I've used a variety of lights in the 28 years of my professional photography life and I have to say that this is the most concise, informative video I've seen ever. Kudos!
Just a tip: I see many people get the center mount wrong. Maybe it's put wrongly from the factory, but it's nothing to correct it. You have to unscrew the 3 philips screws and the hand-screw, reverse the middle ring, and screw everything back. Now you have the hole markings visible from the back, and the hand-screw outside of the softbox, so you can loosen it and rotate the softbox as desired.
One useful setup you left out is a single strip horizontally as a hair/separation light. A small one, like a 10x24, mounted just above your backdrop and angled down towards the back of the subjects head/shoulders works great for close in portraits. Obviously it won't work for full body, but it is easy to set up. Since a lot of my legal profession headshot clients like a more traditional dark background over a crisp white one, combined with them often wearing darker(navy blue) suits, I often heed to add that separation. I've mounted one to a single lightstand AND hung a popup background from the same stand using a super clamp. Adding a key and reflector gives you an quick and easy 2 stand headshot setup.
Thanks Ed for those practical insights based on your experience. Really appreciated. I was thinking on buying big strip soft boxes but after watching your video I have a better understanding and will make a better purchase decision. I will probably go for smaller size of strip boxes. Thanks and great job!
Thank you for the videos, friendly and informative. I bought two of these strips, they do their job as the rim light(s), both on the sides and mounted up high horizontally. As the main lights I only used them to shoot ...fishing rods. The diffuser is relatively heavy so make sure guys the stand and the mount fixer can bear the load, especially if you need to mount it at an angle
Godox are great value and I like the proliferation of bowens mounts. Grids and feathering go well with striplights. But I would hate disassembling and reassembling on site every time I left the studio - some softboxes are more portable...
Thank you , Ed for great video again! Very helpful. BTW, you look like Silvester Stalone...especially in this video with the cap :) I guess you heard that before :)))))
Thanls Ed I have been watching video on photography and lighting on RU-vid for over 2 years now and you are the first person to show how to actually put together any kind of soft box and show that sometimes it can be frustrating. Thank you so much for that part of the video and the whole video was just awesome.
Many thanks Ed for your informative video. I had some difficultly assembling the strip soft box so I finally made a screen print of the video frame where it shows the rods being attached to the ring. Using this screen print I was able to mark the holes where the rods are inserted. Then I was able assemble the soft box . The assembly would have been much easier if a simple instruction leaflet showing how to assemble the soft box and the correct holes to be used in the speed ring
Great video!! I was researching for a video using speedlights with stripbox. For the problem with the uneven distribution of the light inside the stripbox, since the speedlights emit a horizontal beam, I think maybe you should have rotated the speedlight 90 degrees with respect to the stripbox, that way the light beams would coincide (parallel beams, instead of perpendicular) 👍
Alway Excellent Videos, and knowledge imparted for those like me interested in learning more about Portait Photography. I am very appreciative of Your wiork and teaching. Your teaching is exllent, and I find superior to others I have watched. I like the fact that You cover details, and explain how the light hits the background, and subject, distances from subject, Power settings, etc. Camera settings, etc. Thank You so very much. I watch many of Your Video/Teaching many times to help me absorb the info. I just bought a C stand which is scheduled to arrive tomorrow to hold a 34 inch Ez Glow Pro Softbox with a Beauty dish diffuser. I believe this will finish off My home studio. Dues to My advanced age, and mobility issues I have purchased caster wheels for My Tripos & one Light Stand. Those are excellent items that have greatly improved my comfort enjoy the Hobby I love. Mr Verosky, You're Awesome, and not enough words to Thank You, and also for your valuable time replying to a photo I ask for your comments. I pray that You, and Your loved ones are doing well, nd enjoying life to its fullest.
I have had a set of these boxes for years, wish someone told me in the beginning what holes to use on the Bowens mount: use holes marked 2 and 3 on the opposing sides, soooo much easier to set up and teardown.
Hi, Talking about disassembling the softbox in order to take it on location then assemble it again, I use the Rotalux range by Elinchrom and my strip box becomes like a folded umbrella (sort of) in less than three minutes. And when I'm there, after two or three more minutes, the soft box is ready to go again. Elinchrom might be more expensive, of course.
I'm not sure how I got these assembled in the first place, but I cannot for the life of me disassemble them. All i do is rip the cover. Any suggestions? thank you!
The ease of portability is a moot point now as Glow and many other companies have strip boxes that take a minute or two (or less) tops to set up and most take seconds to break down . Rod assembly modifiers be damned lol. Great vid.
Me again..the aging sex symbol! I use the strip lights when working mostly with dancers...I love this look. I havent used it for portraits but might give it a try. I like my strip lights that go with my Paul Buff Einsteins...the best part is they open like an umbrella..no fooling around with those damn spokes..they seem to be well made....rarely take them on location tho they break down well....too much gear...thanks again for helping me to get back on track!
Approx 8:30min using a speedlight really isnt using the stipbox to it's film potential. You can actually see the the falloff caused by the directional light even at full wide setting. On the issue of setting Up taking down I would definitely choose an umbrella type stripbox as they are much more practical.
