Comparison

Gary Fong Diffuser vs Softbox – Detailed Comparison

Gary Fong Diffuser vs Softbox

Photography is much more than just capturing the objects or subjects around you. It is an art to capture the essence of beauty using proper angle, perfect lighting, and other skills to get that shot worth your time. Of course, investing in a good quality camera and an external flash can help you achieve decent photographs, but if you are someone who wants to go all-pro with photography, there are some equipment you could invest in. 

Generally, people who have just started with photography often face the issue of harsh shadows while shooting, and this can affect the quality of your shots. Evenly distributed and soft light can make your photos look more natural and pleasing. And to achieve that, you can either invest in a diffuser or a softbox—both equipments help soften the light. However, there are some noteworthy differences in both these light diffusers.

In this blog post, we will look at the differences between Gary Fong Diffuser and a softbox to determine which equipment is suitable for whom. However, before looking at all the differences, let’s first go through a bit of introduction about both these pieces of equipment.

Gary Fong Diffuser:

Gary Fong Diffuser

Gary Fong Diffuser, also known as the Lightsphere Collapsible, is a tool to provide Omni-directional light for indoor and outdoor photography. It softens the harsh light and evenly illuminates the space to get a better shot in excellent lighting.

Softbox:

Softbox

A softbox helps in diffusing the light into an even and pleasing light. It also aids with reducing the harsh shadows. This tool is quite often used for portrait photography and can help in softening the light mimicking the natural light.

Gary Fong Diffuser vs Softbox

Gary Fong Diffuser

Softbox

This Lightsphere or Diffuser is made up of a translucent horizontal ring covered and a collapsible white dome to diffuse the right. A softbox consists of a translucent cloth which is generally attached to a light source on a light stand. 
One can easily mount this Gary Fong Diffuser on the camera, and depending upon the light in the surroundings; one can attach the white dome. The softbox has white or silver interiors with black exteriors wrapped around the wireframe on the stand. The black exteriors prevent the spilling of the light in the studio. 
Gary Fong Light diffuser is quite portable as it is collapsible and folds flat for storage.A softbox is not as easy to store as a light diffuser. However, you can also invest in smaller sizes of softboxes to make it easier to carry anywhere you go. 
When used as an attachment to the camera, it can bounce off the light from ceilings and walls. However, when used outdoors, such diffusers are less efficient in decreasing the shadows.A softbox can drastically reduce the harsh shadows, and depending upon its shape; it can illuminate the area near the subject to get a crisp shot. 
It provides soft and even illumination without the loss of power. However, Gary Fong is suitable for the people who are more into flash photography as it just acts as a pseudo source of light. Adding such a diffuser can help soften and evens the light a little, but it has many limitations.Professional photographers or even the people who want to opt for a natural light setting often opt for softboxes because it softens the light more efficiently than the diffusers and also illuminates the background. In addition, one can have control over intensity, colour, light, direction and other parameters while using a softbox.

Concluding Remarks

Looking at these differences, we can say that softboxes are a better option if you plan to shoot outdoors or even indoors. Although Garry Fong Diffusers are pretty impressive due to their overall built and features, one can’t deny the fact that softboxes do a better job at evening the light and blending it in the surroundings. 

So if you are a professional photographer and are inclined towards portrait photography or studio photography, you can opt for softboxes. In contrast, if you are tempted towards macro photography or flash photography, Garry Fong Diffusers would be a better pick for you. 

I hope this blog post helps you understand all the differences between these two equipments, and let us know in the comments below which one you would buy.

About JACOB CRONE

Jacob Crone has spent too much time on researching and finding the best stuff for my Canon DSLR, and this led him to make bestcanonflash.com. As he found that millions of cameras are sold every year, and photographers like me are looking for cool and useful stuff for them all the time. So he wanted to make a site dedicated mostly to camera owners to help them get better results.

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