You know by now I'm a big fan of using strobes. Good light is so important to good pictures that I love being able to create and/or add it whenever I want. And I've always been a fan of softboxes as a way of controlling and directing that light. Now there's a new softbox that I just can't say enough good things about. But I'll try :)

In August I started hearing about a new softbox called the "FourSquare," made by Paul Peregrine of Lightware. A friend at Nikon first mentioned it, then Dave Black raved about it when we were teaching a workshop together. The two words I kept hearing were "multiple strobes" and "versatile." Paul sent me one to try out, and boy, am I impressed. I can easily find more than two words to say about it.

First off, you can use from one to four strobes in it. Yes, four. The advantage here is two-fold, First, each additional strobe doubles the possible power output, letting you work more easily in large spaces or outside in sunlight. Second, using multiple strobes means each one doesn't have to put out as much light, so you can get faster recycle time. Nice.

Next, it's got the most innovative speed ring I've ever seen. A speed ring holds the four struts of a softbox together, and usually is designed with an open center for the flash to fire through. Because of that, they're often fairly large. In this case, Paul decided to get rid of the center hole, so instead you have a compact, nicely machined block of aluminum that has points for the four softbox poles, four strobes, two umbrellas and two threaded holes (1/4 and 3/8-inch, to mount to accessories like lightstand brackets).

The softbox itself is a bit revolutionary too. Most softboxes have four poles that you flex to open the softbox and insert them into the speedring. The FourSquare does that too, but this time Paul got inventive by using two-section poles, that already have an elbow bend in them. That lets the poles be much shorter. The whole kit - poles, softbox and speedring - fit into an 18-inch bag and weigh about two pounds.

The strobes actually go inside the softbox, instead of the traditional spot outside. That allows you to point the strobes forward, into the diffusion fabric, or tilt them to fire into the side panels for even softer light. If you want to use it outside in the wind, you can remove the front panel and open the back, letting the breeze pass right through.

Using the FourSquare has been as much fun as exploring how it works. I've got a small softbox that's part of the portable lighting kit I use almost every week. My larger softboxes, though, get much less use because, well, they're big. And, the speedrings I have for them are for my AC-powered lights, meaning I don't drag them out unless I really need that power and can take the time to bring the extra gear. The compact size of the FourSquare (packed) means it can go with my portable kit, but its large 30-inch size means I get larger, prettier light out of it.

Finally, about a year ago I switched my portable kit to all Nikon Speedlights so I didn't always have to use PocketWizards (radio remotes) to trigger the strobes. And the FourSquare, despite its size and mounting of the strobes inside the softbox, still works great with Nikon's Commander mode and the SU-800 I've been using to trigger them. I've even had the box outside to the side and behind me, and by simply attaching the SU-800 to a SC-29 cord and hanging it over my shoulder, I could still trigger the strobes in the softbox.

The only downside I can find is that it takes a little longer to set up. Maybe a couple of minutes instead of the one minute my other small portable softbox does. But that's a very small drawback, and is far outweighed by its many advantages. It's been a joy to use, and expands what I can do by giving me a larger softbox in a smaller package. If you want more information on it, check out www.lightwaredirect.com.