What makes you want to be a photographer?
Has your mind paused for a second and seen another world? A world that enables one to freeze a moment in time that is now lost or forgotten? Good photography can be quite challenging and it forms who you become and progress to. Often the right equipment can help speed up this rate of progress. Cameras and lenses add their obvious value and are a given. In my opinion, great lighting equipment and lighting technique are probably the biggest contributors to really great photography. In steps Elinchrom and PocketWizard. New technology. Necessary technology. Especially for action.
Whether you’re a pro or amateur, here’s some exciting new kit that surpasses the boundaries of past camera/flash sync technologies. There have been some notes on the net regarding the just upgraded Elinchrom Ranger Quadra/\Ranger RX and PocketWizards. I have found this information to be less comprehensive than i had hoped, so after purchasing the new Ranger Quadra and Ranger RX, and some of the new Pocketwizard TT1 and TT5’s, i decided to do my own testing. As all DSLR shooters know, high speed flash sync has always been an elusive technology that promised much, but didn’t always deliver in field situations.
Recently, i shot the cover for the TREAD Mountain Bike Magazine and achieved flash sync of 1/1600* shooting with my Nikon D3x and the Quadras! (using the Pocketwizard Hypersync feature). Even higher syncs are available, but ambient light restricted this specific shoot to 1600th/s. Hell yes – its about time someone had technology that actually worked in real-world conditions and weren’t just empty promises developed to sell products. Not only will this open new doors to your action photography – imagine shooting portraits at these high shutter speeds in daylight, creating that underexposed background effect that was only before possible in low light situations! (In more extensive tests the Quadra has acheived up to 2000th/s sync* with the Ranger RX going up to 3200th/s*).
Photography equipment is all about systems. I use Nikon gear as it allows me to be part of a system of products and accessories that give me the freedom to take on any job and know i have the right tools at hand. In the same vein, the Elinchrom system offers a smorgasboard of accessories and light shapers that enable their flashes to not only be very useful in the field, but also versatile workhorses in the studio – especially if you buy a extra battery controller and use the two Quadra heads independently as 400W/S strobes! (not to mention the 1100W/S Ranger RX beast)
Now that i now have more control of action, i am pretty excited. I’ll post some new images soon so please keep an eye on this development! Feel free to mail me at ben@bbphoto.co.za for any queries on how to achieve above results with your Quadra/Ranger RX equipment.
*Keep in mind that at the highest flash syncs, there is slight light fall-off to the left of the frame but this is hardly a problem(esp. for outdoor action) as one would more likely than not be using this set-up as fill flash in bright daylight and that fall-off will hardly be noticeable and there are backlighting techniques that canhelp minimise this effect.
