On flash Diffuser recommendations? (using SB-800)

[RMThompson]

Hey all I am doing a job that is going to require some flash, for product photography, in a tight hospital setting. Because of this I was thinking it would be nice to use an actual diffuser on my SB-800 to soften things up. (It's on camera).

Anyway here are some I saw on Amazon, although I would like to keep the price to under 40 dollars:

Super cheap:

Amazon.com: Opteka SB-1 Mini Universal Studio Soft Box Flash Diffuser for Canon EOS, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sony, Sigma, & Other External Flash Units: Electronics

More expensive:

Amazon.com: ePhoto Photography Studio Strobie softbox off camera 20 " Portable Flash Softbox flash Mount softbox for Nikon Canon Speedlight SB800, SB600, EX430 Ex580 and other brands by ePhoto INC 20sb1009: Electronics

 

[Overread]

Well at its most simple the larger the area of the source of lighting the softer the overall light will be - so of the two the latter diffuser will give you the softer lighting if you have the space to work with it that would be the one I would go for out of the two.

Also remember you can change the angle of your flash head and bounce the light around and hospitals tend to have nice white walls and stuff so I would also give that a try when you get there.

 

[Derrel]

The 20x20 inch softbox has a 400 square inch diffusion area

The Opteka mini-box is 3.5x5 inches, and so it's got 17.5 square inches of diffusion area.

The softbox is 22.8 times larger in area than the mini-box. The 20x20 softbox will give much better light at 4,5,6,7,8,10 feet than the mini-box will.