Picture this: you’re a professional photographer working with a beautiful model in a jaw-dropping location, with a top-notch camera and equipment. Sounds like a recipe for success, but the one thing you’re lacking? Light. If you don’t have a good light source, you don’t have a good photo –– luckily, that’s what flashes were made to remedy.
Let’s be clear – flash is good, flash is the savior of any low-light situation — but if you don’t have the proper setup, you run the risk of washing out your subjects or giving them an unwanted ‘deer-in-headlights’ look. There are thousands of lighting systems out there, but if you are looking for an easy, comprehensive lighting setup, light master Mark Wallace suggests using the Profoto B1.
This sophisticated flash is fully TTL enabled, meaning it communicates directly with your camera (reading your aperture settings, ISO, etc) instead of using its own light metering system. You can even use Profoto if you’re shooting on a sunny day –– it’s ten times more powerful than most speedlights, and will let you overpower the sun for maximum control over your shoot! The result? Amazing lighting each and every time.
Check out Mark’s tips for setting up Profoto, and 30 seconds later you’ll be shooting in beautiful light!
Charge Your System
Profoto B1 is completely cordless and powered with a high-capacity battery (it shoots off up to twenty flashes per second), so just make sure your system is fully charged, pop it in a bag, and head out to your shoot. It’s that easy.
Set Up Profoto
You’ll need to know how to position your light so that it hits your model from the right direction, but the B1 will take care of the rest. Just set take your flash out of its case, attach it to a stand and turning on the power button.
Use Your Air Remote
While you look through your lens and meter the ambient light, your Air Remote will be busy reading the exact measurements from your camera; allowing it to seamlessly compute the ideal flash output for your shoot in a mere matter of seconds.
Shape Your Light
Profoto’s TTL capabilities alone are enough to create perfect “natural” light, but if you want to manipulate your lighting even more, you can easily do so with Profoto’s 120 light shaping tools. You simply slide the “Shaping Tool” back and forth until the light is to your liking, giving you maximum control over your flash output.
Because of Profoto B1’s exacting TTL abilities, each flash output is unique to the individual circumstances of your shoot, meaning that no two images will be lit the same. And if you’re worried about your photo looking over-exposed or washed out, forget about it. Thanks to Profoto’s intelligent TTL metering system, your flash output is always curated to fit your lighting needs, giving you perfect exposure every time!
Source: YouTube
