Get inspired by famous photographers, discover stories, behind the scene and their secrets.

 

When it became clear that the COVID 19 quarantine was going to keep me at home for a while, I was really bummed. This meant that the situation had become really serious, lives across the world were at risk, and all my commissioned jobs were cancelled.

 

For a personal project, I wanted to create a series of quirky images that illustrated things that we could all be doing alone during this quarantine. This was the impetus for my latest personal project, Isolation Inspiration, which I shot over the past month.

 

There are many ways in which people are providing assistance during this global pandemic. I am extremely appreciative of the many healthcare and food workers on the frontlines, the photojournalists who are capturing the stories that need to be told, and the individuals sewing masks from home. While I don’t have skills to contribute in these ways, I started Isolation Inspiration in hopes of bringing a small smile to people’s faces during a challenging time.

 

Follow Justin Bettman:

www.justinbettman.com

www.instagram.com/justinbettman

www.facebook.com/justinbettman

Follow us:

@broncolor

www.facebook.com/broncolor

www.broncolor.swiss

Often at Awamu Moja we take advantage of Fashion Photography to denounce endemic social and environmental problems of our civilization which is constantly crushing everything in its path.

This shooting is part of a campaign of two shooting sessions on environmental issues.

Environmental disasters are becoming so widespread that they start threatening the future of humankind on earth. Absurdly, they are due to the terrible damages caused to our planet by humanity itself, always looking for more: more comfort, more wealth, more choice, more… more… more. Where will this inextinguishable thirst lead us? Nobody knows. But the environmental consequences are already dreadful.

 

This specific Shooting Session targets Petrol Catastrophes. The ERIKA sailed out of Dunkerque, bound for Livorno with a cargo of around 31,000 tons of heavy fuel oil. She sunk on December 8, 1999. (20 YEARS AGO). The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded on April 20, 2010, 40 miles southeast off the Louisiana coast (10 YEARS AGO). Two of the major environmental disasters. Did we learn something?

This session has been done in my studio in Luxembourg that has given us such a fabulous playground.

 

I think the quality of a good studio is mainly measured by the quality of the lighting it offers to the photographer. The physical environment is important, but the capabilities of the lighting equipment gives all its pedigree. Photographers paint with light first. All other tools come second. This is why I did not want to skimp and decided to work with what I think is the best light equipment available on the market, broncolor.

 

For these 2 days of shooting, my team and I worked with six b roncolor 3200 S WiFi / RFS 2 Power Packs, 18 Pulso G Heads, 3 Picolites with ad-ons, 1 Pulso Spot 4, and a great bunch of modifiers, including a few Paras and a Flooter.

We were able to install four sets at the time, speeding the shooting process greatly. 14 different sets have been photographed in two days. The usability interface of the Scoro is so easy and naturally obvious to use that short thinking times were needed to get ready for the next shot. Speed is financially appreciated when you work with a few models at the same time and a reasonable sized team.

 

Regarding the Scoros, I could come up with: extremely fast recycling, very fast flash durations, very rapid flash sequences. Everything great, but the most important for my photography is the Enhanced Color Temperature Control Technology (ECTC), which gives a constant colour temperature over the entire variation range. No matter how you shoot, colour temperature remains constant, that spares so much post-production time. Colour Temperature is crucial in Fashion and Beauty Photography.

The BronControl desktop software allowed me to save time as well, controlling my six Scoross on different channels/studios.

 

I used all sorts of broncolor modifiers that gave me widely all the solutions I needed. For me, these modifiers work two ways: I can choose a specific modifier because its shape will give me the solution to shoot a picture I have in mind. Though, sometimes it is the shape of the modifier who inspires me to shoot a specific picture. And this is why it is crucial to choose a brand that produces a very large number of modifiers – this is what broncolor does.

 

Regarding lamps, my most favorite are the broncolor Picolites. Picolites are to light what surgeons are to medicine. An extremely versatile and accurate light, that solves 99% of all my tricky issues. I use all the available attachments for Picolites: attachment with honeycomb grids, Fresnel attachment, Projection attachment and the Picobox.

 

Above all this, the cherry on the cake that makes me so proud and blessed, is my amazing dream team. People who never balk at spending the time it takes to achieve a good image and to go the extra mile. I could never take these photos if they were not with me before, during and after the shooting session. So blessed.

 

Watch the video for this photoshoot:

Awamu Moja is about bringing different Creatives to create something unique.

 

Connect with broncolor

https://www.instagram.com/broncolor/

https://www.facebook.com/broncolor/

https://www.broncolor.swiss/

Connect with Awamu Moja:

https://www.awamumoja.com/

https://www.instagram.com/awamumoja/

https://www.facebook.com/awamumoja1/

 

Credits:

Lighting : broncolor

Photographer and Concept : Moja

Photo Assistant : Yasmine Sweetlove

Creative Director : Cassandre Lebrun

Fashion Designers Anne Deprez – Huiqin Peng – Fraise au Loup Costumes

Production Manager Anne-Sophie Van den Bogaert

Lighting Assistant : Ainhoa Querejeta

Logistic : Florian Strée

Models : Riona Neve – Valeryia Hulidzina

Make-up artist : PADDY MCGURGAN MAKE UP ARTIST

Hairstylist : Natalia Goff

Acquisition and retouching : Ruslana Kedria

Video : François Schmitt

For the past year, I’ve been doing a series of collaborations with my favorite prop house ACME
Brooklyn. We’ve been building sets exclusively out of their props and doing shoots that have no
creative limits except to only use props from ACME Brooklyn.

