Lightweight, handy and fantastic

Today, I went to the Afro district in Paris, in the 14th district of Paris. I had a client to photograph on Friday morning, and I wanted to test the Pocket Box Mini Speedlight Softbox. My impression? It’s lightweight, handy and fantastic.

The dome diffuser ? Convenient but not extraordinary.

IBack in 2008, when I started photography, I used to go to the Afro district. I was looking for a lively atmosphere and wanted to overcome my shyness in photography. I was using a speedlite flash with a dome diffuser, a translucent plastic box that you push onto the end of our flash. The dome diffuser consumes 2-3 stops of flash. For me, they create dramatic falloff. It’s convenient, but it’s not extraordinary.

The mini Softbox? Very useful!

In 2016, during a fashion shooting with the Indian designer Rahul Mishra, I met a photographer who was using a mini Softbox. I am always curious about the practice of my confreres, so I wanted to see the pictures he had taken with his Softbox. I was surprised by the results. I like experiments. One year after, I bought this cheap tool too. I went back to Rue du Château, in the 14th district of Paris. There’s a lot of Afro hairdressers. It’s a nice place for the street portraits. People all have incredible haircuts. The walls are full of colorful grafitties. In my opinion, on street photography, one of the convenient and most reliable ways to sync your flash off-camera is with the use of a simple wire. I use for example a Flash Sync Cable Cord For Canon.

I did a classic 45/45

I did a classic 45/45 (45 degrees up and 45 degrees over) portrait. I’ll find lighting a person in profile is somehow more efficient. I brought my light with the mini Softbox around to camera left for a moody profile shot. If I have changed my distance, I’ll have to readjust myflash power to get a proper exposure. and you have to drop your flash exposure anyway. And I’ve done about 20 portraits that you can observe. For this time, I preferred black and white. The effect is interesting.

Well… The mini Softbox does a good job of diffusing the light for its size.

I was looking for an easy to use mini softbox for easy portraits and also using it as a key light when shooting with another flash for bounce. This box is well made and does a good job of diffusing the light for its size. There are many other models as effective as this one. Go to ebay or amazon and you will find good light boxes very cheap which will help you can make good portraits.

Photo: Serge Bouvet

Serge BOUVET

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