Photoshop_User_-_February_2016

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photoshop user

› february 2016

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SMALL STROBE

Handheld flash units are great, but when you need more

power, nothing beats small strobes. The last few years have

seen amazing developments in this category. Profoto’s B1 an B2

(http://profoto.com/us/home) and Elinchrom’s Ranger Quadra

and new ELB 400 battery packs (http://www.elinchromus.com)

deliver between 5 and 10 times as much power as a Speedlite;

sport powerful, lightweight lithium batteries; and provide flash

counts reaching into the hundreds at full power, and thousands

at lower power. Add to this powerful and easy-to-navigate dig-

ital interfaces, wireless radio controllers, and highly portable

form factors, and you have a winning combo.

There are some important differences between each system

that are worth noting. Profoto’s B1 and B2 are TTL-capable

while Elinchrom’s Quadra and ELB are not. I’ll cover exposure

modes below, but this honestly isn’t a deal breaker because

I find myself using Manual the majority of the time. The Quadra

and ELB offer 400-Watt seconds of output over the Profoto’s

B2 at 250-Watt seconds. Profoto’s B1 is a powerful contender

at 500-Watt seconds and it’s a tool on which I often rely; how-

ever, it’s the heaviest and largest of the group. Each tool offers

different capabilities and trade-offs; it’s up to you to make the

call about which one fits your needs.

EXPOSURE MODES

The three exposure modes I use most often are Manual, TTL,

and HSS, in that order. For some reason, Manual exposure mode

strikes fear into the hearts of burly men. I don’t get it; it couldn’t

be simpler. Do you want more light or less light? That’s Manual

in a nutshell. Dial it up or dial it down—it’s that simple. Man-

ual is best when distances between your subject and flash are

constant. TTL, on the other hand, is perfect when the distances

between your subject and flash are in flux.

There’s a misconception in some circles that the use of

TTL forfeits the user’s creative control; this couldn’t be further

from the truth. Through distance and other calculations, TTL

does the heavy lifting for you, providing an exposure that’s a

solid starting point. After that it’s up to you to make the expo-

sure your own using a mixture of ISO, shutter speed, aperture,

and flash exposure compensation (FEC).

Keep these simple guidelines in mind in ambient light and

flash scenarios: Shutter speed controls the amount of ambient

light contributed to the exposure; and aperture and FEC con-

trol the amount of flash contributed to the exposure. Aperture

is nuanced as it governs both ambient light and flash, so you’ll

want to lean more heavily on FEC to fine-tune your flash out-

put when using TTL.

HIGH-SPEED SYNC

When it comes to creating dramatic portraits with moody skies

and ominous clouds, HSS makes it easy. This is because HSS allows

the use of shutter speeds beyond your camera’s top flash sync

speed or X Sync rating, typically around 1/160–1/200. With HSS,

you can use shutter speeds all the way up to 1/8000. This makes

the use of flash and wide apertures in mixed-light situations easy.

Remember, shutter speed controls the amount of ambient light in

an exposure. The ability to dramatically reduce the ambient light

allows you to underexpose the background, sky, etc., and use

your flash to expose your foreground subject properly.

It’s important to think about flash and ambient light as

two independent light sources, each controlled separately.

I typically underexpose the ambient by around 1–2 stops for

LIGHT IT ››

Profoto’s B1 delivers an impressive

500-Watt seconds of power and hundreds

of pops at full power. This compact bat-

tery-operated mono head offers a digital

interface, wireless control, and Manual,

TTL, and HSS exposure modes.

Profoto’s B2 packs a lot into a small pack-

age. This 250-Watt seconds battery pack

and head system offers Manual, TTL, HSS

exposure modes; wireless control; a digital

interface; and a line of OCF light modifiers.

Elinchrom’s new ELB 400 portable battery pack

and head system delivers 400-Watt seconds of

power, a digital interface, wireless control, and

numerous flash modes not found elsewhere,

such as stroboscopic, delay, and others. With

two heads available, one for action and one for

slower work, and Manual and HSS exposure

modes, there’s something for everyone.