I started this year with a number of overdue purchases; Photography lighting and Bluetooth speakers and now, I can barely afford food. But I digress. If you read my previous post on Photography Resources, you probably saw Joanie Simon use one of these octagonal lights for her food photography and the images were brilliant!

In photography, lighting is everything and so this winter has been challenging. The days are quite short and cloudy and I need to make up for the reduced sunlight with softbox lights. Since my sister-in-law bought my Excelvan Softbox lights, I decided to replace them with these.

These Neewer 700W Octagon Softbox Lights arrived in the biggest Amazon box, so big I had to carry it on my head village girl style. I’m not even joking. Stripping down the packaging, it revealed this neat carry bag with all the lighting components tucked inside.

 

The Kit included:

• two Octagon softboxes
• two 85W 5500K CFL light bulbs
• two really tall light stands.

I’ve spread one set out for you below.

I got this for food photography but its soft diffused light is perfect for Portrait and product photography as well.

WHAT I LIKE

Brighter Images: Better lighting means better pictures with a lot less noise and less work during the editing process, trying to figure out the best level of exposure.  Off the bat, you can see how much of a difference this lighting makes.

Tall Light Stand: These aluminium alloy stands feel quite sturdy and get all the way to the roof.

Durable Bag:: I’ll be moving in a few months and appreciate that I can put my gear together in one place and go.

Strong Neck Joint: My previous Box Lights had weak necks by design. The umbrella kept drooping regardless of how tight the screws were. I had to make up for this with rubber bands; tying the necks to stay up. This one doesn’t seem to have that limitation.

Related: Food Photography: Ewedu and Yellow Pepper

WHAT COULD BE BETTER

SETTING UP: Spreading and setting up the “Umbrella” required considerably more force than I was used to or expected. Getting the centre circles to align and sit in each other tested me a little.

I felt this great sense of accomplishment after it all came together.

No Magic Gum: My Excelvan Softbox lights had this sticky fabric sewn in at the corners to keep the light face-cover in place, this one doesn’t. I haven’t used it long enough to know that this matters and right now, the face-cover fits quite snuggly so this might not be a real deficiency. Regardless, it would have been nice to have.

 

Summarily, I’m excited. I’m looking forward to working with these softboxes and I feel like the possibilities are endless. In the meantime, look how pretty this image is…

GET THIS SOFTBOX LIGHTS

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Let me know what you think about these Octagonal Softboxes. Have you used them?
Got any new photography gear? Tell me about it in the comments!
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