Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hello everyone,

Went shooting on location a few days ago. Wanted to use my 86 in. PLM as softbox, but unfortunately, the wind was just a bit too strong for my stand and the umbrella, although I had some 60 pounds of sand on it.

The only other option I had was my 11 in. long throw reflector I had brought with me. Pictures can be found here.

My question: can someone recommend a good softbox that i can buy that can survive in the wind, with strong brackets and of course that give a beautiful light? Any brand: Buff, Westcott, Chimera...

thanks

Pat

That's a tough question to answer. Any given quality of soft box will be more likely to fail if the box is a bigger one vs. a smaller one, as the larger one has more wind catching surface area. The strength of the wind you will be expecting to use in will also be a determining factor. A light wind may be fine for a larger box, where as a smaller box will be required for stronger winds. I have never heard of one of our boxes breaking apart under the force of wind.

Another consideration is, even if the box stays together and stays on the light, it could still blow over or break something in the process. Judgement and a back up plan is key in these situations.

One popular modifier for outdoor use is a beauty dish. It is relatively small compared to a soft box, but still bigger than any of the sports or general purpose reflectors.

http://www.paulcbuff.com/beautydishes.php

I have used the 22" silver beauty dish with the diffusion sock at the beach before with good results.

This past week I used PCB's large softbox on the beach and I was very pleased. There was wind but it wasn't excessive. I took one 15 pound sandbag down there but didn't really seem to need it. The wind would rotate the softbox some (at the spot where the Einstein attaches to the 5/8" stud on the light stand) but it never appeared to be in danger of tipping over. I did have a VML on the lightstand (13' air-cushioned) and that adds a little extra weight to help stabilize it.