Big Light is Good Light!
Like a lot of photographers out there, I’m addicted to big light! For most of the portrait work I do, the sun is just not big enough, relatively speaking. I like explaining this to students. The sun is a huge star, not the largest in the solar system, but no lightweight either. However, since it is over 90 million miles from Earth at any given time our orbit, it’s safe to say that the sun acts like a bare strobe combined with a small reflector, which doesn’t throw off the most flattering light in many cases.
Enter the softbox. Ah, yes, that wonderful enclosure of diffusion, that for many photographers starting out is the end-all-be-all of light modifiers. Most softboxes force light to pass through a number of diffuse materials that essentially take a good deal of the initial kick out of the light, and just like clouds do for sunlight, spread the light out. In essence, this creates a larger light source, characterized by softer shadows and more wrapping transitions in to those shadows. Of course, the softbox allows the photographer to more accurately “place” the light in a more focused direction than a shoot-through umbrella (not that there’s anything wrong with this modifier. My go to for a long time was a 50-inch shoot-through).
I mentioned in a post a while back that I would offer some how-to on the above author shot of Stayton Bonner, a colleague and one heckuva writer! This is another benefit of big light: just move that source in close and expose for it. The larger the light source, the more wrapping the light, and moving it in closer or further away dictates its size relative to your subject. This particular shot was made with a 48-inch rectangle softbox placed just outside the frame, camera right. Notice that nice wrap of light around Stayton’s face.
The same feel can be found in this particular photograph of a wedding couple I photographed recently. Big light is a quick, and often easy, source of illumination to go to, and in this case, it was such a source while still providing that quality look to the portrait. This was shot with an Elinchrom 39-inch Rotalux Octa softbox, a modifier that I’ve been shooting with more lately. Of course, that super modernistic, ultra trendy, silver chair they’re sitting on adds to the aesthetic as well!
If you’re looking to getting in to artificial lighting, or looking to diversify your lighting with natural light, look for those cases where a big light source can be used. I’ll post more on natural sources of big light later. However, if you are getting in to the game of strobe lighting, a softbox or large shoot-through umbrella should be something you consider having in your toolbox!
