How To: 3 Speedlights in 1 Softbox

Poppa-D and MortonPhotographic from Flickr put together this little instructional video to show how D fits 3 of his SB-800 speedlights into a speedring. This speedring will mount to a light stand by way of an umbrella mount, and accept either a square or rectangular softbox, or an Octobox. Why three speedlights? Because we couldn't fit four 8)! Seriously though, this was done to make up for the 1.5 to 2 stop loss of the softbox.

This is a Photoflex speedring with Umbrella mount. You can find it as a package at www.bhphoto.com for under $40.

The video was shot with a G9, hand-held, window light and in-camera microphone--you gotta love that little G9!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Paul Morton
• Morton
• Photographic
• Darren Stevenson
• Poppa-D
• MortonPhotographic
• Nikon
• SB-800
• Softbox
• Photography
• DIY
• Speedlight
• Strobist

[GotemCZ]

good idea but isnt it too expensive ? :) 1x SB 800 is cca $450 :)

[MortonPhotographic]

Well it all depends. For the most part this is for people who already have three or more speedlights. So if you have them, then this is the cheap way! If you would have to go buy 3 SB900s, then you need to consider your options. You could get a monolight and power pack for less than the cost of 3 SBs. But it is bigger, heavier and no CLS.

[PapaJoFilms]

can you specify how you connect the speed ring to that fixture?

[MortonPhotographic]

You mean the speedlights to the speedring? Yeah, it's in there, we use Ball Bungees, that's it!

[PapaJoFilms]

No - i saw that - I meant the speedring to a stand. My speedrings attach to the strobe normally and I can't see a way to attach everything to a stand.

Thanks

John

[MortonPhotographic]

Ah, I see... It is a special speed ring with an umbrella mount that links it to a light stand. Most speedrings have a threaded spot to accept some form of mount like an umbrella mount stud, or ball head. Not all of them do, however. Hope this helps!

[paradox963]

That looks like a headache in the making, 3 speed lights that you have to make sure are recycled before the next shot, slow recycle time, having to replace 12 AA batteries at a time, no remote power adjustment so output changes will be slow. And at the cost of 3 good speed lights you are in the 1200 to 1500 range for less power than my Quadra and it has not much more weight, faster recycle, modeling light and a mount made to take modifiers. You can keep the arts and crafts project.

[nixland]

Hi, what length of the ball bungees that suitable for 3 flashes? I spot a 6", 9", and other length on eBay. Thanks

[Brackynews]

This will come in handy for me, thanks! I had to return an excellent $900 studio strobe because the distributor failed to indicate that the speedring mount was proprietary instead of the system I use. So I have a huge octobox with no strobe to fit it, and at this point I am thinking additional speedlights are a better long run investment considering how much travel I do.

[sbeehler777]

One last thing I would like to mention. The speedring used in this video is a photoflex speedring. Photoflex makes a hotshoe mount for this particular ring, it has two coldshoe mounts and screws into the bottom of the speed ring. I attach my stobes in the above mentioned fashion and then mount one of them on the shoemount bracket.

[sbeehler777]

For all the narrow minded people who can't seem to understand the usefulness of this technique (which I use quite often), think about traveling and being able to pack 3 or 4 speedlights in the place of one monoblock which will need either a really long cord or a big battery. Secondly, with the large number of decent budget/used speedlights out there, this can be accomplished for well under $150 (which is what I spend on the 3 strobes I use $50/used canon 420ez).

[oogimook]

hi, what inch bungees were those?

[LaRobertos]

$3000 light box weird LOL

[NLS87]

@MortonPhotographic also, for shooting on location, you can save on external portable power supplies

[trongs01]

canon camera's can trigger nikon flashes?

[RickyCayey]

Cool, Thank you! I want to make a big OCTODOME SOFT BOX UMBRELLA, but I believe we can use a PATIO UMBRELLA or SUN-UMBRELLA from Sears or Kmart? If someone can do it, please make a VIDEO, that will be a great idea!