Softbox as light shaper

Nikon D7500 , Nikkor 105 mm, Dx-format, crop factor 1,4
f/16, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, manual mode, freehand

Walking at night through the rainforest, this is a very special experience. The shown photo shows a Madagascan frog, Boophis septentrionalis, which was taken in the Amber Mountain national park. The little frog is nocturnal and therefore much easier to find in the dark than during the day. In addition, this species only shows its best colors at night. But at night it is pitch-black in the rainforest and with lamps alone, you cannot achieve a good illumination of the photo. In addition, the wet skin of the frog reflects light very unpleasantly – so what to do?

For many amateur photographers, the use of flashes is a horror. The photos could lose their natural look and the subjects could suffer from massive drop shadows, they fear. But there are situations where flash is unavoidable. A photo of this frog in the middle of the night shows just such a moment. In order to make the flashlight used appear softer, but at the same time to bring out the shapes and textures of the frog perfectly, so-called light shapers and unleashed flashes were used here. In this case, an external flash with an attached light shaper from Lumiquest, a so-called softbox, was used. This softbox is completely made of plastic and is easy to clean, even if it gets some mud splashes in the jungle. Due to the soft light, the frog seems to be naturally illuminated, hard shadows are completely absent. At the same time, the ISO can be kept low to close the aperture further and thus have more details of the animal in focus. Even during the day, you can use a flash to brighten up the image by using a light shaper.