Photography News Issue 51

Photography News | Issue 51 | photographynews.co.uk

Technique

The kit we used

We used an Elinchrom ELB 1200 with Hi-Sync head outfit for this feature. The ELB 1200 power pack has an output of 1200Ws through the A outlet or this can be shared between two heads on a 50/50 or 66/33 basis. The unit is rugged with a weather-resistant build to ensure reliable performance even in inclement conditions. Three heads are available, Action, Hi-Sync or Pro. The Action head offers the shortest flash duration of 1/8850sec at 172Ws power, Hi-Sync enables high-speed flash sync up to 1/8000sec with the EL Skyport Transmitter HS) while the Pro is the best all-round head with a duration of 1/5050sec at 140Ws. All three heads come with a 4m heavy duty cable and include a bright LED modelling light that has a two hour duration with a fully charged battery. An Elinchrom To Go ELB 1200 set with one head costs £3299. The kit comes with a rechargeable Li-ion Air battery and charger, 16cm reflector, protection cap, Skyport Transmitter Plus, sync cable, Snappy carrying case and strap and ProTec Location bag. The outfit has a three year warranty. If you want to learn more about Elinchrom lighting gear please visit the website.

elinchrom.co.uk

Images The power available with the ELB 1200makes defeating bright sunlight easy. An exposure of 1/1000sec at f/5.6 and ISO 100 was needed to give a dark sky (far left) so all we needed was enough flash to light the model, Zac, in the foreground. A 26cm reflector was used on the Hi-Sync head, placed about 6m from Zac, to give a tighter pool of light. A few tests at various power settings showed that a setting of 7.5 was enough to match the camera’s exposure settings of 1/1000sec at f/5.6.

working distance without compromising on image quality by increasing the ISO. I took an ambient light shot first using the camera’smeter reading of the foregroundwith Zac so he was correctly exposed. This was 1/125sec at f/5.6 and ISO 100. Next I angled the camera to meter from the blue sky. That gave a reading of 1/1000sec at f/5.6 and my shot made at those settings gave me a dark sky and an underexposed Zac. It was the ELB 1200’s job to deliver enough power to light up Zac while allowing me to keep to a shutter speed of 1/1000sec. It might sound easy but if you have never tried flash outdoors before it is surprising how flash power just disappears when the sun’s out. No such problems here though where I was using a slow ISO and had the flash head 6m from Zac. In other words, I had plenty of headroom here as most cameras would happily deliver great quality at ISO 400 and higher. The ELB 1200/Hi-Sync head/Skyport Plus HS trigger was great to use, too. The radio trigger has great range and I wasn’t even close to needing it all, but being able to adjust output remotely was a very convenient, time-saving benefit. The power capacity of the ELB’s standard Air battery also meant I had no concerns with running out on this shoot where I spent time testing to see what the outfit was capable of.

Above The ELB 1200 is available in kits. The To Go kit costs £3299 includes the power pack, one flash head and a variety of accessories including a carry case and the Skyport Transmitter Plus. Next month: more lighting adventures with Elinchrom lighting kit.

Image The ELB 1200’s asymmetric power output came in handy for this shot. Two heads were used, the Action in the A output socket and the Hi-Sync head in the B socket. Zac was lit by the Hi-Sync head while the A head with 66% output was placed to lighten the background arch. As I wasn’t trying to defeat a bright sun, the head type was not an issue for this shot – the issue was having enough power to lighten the dark arch behind Zac while still lighting him up with flash.