Best Light Modifiers For Portraits

The sun almost always the main light source outdoors acts like a spotlight when high overhead like a portrait light from 45 degrees up and off axis like a hair light from behind and above the subjects or low and warm colored at sunset.

Best light modifiers for portraits.

What is the best light modifier for fashion portraits. Lighting in the simplest possible terms is all about main light and fill light. Mastering portrait photography with one light source will allow you to work faster and in many more situations than relying upon one multiple light for all y. Photographer daniel norton explores that topic in the above video and explains why he thinks an octagon softbox aka octabox is the best and mose useful modifier for portraits.

In conclusion there s no right or wrong choice of light modifier they re just all different and the best choice for you depends on what you re hoping to achieve in your portrait. Softboxes are my modifier of choice when i want a soft directional light and i want to be able to control how much of that light is going to fall on my background. Another great thing about grids is the fact that they are compatible with many other light modifiers such as beauty dishes and soft boxes. As the softness of the light depends on the relative size on the modifier to the subject close means softer and farther away the light gets harder.

Here s a typical setup i use with this modifier and the resulting photo. Being four feet in size it s super soft in close. One of the key points of the 3ft octabox that daniel covers pretty early on in the video is that it can simulate the look of various other popular light modifiers. Using a grid can lead to beautiful portraits because it allows a photographer to illuminate the subject with the full power of light source while keeping the background dim.