10 Different Ways You Can Use a Single Softbox

When you’re just starting out in photography, you may not have a lot of money to invest in putting together a high-end arsenal of studio lighting equipment. By being resourceful, however, you can do a lot with a little.

In the 23-minute video by the lighting brand Sekonic, photographer Tony Corbell demonstrates how you can create 10 completely different lighting scenarios in the studio for products and portraits with a single large softbox.

The main tools Corbell uses are the $180 Bowens Lumiair 80-100 Softbox and the $912 Bowens Gemini 500Pro monolight.

Here’s a little table of contents for the different styles discussed, along with some example images and lighting diagrams that are shown. Jump to each time in the video to learn about each setup:

#1: Jewelry Photography (0m28s)

jewelry

#2: Edge/Rim Light for Creating Depth (2m52s)

edge

#3: Contemporary Beauty Look (4m12s)

beauty

#4: Movie Poster Face Lighting (7m06s)

movie

#5: Main Light as a Background (8m28s)

background

#6: Light Subject and Background Together (10m26s)

subjectbackground

#7: Designing a Window with Your Softbox (12m37s)

window

#8: Bouncing the Softbox (14m49s)

bouncing

#9: Using Your Softbox as a Design Element (16m35s)

designelem

#10: Evenly Lighting a Group of People (18m34s)

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