Originally Posted by
bob williams
On a different note, I tried my new Apollo 32 in softbox out today, But the results were not what I hoped for, In fact I feel like it was my first time shooting hummers. My intent was to try and really light up those wonderful specular highlights the birds have in their wings and feathers, so I loaded up 3 canon 430's inside the softbox (without the diffuser cover) and was hoping the silver lining would make the highlights sparkle---Well, It didn't, in fact, I think it even softened the light more than bare speedlights. I also re-introduced terrible ghosting and shadowing into all the shots even though everything was set to 1/16 and all were canon flashes.
Since this was just a test run, I didn't use any flowers and the only background was my green box. I had the soft box set up directly in front of the camera and just below the image frame angled up slightly. I also had another speedlight above the bird at about 4 ft. It also was set at 1/16. Although I haven't completely given up on the idea of using a silver reflector, first results were very disappointing. I'll give it another try this afternoon before I scrap this idea.
