Filling The Pelican: Lighting

In The Beginning: For me, flash photography has always been an evolutionary process. When I first started experimenting in the early 1970s, I lined an old umbrella with aluminum foil and used it with any flash I was able to scrounge up. I was also the first kid on my block to own a $40.00 Wein Flash Meter, which essentially made the immeasurable measurable. Later on, I was helping a biology professor at City College create an audio-visual tutorial on how to properly adjust a microscope. I created two softboxes I needed by starting with a cardboard box lined with aluminum foil. Then I suspended a flash on a narrow piece of plywood and aimed it towards the interior. Finally, I covered the front with some tracing paper. In effect, my "softbox" was in actuality, a box.

I currently use an assortment of Godox / Flashpoint units. For the record, Flashpoint was Adorama's house brand until Godox imported their products under their own name. Originally, Adorama offered the Flashpoint Zoom Li-on Flash, a manual output speedlight that could be controlled using an external dedicated receiver coupled with a hotshoe mounted commander. The hot new thing was the dedicated Lithium ion rechargeable battery which delivered short recycle times at full output. In 2016 I purchased four on sale for $99.00 each, along with the receivers and commanders to keep them all going. Unsurprisingly, this tribe of non-TTL configurations has been discontinued. However, I still use them frequently.

Godox AD200 flash. Full Post here.

Power Upgrade: When the Godox AD200 hit the market in 2018, my location approach to location lighting changed dramatically. Up until this point, big flash was a Norman 200B flash, complete with it heavy power pack and separate head. This and the Graflex IV were the real workhorse flashes for the event and wedding photographers of the 1960's, and being of the Flower Power generation, I automatically assumed that this permanently stooped shoulders would a fact of life.

The AD200 seemed to be a combination of all the newest innovations wrapped up in one compact product. It used a dedicated lithium-ion battery unit that recharged quickly (relatively), provided enough juice for sustained, full output pops, and was reasonably priced. The output to volume ratio was amazing. The flash required about 1.5 times the space to store, but could produce over three times the output of an SB-900 speedlight. It was also self contained, and small enough to fit inside of the Westcott Halo softboxes, eliminating any chance of light accidentally spilling onto the background. It was capable of TTL exposure automation, but in adding this feature, Godox adopted a different wireless protocol from the earlier Zoom Li-on flashes.

Pocket Wizard on AD200 Controller

I was able to bridge this technology gap by using two radio triggers. In this image you can see the AD200 controller mounted directly to the camera's hot shoe to control the AD200, while a second controller mounted in the controller's built-in hot shoe could be used for anything else. In this photo I used a Pocket Wizard transmitter, but it could have been replaced with one for the Zoom Li-on flash. That hot shoe was a bit of genius, as it has "straight through" circuitry that allows one to attach an OEM flash in the controller's hotshoe with full TTL control.

On my last assignment I carried only three flashes: an AD200 (for use in a softbox) and two Godox speedlights carried in my camera bag. Since the were all compatible with the AD200 controller, I had no issues. There could have been problems if I had added an older Zoom Li-on unit to the mix. In a pinch I could  have converted that maverick flash to trigger using its built-in optical slave, or I could have include the dedicated controller. Either way, I could have made it work.

Nikon Redeploy: Obviously I'll need to anticipate the lighting solution I am most likely to use, and equip myself accordingly. However, I am considering a compromise. First off, I usually have two Godox speedlights riding in my camera case. These will respond to the same R2 controller as the Godox AD200. By adding a my seldom used Nikon compatible Godox V1 to the Pelican, I now have my requisite three speedlights for a complete "Krist List". While the flash is designed to deliver TTL exposure automation when mounted in a Nikon hotshoe, it behaves like a dedicated remote when communicating with the R2 controller. Since this is a "round head" flash, it will accept all of the magnetic gels kept in the Pelican.

Umbrellas and Soft Boxes:  The easiest and most portable solution is to use shoot-through umbrellas. They can produce very soft lighting with huge catchlights when you subjects are relatively small subjects (example: half-length portraits). When you use the "double fold" versions, they have an overall collapsed length of only 14", making them almost pockable in a photojournalist's vest. Bob Krist's checklist includes two such umbrellas. Now I need to be clear:  Using umbrellas or softboxes outdoors can be an invitation to disaster if there is even the slightest of breezes. I've crashed several shoot-through umbrellas when they went "Mary Poppins" whenever the wind came up.

Buy yours here.

For the moment, I'll permanently add that third speedlight to the case and I'll be ready with three lights mountable on three separate light stands whenever the Pelican is in the trunk. If I know I'll be working indoors and need some soft, flattering light, I'll throw in the AD200 and a Glow 31" x 31" Softbox (with its dedicated bracket). Since the softbox and AD200 combination are heavy, I'll just sling a suitably stable lightstand over my shoulder. 

Squeezing both the AD200 flash and the collapsed Glow Softbox may be a tight fit, but the Glow Softbox could be strapped to the extension handle with a bungee cord if necessary.

So far as I can tell, I've covered all of the necessary lighting basics, and by the time my next location portrait comes around, I'll be ready to go.