Photoshoot of Désirée Hermann

Last weekend took pictures of an aspiring singer/songwriter Désirée Hermann. Check out her music on myspace. In the mean time here are my two favorites from the shoot:

Both shot with Elinchrom BX 500 Ri kit. The first picture was lit with one softbox in front of her and lighting the background (a white bed sheet...) with the second Rotalux. Two takeaways: make sure the background is realy smooth; has no wrinkles and is not wavy... Otherwise you'll waste too much time cleaning it up in full lenght shots. Second- one light for background is ok, but just a little not enough to make it eavenly lit. Tried to fill in with SB-800 from the other side, but that flash is so weak compared to Elinchroms! You get used to a lot of power too quick :)

Second picture is just one softbox directly above her. To get more controll over light would be just great. A normal softbox spills light too much and I did have to do some make up work on the background to get it completely black. No big deal though, but obviously a gridded softbox goes on the ever growing wishlist.

Ah yes, shot with Nikon D70s and 70-300 VR (first pic) and 18-70 (second pic).

Have fun ;)
M.

New EL Skyport Speed!

Just a couple of weeks since I got my new BX 500 Ri kit and Elinchrom release new version of their Skyports - the EL Skyport Speed.

Main advantages according to Elinchrom are:
- Improved housing, battery drawer and switches;
- Improved integrated Hot-shoe with screw lock;
- 1/250 sync speed.

The first two should fix the main whining about these transmitters/receivers. If the buttons/switches are working as they should, I don't see a single problem with them any more. Even though my copies of transmitters and receiver I have for the SB-800 hot shoe flash are working totaly fine, there are people complaining about the buttons not functioning as they should. From my part, the only issue I have is the receivers on/off switch sensitivity... Might not even notice how you switch it off... Seems to be solved in the new version by putting the button lower then the rest of surface:

These seem also to be backwards compatible with BX 500 Ri that I already have and other current Elinchrom heads, so if I ever get arround to upgrading to these transmitters, there should be no problems with current equipment. 

The reason I'm not jumping in my seat regarding the high speed sync is that I have no issues with it even today with my D70s... But folks with other cameras sure should appreciate this feature.

Check out the remaining details at Elinchrom product page.

Have fun ;)
M.

NOTE: images in this post are from Elinchrom page, not my photographs.

True Or Not

Pictures from Johanna Nordströms 'True Or Not' album release concert now available. Great bunch of people, great music, good times! Thanks for all the fun!

Mostly used available light- two insanely powerfull stage lights that were there, crosslighting the whole place with harsh unbarable light. Sometimes added a bit of bounced fill with SB-800 (had a low white ceiling at my disposal). The usual D70s with 18-70 kit lens. The event took place on a boat, so it was seriously tight there. Lesson learned- 18mm is not enough in places like these!

//M.