Softbox or umbrella?

[TimB]

Hi all,

My lighting setup currently consists of 2 cheap but powerful speedlights with wireless triggers which I have been happily learning the use of for a while now, but it is now painfully obvious that for a lot of my subjects, the standard 'push on' diffusers just aren't cutting it at all.

The light is still far too harsh for lighting cars and vehicles in the darkened warehouses I shoot in, and the same goes for my portraits.

I just wondered what would be better for me, softboxes or shoot-through white umbrella?

Is there much difference between the outcome of using either of these light modifiers?

I'm erring towards umbrellas at the moment as they are extremely cheap, fold to nothing for storage/transport and seem as though they might suit my requirements, but would I be better with softboxes for the sort of things I shoot?

I'm mainly looking to get that really flat almost matt lighting look when I shoot cars. I know this is usually generated with multiple diffused speedlights, but I'm not sure on the diffusion method!

Thanks

 

[milspec78]

I saw a behind the scenes video for a lamborgini shoot recently and they used softboxes to create clean highlights and then grids/snoots for picking out details iirc. The problem with umbrellas is they tend to spill light in all directions where a softbox gives you a lot more control over the spill.

For a few quid each its worth experimenting with a couple of brolly's first i reckon! Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[photo si]

For car shoots in my studio I use a 3 metre white cloth background as a softbox. I fire two or three lights (with softboxes fitted) through the cloth. I then use additional lights with snoots to pick out anything that needs a highlight.

With just a couple of lights and a cloth you could get the same effect using multiple exposures and then blend the images in Photoshop etc.