As if I didn’t have enough of Hensel… 🙂 I already have a 4-head monolight studio set with Hensel’s lightboxes and softboxes, sized from medium to huge. This set has been serving me great in studio and on location indoors but here comes my first project requiring same studio quality outdoors. I’ve been eying their new portable lighting solution, Porty 12 Lithium powering two EH Pro Mini 1200P flash heads. A retro engagement session that I am planning for this coming Saturday presented an opportunity to jump on board (UPDATE: session posted). This versatile and rugged German equipment offers some remarkable for nowadays specs such as lightweightness (5.9 kg), 1200 J of energy, max 1.95 secs recycling, up to 230 flashes at full power, flash duration up to 1/5100 sec, 7-stop levels, and full radio control.
That’s not all… What fashion photographer is without a ringflash? Well, I managed somehow until now. A fashionable boudoir session is in the plans with the Rouge Makeup Studio and I felt that its grandeur requires an additional touch of a glamorous light.
And finally, I added a beauty dish to my ringflash. Unfortunately, it does not fit my studio strobes (nice going, Hensel… 🙂 ) so I also bought a second beauty dish for my Integra Pro 500 heads. I had a chance to put the latter to work past Sunday during a “double” boudoir session involving a couple. The results are fabulous, some will be posted here and in the gallery later. The internal light shield allows bounce-only lighting. The dish, when positioned properly, gives a soft, wide-angle radiating light, beautifully wrapping the subject and falling off with a dramatic feel.
All the above was bought after I told my wife that it looked like I was pretty much covered… Am I now? – she asked. I sighed and explained what the new Canon 5D Mark II has to offer…
03/23/09 update: Here’s a photo from the session when my beauty dish was used for the first time: