©Ab Sesay

Softboxes are great. They are easy to work with, they are easy to bring along to on-location shoot, and, last but not least, they are versatile. Fredrik Franzén and photographer Ab Sesay have together produced eight articles that highlights the latter. This is the first one.

The softbox is one of the most popular tools for light shaping. Most of us use it to create a soft, even and flattering light, but what we often forget is that the softbox is a versatile tool that can also be used to create a harder light with sharper shadows. This article will take a closer look at its properties.

All images in this article were lit with just one softbox: the Profoto RFi 3′Octa, standing in exactly the same place at exactly the same angle. But as you can see, the images are quite different. So how did we do that? (more…)

©Andrea Belluso

Andrea Belluso is an experienced photographer with more than three decades in the business. Over the years, Andrea has shot everything and everyone from supermodels and celebrities to fashion and beauty and stock photography. In addition, Andrea works as a light shaper evangelist at the Profoto headquarters in Stockholm. Once a month, starting today, Andrea will share one of his recently used setups. First up is his beauty portrait setup.

SETUP: The Beauty Portrait Setup.

PERFECT WHEN: You want a light that brings out the beauty rather than the character.

BUT ALSO WHENEVER: You want a soft light with depth and contrast.

THE ASSIGNMENT: When I was asked to shoot a fashion/beauty story featuring furs, I immediately thought of softboxes. My idea was to utilize the soft, even light to bring out the softness of the fur, so to speak. The fact that the client wanted something clean, young and fresh strengthened me in this conviction. As Profoto had just released the RFi softboxes, I figured this was as good a time as any to try them out. For the record, I am a big fan of softboxes. I love the soft shadows they create and how you can almost make shadows disappear with certain softboxes. The only thing I sometimes miss when using a softbox is a bit more depth and contrast, but I was hoping that the deeper shape of the new RFi softboxes would solve that issue. (more…)

The Phoblographer is back with another RFi softbox review, this time of the rectangular Softbox RFi 3×4′ and the Softbox RFi 3′ Octa.

Reviewer Abram Goglanian assembles the two light modifiers, mounts them on his D1 Air Kit, and then takes several different test images using still life setups of cameras, lenses, and a nice cold glass of beer.

He particularly enjoyed working with the softgrids and was “impressed with how much light [it] can cut,” which allowed him to move from f/8 to f/2.8 “without even moving the light.”

He concludes, “I came away from this test wishing I had more time to spend with the gear, as I quite enjoyed working with the whole setup. Profoto has really created a great set of light modifiers to go with their already impressive lighting kits.”

Read the full review and see the images on The Phoblographer.

All images and quotes in this post are used with permission and ©The Phoblographer, all rights reserved; story is ©Profoto. Please respect and support photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or repost elsewhere without written permission.

Some of you might recall the interview we did in in early November with Swedish photographer Tobias Björkgren, who was one of the first to do a real life shoot with the new Profoto RFi softboxes.

(In case you don’t, the interview is still available here.)

Last week, Tobias published a behind-the-scenes video from that very shoot, and even though you might have already seen the images, we thought the video was too good not to share.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

thephoblographer.com

Abram Goglanian of The Phoblographer got his hands on some of our newest softboxes and has written up and a nice review on their ergonomics, build quality, and ease of use.

For the review, Abram assembles the 3×4 Softbox and 3’ Octa, mounts them on RFi Speedrings, inserts Softgrids, and gets them ready to shoot on his D1 Airs.

One quick quote? “Everything screams high quality to me.”

Read the full review on The Phoblographer. See some of Abram’s work on his site. (more…)