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These lights are very capable in a studio, but it’s outdoorswhen they really come into their own
Portable and light One of those who has appreciated the new Profoto family of location lights is portrait photographer Richard Bradbury, and it’s fundamentally changed the way he’s been able to work. “When I first started to use the B1 I was amazed by how compact the kit was,” he says. “On overseas shoots I could pack all the kit I needed in a single rucksack and then take it on to the aeroplane as hand luggage. Up until that point I lost count of the number of times I was called back to the gate to explain the lights and batteries that I’d packed in my hold luggage: it used to get a lot of attention, but with the lights in my hand luggage I could explain quickly and easily what I had and it saved no end of trouble. It also meant that I always had my gear with me as well, and that makes everything much more secure. “The other massive advantage for me was the TTL capability of the lights. In TTL mode the lights continuously change their power settings in the blink of an eye to match your chosen aperture and it’s quite fascinating to stand behind one of the units whilst someone else is shooting. They are constantly recalibrating and the flash power output numbers change with every shot. I tried it out with a model running towards me through constantly changing ambient light, and even at that speed it was able to keep up and to adjust the light output perfectly every time. “These lights are very capable in a studio but it’s outdoors where they really come into their own,” continues Richard. “They were designed to mix with daylight and offer constant colour temperature optimisation during normal shooting. In TTL you are able to set plus and minus exposure adjustment in exactly the same way that you would with your dedicated speedlight. Think of the heads as giant speedlights that happen to be compatible with one of themost comprehensive light shaping systems in the world. Not only that, but the way that the shapers fit to the lights has remained consistent for a huge amount of time. “I had a studio in Nottingham at least 20 years ago and thought at the time what a remarkably simple system Profoto had, almost like a giant rubber band that held the modifier in place and allowed you to move it backwards and forwards to change the effect,” Richard recalls. “It’s amazing to me that all these years later the same delightfully straightforward and efficient system is being used by two of the most advanced lighting systems in the world, namely the B1 and the B2, and absolutely everything is still compatible. For me that’s a massive plus.”
Perfect for weddings Asian wedding specialist J Dhillon was one of the very first to invest in the B1 system and he was so bowled over by its performance that he’s added a B2 kit to the line-up and he now regularly combines both outfits on his location shoots. “From the moment I moved into photography I was using supplementary lights,” he says, “whether this was LED units, video lights or speedlights. However I read about the B1 lights when they were first announced and I knew immediately that this was what I needed to take my business to the next level, and I immediately put an outfit on pre-order. People now know me for the fact that I use them so regularly, and my saying is simply this: why chase the light when you can create it? “One of the big areas of my business is destination weddings: I did eight of these last year plus a further four pre-wedding shoots abroad, and this is an area that I’m very
much developing. I’ve been to places such as the Valley of Fire in Nevada, the Sahara Desert in Morocco, Venice, Kenya, Mexico and Paris, and it’s a joy to be able to travel so light. Everything, including all my B1 and B2 lighting heads, light stands, Canon EOS-1D X camera and lenses, goes into one backpack and this travels with me as hand luggage. It’s so straightforward and simple and I have this with me at all times, meaning that it’s secure and I know I’ll have the kit I need to work with alongside me at all times. “The batteries for the kit are also small and portable and have a really long life, but I’ll always carry spares with me for safety’s sake. Even so they charge very quickly and so I can get everything up to full power during a lunch break, and so I never need to worry about running low on charge.” For J another key feature of the Profoto lights is the High-Speed Sync (HSS) feature, which was introduced for the B1 late last year. “With the new Profoto HSS upgrade installed I can switch to HSS Mode with a simple button- press,” he says. “I can then shoot at shutter speeds as fast as 1/8000sec, and this allows me to work with wider apertures and to achieve the shallow depth-of-field that I’m looking for in some of my shots. Previously the only way I could do this was to work with a set of ND filters, but now it’s just so simple. For someone like me who doesn’t particularly like reading a manual it’s just so straightforward.” And that’s the beauty of the B1 and B2 family. Easy to set up and use and a delight to carry around, they really are the perfect way for the modern photographer in any number of fields to work, and together they’ve created a seismic change in the way that professionals are working.
π To find out more, go to www.profoto.com/uk.
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Issue 20 | Photography News
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