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GirlRobot's Pod - by Droniela

Where she uploads her mind-backup

Soft Box Filtering.

2024 - 11 - 30 - Saturday

I always liked using bright RGB colors on my pictures. My bedroom is decorated with RGB strips and I really like the eyecandy aesthetic of bright gamer girl colors.

But then I noticed that while I had a lot of lights around me, I was never particularly well-lit myself, for my only white light is a weak ringlight that only really works from up close.

I needed an alternative, a liiiittle bit more pro than a ringlight, and I discovered it is called a soft box.

This is a soft box:

Picture of a pyramidal box made of cloth, black on the 4 triangular sides and white on the rectangular side. It is connected to a tripod, with it's white side to the oposite side of the tripod.

It's functionality is simple: It has four white LED bulbs on it's center, pointing to the open side. The insides of the wall are made of a reflective material to force all the light out on one direction. Then, that open side is covered with a white cloth that acts as a diffusor, spreading the light evenly.

Here's how it looks from the inside:

Picture of a pyramidal box made of cloth, seen from the rectangular side, silver on the 4 triangular insides, with 4 big light bulbs sticking from the back.

And this is how it looks when it is turned on:

Picture of a bright white rectangle against a dark background

Obviously it is not made for you take pictures of IT, but to take pictures of whatever they are pointed to.

This one is very strong, with an average setting, which is great for regular pictures but it really washes out my beautiful RGB lights.

So this beautiful diffuse purple:

Picture of a white cloth over a formation of purple LEDs, with the purple very diffuse

Becomes this washed thing:

Picture of a person wearing a latex catsuit in front of white cloth with barely visible purple LEDs on the back

(The washed thing is the color on the background, not me)

So yeah, it sucked.

But then I had an idea: what if I changed the color of my softbox, without spending a lot of money?

So I did it! I bought some sheets of Cellophane paper and applied to the bulbs!

Picture of the bulbs inside piramid, wrapped in dark blue cellophane paper

And this is how it looks

Picture of a bright blue rectangle against a dark background

(It looks super dark because otherwhise it would be barely different from the white picture, but it's very bright and very blue)

Now, I still haven't tested it in a proper photoshoot, because that takes a lot of work and time and I spent the day busy with college assignments.

Buuuut I did test with a selfie that really blued me!

Picture of person's face lit by heavily saturated blue light. She has short black hair and black eyes

Now, I have some options: Not only it's easy to swap the cellophane to change colors, I can also fold it so it has more layers to go through, making the light more or less saturated.

And I think it's safe, since it's LED bulbs, they shouldn't get hot enough to catch on fire.

Hopefully.

I am really excited to test the possibilities here. And I'm super happy it was super cheap.

I guess that's it for tonight. Once I have proper photoshoots like this, I'll be sure to share!

1010 - Robot Girl