Flash photography tip: Use a softbox

Thursday 4 May 2023, 16:08 by Elja Trum | 2,112 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Would you like to take a beautiful, well-lit photo without too much effort? Then you need plenty of soft light. Soft light makes everything look good. The easiest way to create this soft light is to use a softbox.

Hannen - f/5.0, 1/50s, ISO 100 @ 55mm
A softbox is essentially nothing more than a large box with white material stretched over one side, allowing the light to pass through. The larger the surface area of the white fabric, the softer the light.

For portrait photography, I prefer a softbox that is as round as possible, an octabox or even rounder. You can see the shape of your light reflected in the eyes of your subject. A round shape is more pleasant to look at than a square one.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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Elja Trum

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Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

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