Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Elinchrom has expanded its lighting range, adding to its long-standing range of strobes with a continuous LED light. Manufactured by Light & Motion in partnership with Elinchrom, the Elinchrom ELM8 is a portable continuous LED light with an EL mount. For Elinchrom strobe users, this means it should work with all your existing modifiers.
As we’ve come to expect from Elinchrom products, it’s not cheap, though. In Europe, it has a price tag of €1,379 + VAT and in the USA it’s $1,699.
The whole “continuous vs strobes” choice is pretty easy if you shoot video. But for photographers, it can be a little more challenging. New lights of both types are coming out all the time, and a lot of photographers wonder which type of light they should go with. In this video, Jay P Morgan looks at the advantages and disadvantages of both types of lights to see what tasks they’re better suited to.
If you’re like me, and you shoot mostly on location, power is an issue. For photography I solved those issues by switching to Godox strobes with light battery packs or integrated batteries. For video, though, power for continuous lights can be troublesome. Or at the very least, expensive. Some lights will allow you to use relatively inexpensive Sony NPF batteries, while others require expensive V-Mount batteries.
I’ve found another solution to my continuous power problem, though. RC lipo batteries. I had a few left over from my DJI Flamewheel F550 drone after the controller was stolen. So, I figured why not put them to good use elsewhere? They’re also great for powering cameras for battery-draining long exposure timelapse sequences, too.
Choosing continuous lights has become such a struggle for new filmmakers and photographers. Not too many years ago, your options were simple. Either you get some great big super hot tungstens, or you use that big ball of fire in the sky. Easy. These days, there are so many more options. We’ve still got those old tungstens, but we’ve also got fluorescents and leds.
And all this new tech comes with confusing terminology. Lux vs Lumens. CRI vs TLCI, and it all feels a bit like TMI. Information overload. So, here’s a video from Kevin, The Basic Filmmaker to simplify things, with a look at the state of lighting today. He covers all the different types of lights, the terminology used, what’s actually important to know, and what’s not worth wasting your time with.
The Godox AD200 flash has proven to be very popular since it was released a couple of months ago. A $299 200Ws flash with a similar form factor to a mid 90s cellphone, and interchangeable heads. Thus far, two different heads have been available for this unit, both of which come supplied. There’s the speedlight-style Fresnel head, and a strobe-like bare bulb, just like the AD360II.
At the moment, you can turn the Fresnel flash head continuous by enabling the modelling light. But now, Adorama have put up a new product for pre-order. A dedicated continuous LED head for the Godox AD200 (or eVOLV 200, as Adorama call it).
Honestly, I cannot believe this went under the radar for me. Photographer Dani Diamond just broke our ring light record, not by making it any bigger, but by adding a clever inner ring making it the first double-ringed DIY light I’ve seen.
The outer diameter is 4 feet and it features 12 bulbs in the inside ring and another 15 (actually 14) bulbs on the outside, making it a 27 bulbs monster. The only bulb that is missing, making it a 26-bulber is the topmost bulb that Dani uses as a clever mounting point, booming it rather that mounting it on a light stand.
OK, OK, I am a sucker for ring lights, don’t hate me. This build by DIY Perks combines the benefits of LED lighting (i.e. bright, continuous, cool) with the awesomeness of a ring light (smooth light, no shadows, glamorous look).
If you’ve been around the blog for a while, you know that we consider ring lights to be one of the best creative tools, and we have featured ring lights as big as 4 feet, and as small as 4 inches. This one is in the middle of the range, though probably brighter than both.
The makers at DIY Perks (who also made this LED panel) made one of the nicest ring lights I have seen to date.
LED light panels are great tools to have in your studio regardless of whether your a working with video or still photography. The continuous light sources come in a variety of sizes, but the nice ones also come at a price that may not agree with everyone’s budget. In this exceptionally well made video tutorial from the nice folks over at DIY Perks, you can learn how to make your own $500 dollar panel for under $70.
Before we get started, we should probably let you know this isn’t exactly the easiest or fastest project we’ve featured. It’s also not the most difficult, but you’ll need to be comfortable with power tools and know how to (or learn how to) work a soldering iron. If you’re willing to put in the time, the end product could save you some serious dough and also boost your DIY cred to all new heights.
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Ring lights have a very specific light signature. Mostly it is connected with fashion photography as it gives out a very flattering light. The light is coming from around the lens, but since it is symmetrical it seems as if the light is coming right from the center of the lens.
Small strobe powered ring lights can be used for stills but if you want something really impressive, you would go with a huge wooden bulb-driven ring light. While those are a bit harder to transport, they give out a spectacular light that can also be used for video.
(Oh, and make sure to check out those crazy catch lights at the sample pictures at the end of the post!)[Read More…]
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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