Interestingly I saw several of the answers before your post came up, Don.
The real answer is that depends. It depends on what you are trying to do, and how much light you have available.
Taking the second first as it is simpler to answer, softboxes use up quite a bit of light. So with your small strobes they would not be the best thing to use unless you are only interested in small product photography with the lights up close.
On the first, what you are trying to do, I prefer umbrellas for portraiture, and softboxes for most anything else (sometimes I like hard light rather than soft though). For portraiture 2 medium power umbrella lights and two lower power snooted lights work well for traditional lighting (or two large floods and and a couple of baby spots if you use continuous lighting). That give you Key, Fill, background, and hair or back lights.
For other stuff you can wind up using everything you can get your hands on. It seems however that most location photographers use minimal lighting these days. Just two lights with softboxes. Serious film crews use a truck load of lights.
So based upon the above I would recommend you get a couple of higher power strobes (something like those Alien Bees that Tom Van Veen uses) that you can use with boxes for location work, or with the existing lower power ones for studio. For portraiture you can put the umbrellas on the high power strobs and fabricate snoots or barndoors for the current ones. That would give you maximum versitility for the least money.
However if you are mainly doing small product shots you can just consider a couple of small softboxes for your existing strobes. Or, you may want to think of getting a light tent instead of softboxes.
BTW: if they do not need to be portable softboxes can be fabricated from foamcore and duct tape real easily.
Hope this is helpful.
graywolf http://www.graywolfphoto.com "Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof" -----------------------------------
Don Sanderson wrote:
I'm trying to come up with the best way to complete a small studio lighting setup. I have 2 120WS strobes with 32" umbrellas and stands. I also have 2 extra stands. I'd like to get 2 more AC slave strobes of about the same power. I can't decide whether to go with 2 more umbrellas and holders or get 2 24-32" soft boxes. My umbrellas can be used as bounce or "shoot thru". When used as shoot thru sometimes the ribs cause a shadow problem.
What do you all think of umbrellas vs softboxes as far as ease of setup/use and effectiveness/versatility. Main uses would be: portrait, product and still life.
TIA Don
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