Medium
  • house hold lamp

Continue reading here: Photographing jewelry

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