The Road: Outdoor shooting with the Softlighter

This shot is part of a small set of test images I have done using fashion from UK brand AllSaints. True to to their gritty/steampunk look I picked a Winter outdoor location on a nature reserve. The subject is designer Ian Obermuller, band member of Snowmanplan and creator of amazing animations. The dreary winter light we often have in the NorthWest made it easy to mix natural light with my flash. It was cold and windy and too keep things easy for my freezing assistant (hello Miss Van!) we shot with a simple, but trusted set up: Canon 580x II mounted inside a boomed Softlighter II with a gold insert. The flash fired at half power. ISO 100, 50mm, f4.5 1/200th sec. That gave me the cinematic look that I was looking for. What is our hero looking at?

The shot was then burned and dodged to bring out all the details of the scene in Photoshop 5. The color palette was created in Lightroom. To emphasize the dreary, post apocaliptic, 'this can't be good' look I emphasized the browns, greens and magentas.

You can see the full set on my website. The image has been picked by the fancy blog run by design pundit Chloe Scheffe.

The Mad Scientist and the Automata

This image continues my series of editorial 'fairy tales' images. What is a mad scientist doing in the wilderness at sunset? Why is he holding a steel heart? Why is she split in three pieces? Is that a leather skull cap? (yes).

Dr Calamari and Achropelia are a fixture of the Seattle art scene. They worked for many years with Circus Contraption and often perform at Moisture Festival and the Triple Door. I was very excited to shoot an image of their current act (named Automata). As usual recently the process involved some marsh walking, although no snakes were spotted. Jason and Evelyn are old friends and super professional. They loaded their Contraption on a car, drove to the location, got their make up on and performed for the camera. There is no major Photoshop trick in the image apart from some playing with the color palette. So yes, Acrophelia was really split in three pieces. Or so I was told.

You can contact them here: drcalamari.acrophelia@gmail.com

I ended liking the shots with the simplest set up, an handheld Canon Speedlite shot through a diffuser high on camera left. This made the scene crosslit, as the sun was setting to camera right. I shot wide angle and had a small window of time when speedlite (at 1/2 power) and sun light evenly matched.

Strobes tests: Alien Bees against Elinchrom. Lumopro against Canon 580x II.

Today I happen to have handy a bunch of different flashes I always wanted to compare. Yes. Which one is more powerful, and by how much? The best way to show this is to use a light meter, put it at ten feet from the flash set at full power and measure what people call the "Guide Number". Basically the required aperture to illuminate a subject as medium gray. This is a useful number for undiffused strobes as for them it turns that:

Guide Number = aperture x distance = constant.

So if we measured f4 at 10 feet, the guide number GN is 40, which means that at 5 feet we will achieve the same exposure at f8 (closer, brighter, and so we can use a narrower aperture).
The higher the GN, the more powerful the flash. This of course at the same ISO.

So here are the numbers, I used ISO100 in all cases. Packs and flashes were all at full power.

Elinchrom Ranger S head with standard reflector + "A" Ranger RX pack. GN 250 $2100
Elinchrom Ranger Ring Flash + "A" Ranger RX GN 220 $1500+$1700
Alien Bees B800 +standard reflector GN 130 $280
Alien Bees B400 + standard reflector GN 90 $225
Canon 580ex II (zoom 80/28mm) GN 130/90 $440
QFlash+standard cone GN 110 $1080
Lumopro GN zoom 85/28mm GN 90/71 $120
Canon 580x II + Coco Ring Flash GN 35 $440+$80

Btw, I have found another test here on Flickr. Results are similar.

So what have I learned?


1) more expensive flashes have more power and the area where they are able to light uniformly is *much* larger (and rounder!) than with the cheaper speedlites (see the image). But greater power comes with a price (and greater responsibilities, but that is another story).
2) The Canon 580x II is good! More powerful than the LumoPro and the QFlash, but *only* if you use the zoom feature. Read the manual..or pay $300 extra bucks compared to the LumoPro, which is a lot easier to use (see and extended review)...mmm.
3) The Canon+ the Coco Ring flash performs well, but the output is not that great, unless you are in studio. The zoom factor makes no difference with the Coco attached.
4) The QFlash is weak sauce for the price $1080 (head+pack)
4) The Speedlites are a tad cooler than the Elinchroms.
5) The Ranger pack has two outputs: A and B. A is 1+2/3 stops brighter.
6) the ABees Long throw reflector increases output by 1 stop! (from the Flickr Strobist group test)