What we wanted to achieve:
The effect of "WOW". With Angelica Wiatr, we take photos of sport events. This time we wanted to create something that we had never seen before. We decided to go this one step further with our friendly Taekwon-do club (Korean martial art). Classical, most popular combat photos look stunning for people who know the arcana of the sport, but do not show the true spirit of this martial art. Our photo shoot was aimed to reveal the power and the dynamics of kicks and punches.
How?
With a little help of Olympus, to be precise we used top E-M1 Mark II model which features just splendid burst mode and auto-focus. The smaller micro 4/3 matrix came as an advantage too — we have managed to achieve greater depth of focus with the same aperture so that the flashes did not have to use full power and could have charge and work more effectively. Lighting was the most important factor to choose. I have looked for flashes with two parameters: extremely short flash duration, and very effective burst mode. Why? We wanted to show frozen water drops and capture the moment of the largest spray.
Standard studio lamps have the flash duration of 1/500-1/1000s — here the top Quadralite - Pulse Pro X product features the splendid result — shortens the flash duration to 1/35086s in the 400Ws version and to 1/28984s in 600Ws version. Quadralite lamps can flash with the speed of up to 10 frames per second, so they perfectly supplemented Olympus E-M1 II ensuring complete synchronization. Black frames due to the flashing device failure belong to the past.
My Choice?
Setup was quite simple — 3 Quadralite Pulse Pro X flashes - Main 600Ws, two counter — 600Ws and 400Ws. Light Modifiers? Primarily reflectors to get sharp, contrasting light. Large 45 cm reflector on the main flash, 18 cm reflectors on the remaining lamps.
Large advantage of these lamps consist in the built-in receiver of the Navigator X triggering system — with this function, I was able to dynamically adjust the power of 3 individual lamps without approaching them. Not to mention tangling cables, anyone who tried to cheat the gravity, should understand that.
Problems?
The biggest problem was... water. Splashes were huge, not fully controlled, and the level of water in studio would rise up to the alarming state. The problem was resolved by painting foil and famous, irreplaceable home device — mop. We did not want to risk cold water getting onto the heated burner, which could indicate not very pleasant situation (as if mop cleaning was pleasant at all). Each lamp has a reflector cover, but we have installed a thin, textile diffuser on the main flash which was directly on the "line of fire" (or water). The diffuser provided additional protection for the burner.
Outcome?
Check it out yourself! I have created perfectly frozen water drops thanks to extremely fast flashes and ultra-short flash duration. 10 frames per second with minimum power, keeping parameters (color temperature and power) constant across the entire series of multi flashes, very efficient cooling (no overheating) are the most important features which turn the Quadralite Pulse Pro X flash into a perfect companion for sport sessions.
PS. Nobody suffered during the shoot ;)
Author/Photos: Łukasz Skwiot, Angelika Wiatr