Why use softbox grid

Home Topics Lighting. Posted In:. Five Ways to Use a Softbox. Premium Photography Tutorials Check out the Fstoppers Store for in-depth tutorials from some of the best instructors in the business. The Fundamentals of Fashion Photography. Dunja Djudjic is a writer and photographer from Novi Sad, Serbia. You can see her work on Flickr , Behance and her Facebook page.

Alex is a commercial photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She mostly shoots people and loves anything to do with the outdoors. You can see her work on her website and follow her Spanish landscape adventures on instagram. Adam owns a production company that specializes in corporate marketing and brand strategy. His videos have collectively hit over a quarter billion views. Even with a recessed front, I find the spill from a softbox difficult to control.

With a grid there is less need for flagging. Try some experiments shooting a blank wall from a couple of distances with and without. Try some self portraits close up and at a couple of distances with and without. With a grid is it is just as soft and broad, and the wraparound effect is the same as without unless some of the spill is bouncing back from the subject or if you are using a reflector.

The light is just more directional and controlled. The light output is more effective, so you can use lower power settings. If you are using a reflector for fill, then a bare softbox is better, because you are basically reflecting spill back onto the subject.

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We looked at cameras with selfie-friendly screens, wide-angle lenses, microphone inputs and great video quality, and selected the best. Submit a News Tip! But there is something else that you could use with a softbox to accentuate the results: grids. They come in all shapes and sizes, and you are likely to find one that matches your softbox. Grids do something that is impossible to achieve with just a stand-alone softbox: they create directional lighting.

In this video, photographer Gavin Hoey shows exactly how grids can make a huge difference in your photography:. Grids stop the light from spilling out of the edges of the softbox.

To demonstrate this, Hoey turned a softbox with a grid mounted on it away from the camera. The more he turned it away, the more the grids cut the angle of the light. Yes, there are a few downsides to using grids. First, grids are not standard accessories—you might need to purchase them separately from the softbox.

Second, grids will stop some amount of light and even the slightest bit of turning the softbox will bear some effect on the exposure. This is why it is a good idea to keep checking the flash exposure after each adjustment and increase it to compensate for any loss of light. A light meter can be a very handy tool in these circumstances. Shot with the grid on.