Elinchrom to ProMaster
While going to University to earn my Bachelors in Film, I was given an opportunity to learn about lighting setups. I simultaneously took a Cinematography class and a Beginning Commercial Photography class where I learned about different lighting techniques. Each technique corresponds but is also different depending on the medium, photography or cinematography.
The first project I was given was to light foam shapes to create definitions with shadows. I was given two Elinchrom lights with snoots, grids, soft boxes, and umbrellas to accomplish this task.
I ended up using snoots and grids to create the shadows I wanted on my shapes. Using one snoot coming form above created deep outer shadows and gave a darker background to my images (shown below on left image). Using a second snoot to the right created a deeper inner shadow and lit all the shapes more equally with a brighter background (shown below on right image).
Bringing this practice to my photography after this class proved to be a bit of a struggle, well more of an expense struggle than anything. I found myself in B&C Camera in Las Vegas trying to understand the differences between all of my different choices. I ended up leaving with a set of two ProMaster lights and a Raja Hexagon soft box.
Once I had my lights, it was time to use them! I was given the opportunity to photograph a nursing class’ graduation photos. Switching between one and two lights I was able to capture some beautiful photographs for these nurses to remember graduating from nursing school.
