Soft boxes

[Barossa.1]

Tell me like I'm stupid.
A year or so ago I had a major change in work - from modern architecture to wine! Neither moves but thats just about the only similarity. I always disliked studio work so the change has been a steep curve.
My question is this and I apologise if its obvious but its not obvious to me. I use 60cmsq soft boxes. If I used say 100cmsq boxeswould the resulting light be noticeably softer?
Thanks

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

My question is this and I apologise if its obvious but its not obvious to me. I use 60cmsq soft boxes. If I used say 100cmsq boxeswould the resulting light be noticeably softer?

Hi,

It depends on the distance as well. When used at the same distance, the 100cm square would always be softer, but if the distance is large then the difference may be relatively small and hard to notice. The closer the softboxes are to the subject, the larger the noticeable difference will be.

May I suggest an excellent book on the subject of lighting:
Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

Cheers,
Bart

[E.J. Peiker]

It really depends on size of subject vs size of the softbox and the shooting distance.  If you are photographing things that are significantly smaller than the softbox and positioned close to the softbox than it won't make that much of a difference but if you photographing larger subjects and/or with some shooting distance then it may.  It will be situational, in other words, on whether or not it will make a big difference or not.  But it certainly can't hurt