I’ve owned the Triflash for few months and only recently have I been able to fill this monster with three flashes. Up until last week I only owned two strobes. So I put two LP120‘s and an SB-900 on it and went searching for a victim…in this case, my cat Pepi. This was shot at 5pm, in the shade, iso 100, 1/250, f/9 at about 6 feet away. Yep, 5pm, at f/9. Crazy, right?!
I recently ordered a Lastolite TriFlash and a Westcott JS 50″ Softbox.
I bought these as a result of a recent rental experience with a WhiteLightning X1600 and large softbox. I really liked some of the things I could do with that equipment but decided I wasn’t quite ready for a not-so-portable monolight. So I did some poking around the internet and found the above items. The TriFlash allows me to put three small strobes on a single tripod. And the Westcott JS softbox is designed for small strobes. It folds open and attaches to a stand kind of like an umbrella. The bottom of the softbox has a zipper that you put the tripod through, then you zip it closed. The front of the softbox (the white fabric) is sewn in at the top, but the other three sides are super strong velcro. It’s surprisingly lightweight and GIGANTIC! Seriously, 50″ is a lot of inches!
Before buying this equipment I was slightly annoyed by the lack of pictures of the softbox. I wasn’t sure how it attached, thus I wasn’t sure if the TriFlash would even work. I was also not sure if my Nikon SB-900 would fit in the TriFlash. I’m happy to report that the SB-900 fits nicely on the TriFlash! And the TriFlash is perfect for the softbox. Below are some pictures and examples. Hopefully this will help other people.
My plan is to buy three LumoPro LP120′s to use with this setup. For now I’m using the SB-900 and a Vivitar 285HV. Once I got it set up my only concern was keeping the light even. But playing around with it a bit I was able to get it pretty even by turning the SB-900′s head 180 degrees so that it was shooting into the back of the softbox. The Vivitar I just had pointing forward.
I’ve only used these items for about an hour, but I couldn’t be happier! It’s obviously not as powerful as the X1600, but with the two strobes the amount of light is impressive! The image of my cat, Nickel, at the bottom was shot at f/11 and he’s about three to four feet from the softbox (as you can see in the image right above him). And let’s not forget that this is portable and it’s being powered by eight AA batteries, not a generator or some other expensive battery pack system!
I was even able to convince my wife for a quick portrait. Granted, this thing is the size of the sun, so it wasn’t like she could avoid it.
