New Softbox Test Shot

I ordered a softbox and it arrived today. It is 24" x 36" - large enough to be useful for portrait work and too small for large objects. I thought I would give it a few test shots and see if I could get it to work for me. My previous work has been done through white umbrellas which sort of has the same effect but has the disadvantage of allowing light elsewhere.



While it is an OK sort of photograph overall, the light is not too bad. The light is at perhaps 30 degrees right of the camera. I shot a few at angles more like 45 and 70 degrees as well, but will just toss those and treat them as experience gained. I am thinking I would be more satisfied with this shot if I had raised the light a bit to compensate for my tan face and pasty body. Well, since I am experimenting on myself and I cannot see the shot before I take it (and pretty quickly feel silly doing self-pics) I will not worry too much about it.

I learned some things, and that was the point. An interesting side note is the lesson one learns about their posture when the intention was to "stand up straight with arms to the side." A bit of quirky posture going on there!