Nice information. However, the last thing I want to do is spend a ton of time setting up and tearing down my gear. Once I saw the rods, I thought, "NOPE."
How about this! Just take the Bowens adapter out and just put the S-Mount in its place. The S-Mount actually fit inside the speed-ring. The Bowens adapter is simply not necessary. I discovered this about a year ago. The Bowens fits inside the S-Mount, but its loose and giggles around too much. The Bowens adapter just isn't needed with the S-Mount adapter.
@@edverosky I just send you a series of images of the modified Speed ring. I didn't alter the speed ring in any way. Other than discovering that the S-Type speedlite adapter fitting inside the 6 inch diameter of the empty speedring.
Hey Ed, great tutorial! I’m just getting into lighting and experimenting with different modifiers. What size are the strip boxes you use in this video? I was leaning towards 12” x 47” for my small home studio
Old post but I'll take a stab at the answer. 1) 400 ISO is not high at all especially with modern cameras. 2) 400 ISO is to compensate for having a higher shutter of 1/250s. Even though he's using a mannequin here, 1/250s is typically used for modeling shoots where the model is moving about with hair flowing. He might be able to shoot at full power on the flash but that increases recharge time and with high speed sync (HSS), he might not be able to use full power with the Godox TT865.
nice tuto. you said that you don't use these for rim light on location, what i can understand due to the heavy job to assemble it compared to rapidbox and ez glow strip box. But in that case how would you use your octabox... for rim light on location, quick setup ?
As long as I can transport it easily, I think anything is ok. And actually, I tend to use bare flash for rim and accent lighting if I can get away with it.
thank you. I try to use magbox and soft diffuser as much as possible with two ad200pro. for rim light, i am investigating rogue flashbender xl pro V3 silver with grid... any experience on these ? Linday adler shows two boudoir photo with these in their rogue tutos. also maggrid+magspher on godox V1 ? by the way, how do you reach such strong modeling lighting with the godox speedlight ? modeling light only ? i have a V1 and V860Ii and not sure i can reach this power
Like the video; however, I think 3 minutes is a bit excessive to devote to the construction of a 4 rod strip box. I have two of the same unite and can attest that it is fairly self explanatory.
I bought one, three or four years ago, just to try it out and to see if it would add anything to my shots. I used it a lot in the first couple of weeks but only a few times sense. Great tutorial and thanks for all of the information. As a result of this video I'll take my one out and experiment a bit more with it.
For corporate headshots it can be very useful. Probably wouldn't bring one as huge as you were using. But I like to use a 3 light setup with reflector. Octo Softbox key light, a grid light to light the hair and a small portion of the neck and a smaller light like the v860ii flash with magmod sphere aimed at the background for a little gradient In the background.
Thank you so much for this video. I have a love hate relationship with my strip light. If a client moves, it will cause these funky shadows. I love how you demonstrated where to place the light to achieve different effects.
Thanks, Ed! While I have enough lights for the portraiture I do, I was considering a strip light soft box. I think I'll pass basically because it's big and I have a 47" round soft box to deal with already.
Hey, Ed, assembling a strip light wasn’t hard but breaking it down was a big pain. I had to bend two rods on the same end from their corners inward to get enough slack in the soft box so I could extract them end from their corners. Doing that still required a strong grip on the corners to pull them free. Pulling the rods out from the mount was not possible; they’re stuck in there when the box is assembled. Breaking down the strip light was such a hassle I don’t see myself getting much use out of it unless I set it up and leave it that way. BTW, your videos are excellent.
Just saw this great video, Ed! Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I subscribed a while ago to your excellent channel. Quick question for you, is your TT685 Speed light set to the widest setting with the window pulled out when using it in a strip box? If not what setting should be used? I have a Glow 12x36 strip box on order. Thank you in advance, Ed.
Good question! I think I normally have it at between 50 and 24. I would do some tests to see if you notice any difference in light spread (more even) with wider settings. Let me know your results.
@@edverosky Just a follow up on this, there was not much difference between 50 and 24, but there was a slight difference in spread from 14-50. I guess I will just experiment depending on the situation. I am also going to use my 12x36 strip box for my lower light for a clamshell shoot with a 26" Beauty dish for the top light Do you have any recommendations on this process that you could share? Best Regards and Thank you, Ed!
Hi Ed, I don't use those those long (strip) boxes but I always wonder if there would be a difference in light fall if you mount your speedlight horizontal or vertical because .. ...... a speedlight often can be set to the lens width. In this case you would put it to wide (often 24mm) to spread the light ( like you explaining around 8:40 ). So to spread the light with small light source (speedlight) it could be beneficial to mount it vertical . Could you try ?? Best wishes for 2020 for you and your family, and thanks for sharing again !
At 6:14 you say you are using two TT685's but I see constant light coming from the stripboxes. I have the TT685 and didn't know that was possible or do you have another light in there?
Normally I’d shoot at ISO 100, f/4 or wider. But for demo purposes I stopped down to make sure the hair and BG showed up pretty clearly. The smaller flashes might’ve had to go to full, but I had plenty of room on the AD400 either way. Great question!
