Outfit your strobe with a variety of new lighting accessories with this Scott Kelby Light Modifier Bundle from Westcott. It comes with both the 50 x 50" Recessed Mega JS Apollo Softbox and the 16 x 30" Apollo Strip Softbox, each of which is built upon an umbrella frame that gives it compatibility with any strobe featuring an umbrella mount. These softboxes will diffuse and soften your light output for a smooth wrap-around effect. Also, the kit includes a 40 degree fabric grid for the Strip Softbox that will limit light spill and allow for more control over where the light falls. In addition to these boxes, the bundle features a 7' white diffusion parabolic umbrella which is a large, broad light source that wraps light around your subject for clean highlights and rich shadows. Additionally, it is the softest version of the parabolic umbrella.
The Westcott Recessed Mega JS Apollo (50 x 50") is a softbox based on an umbrella frame. It needs no speed ring to attach it to a studio flash head. Simply open it, and slide the shaft into the umbrella receptor on the flash head. You can also use the Mega JS Apollo with your on-camera flash by purchasing Westcott's 5015 Shoe Mount Bracket (BH# WESMMA).
The narrow profile of Wescott's 16 x 30" Apollo Strip Softbox makes it an ideal rim, hair light or accent light. The recessed front edge of the box provides a degree of directionality that can be intensified with the included 40-degree fabric grid, which narrows the beam spread while eliminating spill light.
The output remains soft and flattering with the type of control you'd normally get from a reflector. Alternatively, if you need a harder light simply remove the front diffuser. Since the Apollo Strip is built on an umbrella frame, it provides for quick setup and equally quick break-down. The Apollo Strip mounts vertically or horizontally to suit your subject.
This is a Westcott 40° Fabric Grid for the Apollo Strip. This grid narrows the beam spread from your Apollo softbox to control spill light, soften contrast, and add directionality to this soft source. It attaches to the recessed front through the use of hook-and-loop tape. A grid is an essential accessory for any lighting system.
Photography discussions are full of desert island scenarios; "if you had to choose a single lens or if you had to choose a single light..." Well if you had to choose a single light shaping tool, you might do well to pick the white diffusion Westcott 7' White Diffusion Umbrella.
First of all it's a really big, broad light source that wraps light around your subject yielding clean highlights and rich open shadows. But due to the special shape of the umbrella there's a unique mix of soft enveloping light with the kind of crisp detail you only get from reflectors. This umbrella has a unique design structurally as well. The shaft is double walled for strength, but it tapers to 7mm to fit Elinchrom and other European flash heads. Instead of bendable metal, the 16 inner ribs are made of durable fiberglass.
This white diffusion is the softest version of the umbrella. Used in standard bounce mode, some of the light escapes through the material, slightly raising the ambient light level and lowering contrast while most of it is directed towards your subject. If you want a harder light, turn the umbrella around and aim the convex side at your subject and punch your light source through it. In both modes you can vary the light quality and output by changing the light-to-umbrella distance along the shaft.
You can also use this umbrella as a scrim over your subject to diffuse harsh light sources like the sun in situations like fashion catalog work outdoors or at the beach. Any way you use it, with the Westcott 7' Umbrella less is definitely more.