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Retouching with the Wacom Intuos Pro
05/22/2019
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They say a picture says a thousand words. Follow me and the stories behind the photos or how the shoot came together.
When I first dove into professional lighting I debated between Broncolor and Profoto. Both companies offer unprecedented lighting options and you really can't go wrong, for the most part, with either of them.
I knew I wanted battery powered equipment for my workflow and at the time the Broncolor offered a slightly more powerful monolight, specifically the Siros 800 L. The Siros 800 L was an amazing light and I had literally zero issues with it. The size was a little on the larger size but at the time I felt its performance outweighed the inconvenience. However, there was one other minor inconvenience that was part of my decision to switch and that is Broncolor doesn't fully support Olympus cameras with their wireless triggers. I got things working with the Broncolor RFS 2.2 trigger but only below x-sync speeds and not with HSS, but I also expected that. With further testing I was able to get everything to work even with HSS with PocketWizard but now this also meant I had to have a receiver connected to the monolight as well and I couldn't directly control the flash power output.
Profoto has had their B1X monolight for quite some time now which is fairly similar to the Broncolor Siros 800 L, although the B1X is only a 500W/s light. Recently they announced a brand new battery powered light, the Profoto B10. At first glance it looked like the perfect setup; small form factor, lightweight, adjustable modeling light, great design... what's not to like about it!? The more I looked into it the more I wanted one, or two. Now, I should mention the power output of the B10 is rated at 250W/s so it's one stop less than the B1X and even more than the Siros 800 L. Would I regret it? Will 250W/s be enough?
"small form factor, lightweight, adjustable modeling light, great design..."
If I was going to switch, now would be the time. I wasn't too far invested into Broncolor quite yet and I knew I could sell it easily. My Broncolor softboxes I could still use with Profoto gear so there would be no loss there. The thought of the estimated limited power was still a concern so I definitely started doing my research and there was definitely one review on youtube by Travis Harris Photography that helped push my decision further towards Profoto. Travis is a Miami wedding photographer and had been recently using the B10's for outdoor shoots and overpowering the sun, so this nixed my thoughts of the B10 potentially not being powerful enough.
So the time came, I put up the Siros for sale and went to my local camera shop to pick up the Profoto B10 duo kit. When I was at the store looking at their demo model it was the first time I had actually physically got my hands on one for testing but I was instantly impressed. It was even better in person with a really clean screen layout and buttons for adjustments. And the size, these lights are so small and powerful! There is one downside I haven't brought up yet and is that I'll need a Profoto Air Remote transceiver for Olympus as well. These transceivers are super reliable and in my opinion very well laid out, but dang they are expensive at over $400 just for the remote. Excellent quality, but still expensive no matter how you look at it. But I'm excited to now have full control, including HSS, with a remote actually designed for Olympus, so no cutting corners trying options that "work" but not necessarily designed for my camera.
Initial setup was very easy and the lights were easy to learn how to use without reading any manuals. Profoto also has and app where you can connect to the lights via bluetooth for full control of the lights as well as firmware upgrades, so I updated the lights to the latest firmware just to make sure everything was up to date. Everything went smooth without any issues.
Did I mention how small these lights are? :) I'm absolutely loving everything about these lights. Setting them up for the first time to do a test shoot was a blast and they worked great with my Broncolor modifiers/softboxes. The Air Remote was efficient and easy to use and worked great in HSS as well with just a simple press of the button. I know these are going to amazing lights and I'm really looking forward to using them more and actually getting another 1 or two as well!
So, as with anything else, nothing is perfect and my opinion is based on what is best for me and my style/workflow. So if I had to be picky, what more would I want out of these? I think most people would say more power without changing the size because why not. It's always nice to know you have the power for different situations. Of course Profoto has the B1X which is more power and a larger size but I'm going to hold out until Profoto releases an updated B1X, who knows when this will be but I'm sure it will be someday. Aside from more power I would actually like one or two B1X's or whatever the future model is to help better support larger softboxes. I tested the B10's with large softboxes and it works but it's difficult to adjust such large modifiers on a small light.
All in all, I'm very happy with these lights and happy to be a part of the Profoto family now and can only see me building up my Profoto gear more and more. If you get the chance to test some B10's I highly recommend it. I think the B10 shows the innovative direction Profoto is continuing to head and I can't wait to see what's next for them. In the meantime, I'll be shooting away happily with these B10's. Thank you Profoto!
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05/22/2019
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