Outdoor photography (on camera softbox or diffuser)

rdbaibo · Apr 24, 2014

Hi, im so happy to join this forum. Im an amateur photographer and I'm specializing in kids and family photography. Most of my photo sessions are outdoors in parks or seaside. I like shooting without flash in sunlight,but sometimes you have to use the flash to give some additional taste to the photos.Nevertheless,the on camera speed light is sometimes harsh and very strong.I want to get a softbox for it or a diffuser, do u recommend that? and which is better a softbox or a diffuser for the on camera speed light? another question, is the use of speedlight in sunshine always an addition? or sometimes it is totally not needed? or it goes back to the photographer's taste? I think there's no right and wrong in photography!!! waiting your replies...thank you

Big Mike · Apr 24, 2014

Welcome to the forum.

I very often like to use flash when shooting outdoors. Outdoor light, especially direct sunlight, can be very hard and bright, which means that the shadows will have hard edges and can be pretty dark in comparison. I use the flash to add some light to those shadow areas. Also, when using flash outdoors, I can control the exposure of the background (ambient) and the exposure of the subject (flash) separately, which gives you several different options for how the photo will look.

Nevertheless,the on camera speed light is sometimes harsh and very strong.

That is likely because you are not getting a good balance between your ambient exposure and your flash exposure.

I want to get a softbox for it or a diffuser, do u recommend that? and which is better a softbox or a diffuser for the on camera speed light?

First, you should understand what those thing do, then make a decision if you need them.

A softbox softens the light. To soften a light source, you need to make it larger, relative to the subject. You can do this by making it physically larger and/or moving it closer to the subject. When you are using an on-camera flash, you can't really move it closer (without also moving yourself closer, which you may not want to do), but you can make it larger by adding a softbox. But you can only go so big with an on-camera softbox before it gets too big to use. And so you end up with a rather small softbox, which probably won't soften the light all that much.

Next, consider what happens when you soften the light. Mainly, the edges of the shadows caused by that light, get softer or more blurred. But if your flash is mounted on the camera, will the camera see any of the shadows caused by that flash? No, it probably won't.
Also, consider that a softbox will spread out the light and even absorb some of it. This means it's robbing some of the power (light) from your flash, and in many outdoor situations, you need all the power you can get.

So with those factors, I'd suggest that an on-camera softbox would be pretty useless outdoors, unless you are very close to your subjects (within a few feet).

Next, lets look at a flash diffuser (something like the Sto-fen Omnibounce). This is a plastic cap that goes over the flash. It diffuses the light, but it doesn't really soften it, because it doesn't move the light closer or make it significantly larger. What it does do, is spread the light out in multiple directions. If you are outdoors, most of those directions won't be helpful to you at all. Unless you are close to a surface that will reflect the light (like a wall), most of the light is wasted. The only light that is helpful in that situation is the light that goes directly from the flash to the subject...all the rest is wasted. So besides wasting money on the diffuser, you would be wasting light, which means longer recycle times and batteries that die faster.

So I absolutely don't recommend a diffuser cap for shooting flash outdoors. The only time those are useful at all, is when you are in a somewhat confined space and there are surfaces like walls or ceilings to bounce that light off of.

By the way, the best/easiest way to improve the light from your camera mounted flash is to turn the flash and bounce it off of a larger surface. Indoors (or outdoors by a wall) this can be pretty easy, but outdoors away from buildings, it gets to be harder. The tool that we would often use is a hand held reflector. Impact 5-in-1 Collapsible Oval Reflector - 42x72" CRK-4272
Of course, you can't really hold one of those and shoot at the same time, so you would need an assistant to hold it.

So because it rather hard to bounce a flash outdoors, we often end up shooting directly at the subjects. This can make for 'hard' light, but because you probably don't see the shadows (they would be behind the subject), it usually doesn't matter much that the light is hard. The important factor is that you can independently control the exposure of the ambient light and the exposure from the flash.

The next step, would be to move the flash off-camera and trigger it with a remote. This would allow you to get a directional quality to the light. And because you can now see the shadows, it becomes more important to soften the light by enlarging the size of the light source (softbox or large diffusion panel).

I think there's no right and wrong in photography

I agree. You can pretty much do it however you want. But you have to kind of know what you are doing, if you want to consistently get the results that you want to see.

There is A LOT to learn with flash photography, so keep at it.