A few weeks ago I stumbled across a video by Jason Lanier using Flashpoint Xplor 600 and was amazed at the images he was getting. There where a number of other elements apart from the flash making the image, great location, great model, props, assistant, etc. but it was the Flashpoint system that got me curious. I’d been looking to add a strobe light in my studio, and this system, with it’s excellent mobile power and performance sold me for dual purpose studio and location use. So now I’m the happy owner of an Xplor 600 mono light. The fact that I could now shoot at 1/8000 sync speed was very exciting.
My first use was actually a bright sunny day shoot in a forest with Caitriona, who just won Cosplay first price in a recent event in Dublin for her amazing Mercy outfit. I’ll show you the pre a post image here to show how bright it was and how the Flashpoint easily handled the sun. This shot also used the 24″ Softbox Octa which I got with the mono light. Note, you need to order the mount for the softbox separately.
The Flashpoint also came with a R2 iTTL wireless trigger for Nikon. This system is very convenient as it allows you to control the Flash power from the camera location without having to touch the mono light.
Next shoot was in studio and taking dance moves with Elle Beth in her various ballet costumes. The only issue I had in studio was the fact that I got a Bowens mount Flashpoint softbox and my other light modifiers are for Elinchron with a different bayonet mount. My workaround was to shoot my flashpoint into my 1.5m Octabox which was pointing at Elle Beth. This worked just fine.
Having a portable HSS mono light really opens up the possibilities for future shoots. Most of my sessions in my studio have actually been by my tall window for portrait natural light images. This time, I blocked up the window from the start of the shoot with my backdrop to make sure I did not lapse into natural light shooting. I was so glad I did, there where so many excellent flash setups and images to chose from on this shoot. In the end I did reward myself with a couple of natual light poses, but they’re for another blog…
