Time To Beat The Sunlight

It’s fair to say that here in the UK, we’ve not had the greatest summer this year. Many times, I’ve woken up to rain on the window pane and opened the curtains to see dull, grey skies. So when the sun is shining down, without a cloud in the sky, then the shoot should be the easiest thing in the world. In fact, no tripods, no lighting gear, just a DSLR and a bag full of lenses, right? Well if it’s a dawn or sunset shoot, perhaps that might work, but what if the only time you can shoot the cars is in the blazing mid day sun? Harsh shadows and massive exposure range can make it a problem, unless you can supplement the sun and do something about it. Even then, your strobe may not have enough horsepower.

This shoot for Total 911 magazine is one such. A lovely, Guards Red and very rare prototype Porsche 993RS, an almost as rare sunny day in Yorkshire and not a lot of time. Elinchrom’s Ranger Quadra RX is my flash system of choice on these occassions. I’ll write very shortly about the many reasons why they’re a great asset for editorial work in particular, but on this day, one simple accessory stood out head and shoulders – the High Performance 48 degree reflector. Here’s why.

This day was very, very sunny, probably the brightest of the year. The Ranger RX was up at full power and we were managing, but only just. However, with the broad spread of light from the standard heads with no reflectors, we were wasting power. What I was unaware of, until Chris Whittle pointed it out to me, was that by adding the High Performance Reflector, not only did it narrow the light beam down to 48 degrees, it gives the effect of almost two stops extra power. The effect was dramatic. Suddenly, we had power in hand and shots that you’d struggle to gain enough power to balance became so easy. These shots, directly into the sunlight, illustrate the power of adding a narrow beam reflector to your system. They’re probably one of the cheapest accessories you can buy and yet give your whole system a boost on days like this.

Tagged as: car photography strobes, flash reflectors, porsche993, stobes