Photography News Issue 51

Photography News | Issue 51 | photographynews.co.uk

Technique 28

Lighting academy If you want full control over lighting on location you need a good flash system and the skills to use it. We took Elinchrom’s ELB 1200 out onto the streets for a shoot as the sun went down Get more from flash

I was shooting on a Nikon D810, so I slipped the Plus HS transmitter onto the camera hotshoe and as the ELB 1200/Hi-Sync head combination was new to me, rather than waste time on the shoot testing what settings would work, I did a few tests first. I started with 1/125sec at ISO 100. At full power at 3m with a standard 16cm reflector I was getting f/32. As you can’t meter high speed flash sync (this includes pulsing and timingmethods) I just took pictures of a blank wall at various apertures, shutter speeds and power output settings to see what was possible. At 1/250sec an aperture of f/16 was fine and by the time I got to 1/1000sec full power was enough for f/8. Considering I was at ISO 100 this is impressive going. Knowing what was possible, I ventured outside on a bright sunny afternoon. For this shoot, I had the company of Zac the model. I was shooting with a Nikon D810 and 24- 120mm and 70-200mm lenses. On the lighting front I had the ELB 1200, Hi-Sync head, the Plus HS trigger and some modifiers including a 44cm Softlight and Deflector kit. To balance flash with the ambient light means using the shutter speed to correctly expose for daylight while delivering enough flash for a correct exposure at the set aperture. The challenge is having enough power for a good working aperture at a reasonable Images The ELB 1200 Hi-Sync head was fitted with the 44cm softlight beauty dish and the white disc from the Deflector kit that comes with it.

The ELB 1200 costs £3299 in the To Go kit form and includes an EL Skyport Plus radio trigger, the option of Pro, Action or Hi-Sync heads and a selection of accessories including a case. Each head comes with a 4m cable and features a powerful LED modelling lamp to aid composing and focusing in dim light. With a run time of up to 80 minutes with one head or 40 minutes with two, this makes the ELB 1200 also perfect for video work too. The Pro head is the best all rounder, the Action head gives a flash burst as brief as 1/8850sec and the Hi-Sync head allows correct flash up to 1/8000sec when used with the optional EL Skyport Plus HS transmitter. Elinchrom’s Hi-Sync system works with timing and not with flash pulsing, as is the case with speedlights and some other battery powered studio light systems. Basically, what you are doing with Hi-Sync is exploiting the tail of the decaying flash of a normal burst. With perfect timing you can get the best output possible even at 1/8000sec. With Nikon cameras, all you need to do is set the required shutter speed and shoot a few test shots to give an idea of the best aperture value to use. Precision timing with the camera’s shutter is obviously key here and the Skyport Plus HS transmitter has a feature called ODS where you adjust the flash sync very precisely up to five milliseconds.

Words & pictures by Will Cheung

The ability to mix flash with bright sunlight opens up fresh creative avenues but you need a flash unit with plenty of power. So, while it’s true that there are plenty of speedlights and battery powered studio lights that can sync with shutter speeds beyond the camera’s correct flash sync speed and even up to 1/8000sec, you are usually limited in what you can achieve. You have to shoot at wide apertures, place the flash close to the subject or you have to ramp up the ISO with the corresponding loss of picture quality. Put simply, your options are limited. With the Elinchrom ELB 1200, however, the shackles are off.Withanoutput of 1200Ws youcanshoot correctly-synchronisedshotsup to 1/8000sec and still have options, whether that is with aperture choice, flash placement, modifier use or ISO choice and you can keep to medium speeds for the best picture quality. The ELB 1200 is a manual only flash unit and a freshly-charged battery gives up to 215 full power flashes. Shoot at fractional settings and a fully-charged battery should keep you going all day long. Its weatherproof build also means you can carry on shooting in challenging conditions..

With the Elinchrom ELB 1200, the shackles are off. With an output of 1200Ws you can shoot correctly- synchronised shots up to 1/8000sec

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