# Why Soft Box Diffusers?



## SteveGP (Nov 16, 2016)

In doing portrait and fashion photography in my home studio I'm wanting to get more natural poses by letting the model move around a bit while I shoot.  I'm just now doing some testing without a model. In order for that to work, I think I need to speed the shutter speed up to at least 1/500 sec.  Does that shutter speed sound about right? I also want a fairly fast recycle time on what I have for light sources now (speedlites).

Now, I've had diffusers on my softboxes (one key and another fill) in the past. But since I'm looking for a bit more light so I can reduce the speedlite power and thus decrease the cycle time, I've taken the diffusers off. That seems to work and I can get about a 1 second recycle time on the speed lights at 1/2 power.  That got me wondering what advantages the diffusers offer when the softbox itself is a pretty large light source to begin with.  I figure the diffusers spill some light on the walls and ceiling to soften things a bit more but that might also cause some problems with color contamination from the walls, floor, and ceiling.  Also, I could probably get that same effect with another speedlite set up at low power with a diffuser pointed at that ceiling.

Am I missing some other important advantage for having them on?


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## tirediron (Nov 16, 2016)

I think you're mixing your metaphors...  A softbox IS a diffuser. Do you mean the actual flash head?  If so, that is considered a very small light source and produces harsh, contrasty light.  Diffusers (softboxes, umbrellas, panels, etc) both reduce the harshness of the light and increase the relative size of the light source, producing a gentler look and more 'wrap'. 

1/500 of a second is likely above the sync speed of your camera, so you will need flashes capable of HSS to make it work.


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## SteveGP (Nov 16, 2016)

tirediron said:


> I think you're mixing your metaphors...  A softbox IS a diffuser. Do you mean the actual flash head?  If so, that is considered a very small light source and produces harsh, contrasty light.  Diffusers (softboxes, umbrellas, panels, etc) both reduce the harshness of the light and increase the relative size of the light source, producing a gentler look and more 'wrap'.
> 
> 1/500 of a second is likely above the sync speed of your camera, so you will need flashes capable of HSS to make it work.



Right.  I guess I am being imprecise.  What I'm talking about is the white fabric material that can be put on the front of the softbox (in my case I have a rectangular and a hexagonal softbox). I also have grids that I use to eliminate spill if I want.

And yes, my speedlites do have HSS.


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