Tuesday, December 15, 2009

FourSquare™ Double Bounce Softness

During the recent San Diego, Nikonian's workshop, I demonstrated a wonderful feature of the popular FourSquare™. The hub of the system is the Square block that the 4 flashes attach to. One of the features of this block is that it has two umbrella shift holes to hold two umbrellas. Why two? Super Soft Light!


In the set-up shown above, I have one strobe on the FourSquare™ pointed into the 43" convertible umbrella that bounces the light back into a 60" shoot through umbrella. This is a very soft and wrapping light that I just love.

Here is a sample image of our model Amira from MM.

8 comments:

Paul Baarn said...

The result looks beautiful. It's just one flash, right? Is there no spill from the reflecting umbrella around the shoot-through? I'm gonna try this with the setup I have at home.

Wayne said...

It really is lovely soft lighting there. How much light do you lose shooting this way? Seems you'd have to pump up the power in the flashes but, possibly compensated conveniently by the wide aperture used.

David Tejada said...

The umbrellas are moved close enough together so that there is no spill from the reflective umbrella.

No certain how much is loss using it this way. I'm not really concerned with that issue, if I need more light I'll either add lights or increase my ISO. I used only one light for this photo. DT

Wayne said...

One light? Impressive. Would be nice to see the same shot just using the 60" for comparison.

Thanks for the post David.

ballardboy said...

isn't this the same effect as a Photek Softliter?

Dave Keating Photography said...

I have been looking hard at the FourSquare. You seem to be very happy with it. Do you feel it is a good value when compared to your other equipment?
I should also say that I do love the light in that photo. Very nice.

Dave

David Tejada said...

Hi Dave: I'm very happy with the FourSquare™ It's always in my bag, and it's only 19 inches when collapsed.

Ron: The softliter is more like a softbox in a sense. The FourSquare™ allows you the opportunity to use up to 4 strobes if need be as allowing you to use what ever size umbrellas you may own.

Dean said...

Hi David,
One question about the 60" umbrella;

There are many mixed reviews about how flimsy some of them can be at this size. Which umbrella do you recommend?

Dean