Tag Archive for: movement

Close to the background

/in , /by

Often when using seamless we are almost automatically placing the model far away from the background to create a shadowless shot.
However it can be very dynamic when you place the model very close to the seamless and let her/him start playing with the shadow that is cast, in other words make that shadow part of the shot, but when you also add some aimed light (in this case an Elinchrom 1.00 mtr Deep Octa with grid) and some motion and expression you can have a striking shot.

 

I converted the shot to BW to give a bit more of a rough edge.

Roosmarijn Mei 22 2014 (7 of 155)-Edit

Some ELC action with Marie

/in /by

This weekend I had the honor to introduce the new Elinchrom ELC units to the press in the Netherlands.
The event was hosted by the Dutch agent for Elinchrom Fotoflits.
I started with a small introduction of the new system after which we walked to an empty warehouse where Marie was waiting for us for some wicked shots showcasing some of the creative effects you can get with the ELCs.

 

The fun part about these strobes is that it really triggers your creativity, if a strobe is just a bit faster or has one or two stops more range that’s just making your work easier but when you have features like : Delay, stroboscopic, high frame rate, option for series and much more it really starts to trigger something in me that is hard to explain but you just want to see what’s possible if for example one strobe is on stroboscopic while in the mean while the first strobe fires and using the modeling light for a second curtain flash effect which ends with the third strobe firing in delay, add some smoke and confetti to that idea and you are doing something that would normally involve some heavy Photoshop work. Timing is important of course and the results you see here are all shot during a short demo so far from perfect…. but I hope it triggers you to think differently about what you can do with strobes.

 

I strongly believe that if you get the ELCs and are creative with them the sky is the limit, so I’m looking forward what kind of stuff we will see from photographers if they start selling them.

 

The first images are pretty straight forward and are just using the freezing power of the ELC and the high frame rate to hit that “one” moment (or several), the last two images actually use one strobe on stroboscopic (very faint) and two strobes for freezing.

Marie fotoflits ELC Maart 8 2014 (35 of 56)-Edit

 

Read more

The new Elinchrom ELC the game changing strobes

/9 Comments/in , , , /by

Elinchrom meets a new dimension in lighting
Photographers play with light, but above all we play with time. Actually for me photography is freezing a unique moment that will never happen again in the exact that same way.
In the studio we basically have two ways to use light. The first one is continuous light, the second is with strobes. You can also use both at the same time or mix them. Supporters of continuous light talk about: What you see is what you get.  The strobe supporters say: The power of strobes allows us to create stunning freezing action shots. I’m a supporter of the second group. Don’t get me wrong, I also often work with continuous light, but with continuous light I don’t have the possibility to do a day to night shot with the bright sun, freezing the moment and I cannot play with depth of field (especially creating a deep depth of field) when shooting my medium format camera.

 

One real disadvantage of strobes is that strobes often have to recharge after every flash, and that can sometimes can take the “flow” out of shoot.

6c540d7cb22d4bb3e9c346418940ccb8Enter the ELC
Elinchrom strobes were already very fast in comparison with most other brands, but now they introduced one of the fastest strobe in the world. This is a new high end strobe  and will catch a lot of attention, not only because of it’s performance, but it will also push photographers to the next level of creativity. It will help  you to create pictures which weren’t possible before due to a load of features you will love and never saw in Elinchrom strobes before. Of course there is a lot of information in the manual and on the specsheets, but let me show you what I think are the biggest advantages of these strobes.

 

A few months ago Elinchrom send me the ELCs to test. It’s really exciting to test photography gadgets so long before their official release. But sometimes it’s also really really hard because, as you can understand, you canot tell anyone and trust me I’m REALLY enthusiastic about the ELCs.  And to keep it a secret and only share my experiense with a very small group… believe me it was very very hard.  I’m glad we can finally demonstrate the strobes in our workshops, on trade-shows and events.

Nadine Februari 7 2014 (222 of 297)-Edit

What is so special about ELC?
Basically the design of the units is like an ordinary Elinchrom strobe.  Only the 500 and 1000 watt are in the same housings now. This is easier for transport, and it just looks nicer in the studio when mixing strobes. The major difference however, which will make a lot of photographers very happy, is something that has actually nothing to do with the light itself 😀

 

The display
We all know this problem, you have to change something in your setup and…. Whoops where was that thingy again…. Is it this button in combination with that button? If you found it, than you have to search between codes like FB, FX, F1, F2 etc. and after that you have a lot more of menu options. To be honest, I love Elinchrom a lot and I work on a daily basis with it, but I need a cheat sheet when I have to change a setting that I don’t use weekly or monthly. Not a big deal of course, but sometimes in a stress full situation it can be…challenging.
Luckely this is a part of history. The new ELC units have a fantastic menu system. No cryptical desciptions, but a very clear display with full phrases and a great menu structure. In one word AMAZING!

 

In the menu you’ll find, of course the settings for the sky port, modelling lights, beeps etc…. but you’ll find way more than that. You can change the sound signals itself, the speed of recycling, set standby options, use the strobes in series, adjust the delays, adjust the…….. well let me put it this way……and much more.

 

I hear you think….. “Hey! I heard some settings that I haven’t seen before.” and yes… the ELC strobes can do a lot more than simple flash to freeze the movement. It will fill way too much space to explain everything, but I will show you some basics, which I use very often.

Sanne Januari 11 2014 -17-Edit

Read more

Dare to close in

/in , /by

I love to shoot motion, well you already know that probably 😀
But most of the time we shoot motion with a full body approach, however sometimes it’s also very interesting to close really in to your model, in this case I asked Lenaa to play around with her coat and just “move” as you can see the tight crops actually enhance the feeling of motion and of tension.

 

So the next time you are working with motion don’t just think about shooting the move, but also dare to really close in and fill the frame with a crop.

Lenaa Januari 4 2014 (58 of 80)-Edit

Read more