I got together with a group of istockers in my region a little over a week ago. It was tremendous fun to work together with other photographers in a group. I’ve done some shooting with them before and made a few new friends with locals from the region. Everyone is excited to get together again. One of the shots from our group shoot has made Image of the Week on istockphoto.com this week. Congratulations to Dave Coleman.
I spun a brief demo of speedlight set ups in between the morning and afternoon sessions. We were all using monobloc lights for studio shooting, but I did demonstrate the use of a Westcott Apollo softbox that I’ve been using on my multiple speedlight shoots. The Apollo has worked out well for me. You can use it two ways to diffuse the light. 1) point the speedlight forward and 2) aim it backward to bounce off the back of the box for additional diffusion. My preference is to bounce it inside the box.
Here’s a sample shot of Kristina. LOL, she was not one of the models present for the shoot but could have easily fooled me. The hint of the vignette was added in Lightroom.
The Westcott Apollo operates similar to a brolly in that it’s a collapsible umbrella type softbox but square. It is not a rectangular shape but more square. The coverage is good though and I’ve also used it to feather the light by angling it. This is more difficult to do with a shoot through or bounce umbrella due to the scattering of the light and let’s face it, control of the light is something all photographers desire. Taking a small light source and broadening it with diffusion is much better than going at it with direct flash. It can be used as a key light or fill in tandem with other speedlights. Your choice. It’s larger than the Chimera Maxi that I wrote about earlier on this blog so the coverage is better. Since it folds up like an umbrella, a good choice for portability with a speedlight kit.
Thanks, Kristina for posing! Good luck with those speedlights. 🙂
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