#box60

First Attempts

Simply put, my first attempt at using the modifiers I loved the results…

The light spread was great and I really liked the diffusion Octave53 offered. Not only does it come with your usual external cloth diffuser, but there is also an opaque panel inside (much like a beauty dish) to spread and soften the light even further. And the Gamilight Box60 (also featuring an external diffuser cloth and internal plastic diffuser) offered a very nice highlight. This was unique, as most other diffusers I've used either face the flash towards the back, away from the subject, and reflect the light, or fire straight out and shoot the light through just one, single diffuser. This design appears to give more diffusion than the other commonly used speedlight softboxes. Transportation from my home to my studio simply a breeze. The origami-like "fold flat" design and included cases make that part super easy. And setting them up? Quick and painless. Once you get it down once, its super simple. However, that is also when I ran into my first snag. Inside my studio everything was pretty much stationary, so nothing was being moved around much while mounted on my flash. My studio is located in the historic Academy building in Vancouver, WA, which features amazing grounds to shoot on. So after heading outside and moving around for a bit I found the Octave53 started to fall off the flash. In fact, I was getting quite frustrated with it and ended up placing some tape on the modifier just to keep it on. After my session I broke down all my gear and brought them back home. It was then, during a quick browse through my gear, that I realized what my issue was. 

See those foam strips on my flash? Yeah, I didn’t have them on at first, so my plastic mount was just twisting around due to no grip. The foam pads come with the modifiers, I for some reason just overlooked them. They did end up being longer than the top section of my flash so I cut them to size, peeled off the tape, and BAM, no more moving around! (EDITORS NOTE: I unfortunately have to point out that this, too, is, well, wrong. Technically at least, lol. You see the plastic straps come with the foam pads already attached, but they include two additional pads for you to lay over the existing pads in case your flash is smaller than a standard size. In this case she took that pad and simply cut it in half, placing it on either side of the flash which, well, isn't a half bad idea actually! Sounds like it solved the problem anyway!)

The Session

The next day I had a senior session, so I put everything together, but this time correctly (EDITORS NOTE: <cough>)! Here are some images from that session!  

After my second session with these wonders I am wondering what to do with all my other modifiers! I simply love the light quality, the ease of setup, and the portability of them! Not much more to say, I think I’ll be checking out some more of them to see what else I can come up with. Stay tuned!