What Is a Soft Box for Cameras?

Soft Box Lighting

Even lighting is important in photography since it eliminates unwanted shadows and ensures that colors appear exactly as the photographer wants them. Uneven lighting can be especially problematic if it is caused by focused lights that only illuminate part of a subject or by lights of different intensities that create excessive highlights and shadows. Soft boxes eliminate this problem by diffusing the light through a filtering layer, evening out both the distribution and intensity of one or more light sources.

Soft boxes come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, but they do have some common design elements. A basic soft box features a reflective interior surface which amplifies the light produced by a flash or other light source that the soft box attaches to. The opposite end of the soft box is covered by cloth or some other opaque, diffusing material. Soft boxes typically use white diffusing materials to produce white light, though other neutral colors can be used as well.

Lighting umbrellas are photography devices that serve a similar purpose to soft boxes. Though debates sometimes occur as to which is the better lighting accessory, both have their place in a photographer's arsenal. Umbrellas shine light directly onto a reflective material and may not have a diffusing layer, resulting in brighter overall illumination. Soft boxes shine light onto the diffusing layer with reflectors augmenting the light, resulting in a lower amount of illumination but a softer overall light.

If a soft box is used with a continuous light source instead of a flash, care must be taken to ensure that the soft box is rated for use with the wattage of the light source. The use of a soft box with continuous light sources that exceed the soft box's wattage resistance rating can create a fire hazard as the light may produce more heat than the soft box's materials can withstand. Care should be taken to ensure that the only soft boxes used with continuous light sources are those that are specifically designed for use with them.