Elinchrom 1.50 indirect Octa

In a country far far away…. (well actually it was Germany) I first saw a proto type of the Elinchrom 1.50mtr indirect Octa. From that first contact I fell in love with it. Some modifiers you see and you immediately become enthusiastic, the light had to be awesome. I love the 1.90mtr indirect Octa and my most used soft box must be the Deep octa which I advise to every photographer. However with the 1.90mtr you are getting a beautiful soft light but it misses some “bite”, the Deep Octa gives you that “bite” but it’s just a bit too small for some applications. When shooting full bodies I always remove the translucent material from the 1.90mtr to give it a bit more “edge” but it’s still a huge soft box with beautiful light but sometimes you just want something more…..

The moment I saw the 1.50mtr indirect octa I knew it….. this thing will rock.

Someone once said that everything worth having is worth waiting for…. well I agree, but you can also exaggerate.
The next time I saw the 1.50mtr indirect octa was during Photoshop World Orlando, where I used one during my demo, this was the first time I used the soft box and I felt sorry it was only for a few shots, because what I saw made me happy and wanting it even more. And now finally…. it dropped down on my studio floor, it must have been one of the longest releases from Elinchrom I ever saw, but it was worth it.

As you can imagine I could not wait to test-drive the box, and because I was teaching the Advanced III workshop it was possible to squeeze it in. We started with a fairly simple setup with a few cubes and the soft box under an angle to the model. As expected the spread is more than enough to use on full bodies, but the shadows are much “crispier” than the 1.90mtr Octa. The main look is just great for fashion.

Well ok this setup is nice, but it’s not a lot different from what you can do with the deep octa, the light fall off is a bit softer due to the larger size but it’s not a huge difference (and that is a good thing), so for the next setup I had to try full body shots, and what happened next made me feel warm all over. From the moment you set the light you already see what the difference this box brings to the 1.90 octa and 1.00 deep octa. This is the box I will be using for most of my full body work, it rocks !!!

The deep octa is not bad for full bodies but it really shines with 3/4 bodies, you can of course move the box further away to also reach the full body, however when moving it further away the light fall off is also longer and that (for me) takes away from the look I like in fashion shots. When you change to for the 1.90 the result is very nice but you miss the “bite” I talked about before, and I have to be careful not to repeat myself but the 1.50 indirect deep octa really brings the best of the both together and that’s something that will give you a great modifier to work with.

A lot of people over the years have asked me why I don’t use a lot of beauty dishes, and the answer is actually simple, I love to use the Deep octa for this and ever since I got this box I never used my beauty dish again. The deep octa gives a great quality of light with portraits, but sometimes you also want something with a bit more “spread” so I was anxious to see what the 1.50mtr would do. I used the same setup as with the full bodies (just moved closer) and got this result.

And as you can imagine this made me very happy, nice crisp shadows without being too dark and a great soft quality on the skin but still with a lot of contrast (yes they can go together).

Conclusion
With the 1.50mtr Deep Octa indirect Elinchrom completed their line up (for me) that I wished for, for fashion use. It perfectly fills the “gap” between the 1.00 deep octa and the 1.90mtr indirect octa. The box itself is delivered with two translucent materials, one that can be fitted in the middle position and one for the front. In the shots you have seen in this blog post I used none, in other words, just the strobe in the box without any for of diffusion. Tomorrow I will also try some shots with the middle diffuser in place.

I can highly recommend this soft box if you’re using the Elinchrom system, it will not disappoint.
The responses from all the students during todays workshop were very positive when we did the full body shots and that’s the best indicator of course.

For the Dutch buyers, see http://www.fotoflits.nl or for students they can also order the box from us.