Strobox – Learn About Light

Strobox is an application geared towards helping photographers take better pictures. Packed full of tips, tricks, and diagrams that explain how to mimic the lighting seen in specific images, Strobox is an online community where photographers of all skill levels can work together and learn about the many effects that lighting can have on the pictures they take.

Joining Strobox is completely free, and it doesn’t even require you to think of a new username or password. Just log in with your Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Flickr, Twitter, or LinkedIn account to begin. The natural place to start is by scanning through photos with lighting effects that you’d like to mimic in your own photography. Sort uploaded photos by category, lighting effect, or upload date, and you’ll be presented with pages of images that meet that description. To find out how a specific photograph was taken, click on the image to see a larger version plus a lighting diagram on the right-hand side of the page. This lighting diagram shows exactly how the object, camera, and flash were set up. Additional information such as the focal length and exposure bias are usually listed underneath. Using all this information, you should be able to recreate the photo exactly, or at least take a similar picture with the same type of lighting and exposure.

Of course, Strobox wouldn’t be beneficial if its users weren’t willing to share a few of their own creations, as well. Click “Add Photo,” then upload an image onto the site. The more information you include, the more helpful the photo will be to other aspiring photographers. Strobox also offers discussion boards and even an iPhone app for people who need a little more help trying to re-create the perfect shot. For photographers of all skill levels, Strobox is an interesting application that can help anyone take better pictures right away.