For a long time, I’ve had the idea of doing a photoshoot with a family where everyone in the
family has an afro. To add on to that, I wanted to use only circular objects in the set to give it
some character and an overall concept. I looked through the prop house with Shawn Patrick
and we pulled a ton of fun circular objects that could work.

 

As we were putting things in the set, we realized that visually for the shot, the more empty the
space the better the shot, so we didn’t go too heavy handed with the spherical objects. We
ultimately ended up with a fish bowl, a stationary bike, a couple couches, a clock, and a ton of
cheese balls.
From a lighting standpoint, I typically go with really soft motivated lights. But for this, it was
already so surreal and bizarre that I felt not everything needed to be coming from a motivated
light source, so I took some liberties.

 

 

Ultimately I ended up using 4 lights:
Light 1: Siros 800 S with a 5’ Octabox through an 8’x8’ 1 stop silk.
Light 2: Siros 800 S with a beauty dish and a grid, boomed directly overhead.
Light 3: Siros 800 L with a P70 directly aimed at the set from camera right and high above
Light 4: Siros 800 S with a 4’x1’ strip box, shot from behind the set to give a little bit of rim light
on the subjects
Camera: Fuji GFX100 with 32-64 Lens.

 

 

The stylist Jess Mederos pulled a second look, so we decided to do another setup. We switched
out most of the set pieces and the carpet so that it would look totally different.
My goal with Light 3: Siros 800 L with a P70 was to really give the curtains some depth and
dimension but since they weren’t in the second setup, I put this light through the silk so there
wouldn’t be hard shadows. Other than that tweak, the lighting setup was the same for this set.

 

 

Credits:
Photographer: Justin Bettman
Photo Assistant: Biagio Dell’Aiera & Eric Hart
Set Design/Props: ACME Brooklyn / Shawn Patrick Anderson
Wardrobe: Jess Mederos
Hair Stylist: Anike Rabiu
Make Up Artist: Soo Park
Production: Marissa Ericson & Brian Colgan

 

Connect with Justin Bettman:

Instagram: @justinbettman

Facebook: Justin Bettman

Website: www.justinbettman.com

 

 

The broncolor LED F160 is the most precisely shapeable LED lamp on the market. From finetuning the power output over a range of 5 full f-stops to adjusting its green-magenta axis as well as its colour temperature – the remarkable features on the LED F160 enable photographers to adapt to every situation.

In addition, the broncolor bayonet gives you access to a vast range of light shapers. In combination with its ability to focus the light source, the LED F160 can create every light characteristic you will ever need.

Let’s have a look at how the LED F160 shapes light:

Reference shot

The LED F160 comes with an included umbrella reflector Ø 120 mm. This is the result you get out of the box:

 

Below, you can see examples of modifications on the power output, colour temperature and green-magenta shift with the same umbrella reflector which is included in the scope of delivery:

Power Output

You can regulate the power output over a range of 5 f-stops (from 160 Watts down to 10 Watts). The adjustments can be done in very fine and incredibly accurate steps of 1/10 of a stop.

Colour Temperature

The colour temperature can be adjusted in precise increments of 50 K over a remarkably wide range of 2800 K to 6800 K. In addition, the LED F160 contains two presets enabling you to easily switch from 3200 K (Tungsten) to 5500 K (daylight).

Green-Magenta Shift

An additional outstanding feature of the LED F160 is its ability to smoothly shift the light between green and magenta.

 

Besides its technical excellence, the broncolor LED F160 also offers unlimited creative possibilities thanks to the extensive range of compatible light shapers.

Bare Bulb LED F160

Shooting bare bulb is an option that often gets forgotten, even though it can result in outstanding images. The LED F160 has a perfectly diffused dome that can be used without other accessories attached to create extremely sharp graphical shadows.

 

Standard Reflector L40 on the LED F160

As the first light shaper, we have to mention the broncolor standard reflector L40 .

The focus-ability of the LED F160 lets you choose between a rather even or a slightly center-weighted illumination.

 

Standard Reflector L40 + Honeycomb Grid on the LED F160

In order to reduce the light angle even more, a honeycomb grid can be attached to the L40 standard reflector. These grids are available in sets of three, with light angles of 30°, 20° and 10°.

 

Barn doors on the LED F160

With barn doors that fit the L40 standard reflector you can shape the light and direct it to your subject the way you prefer (see the image below, where we used a narrow opening only). In addition, you can also add gel filters to barn doors in order to change the colour of the light.

 

Silver Umbrella on the LED F160

If a soft light with lots of texture is required, silver umbrellas can be your first choice. Here we show the light of three different silver-coated umbrellas – 85cm, 105cm and Focus 110:

 

Soft- and Octabox on the LED F160

While silver-coated umbrellas show accurate textures and surfaces such as the skin of a model, they also tend to create multiple shadows as seen in the examples above. If you want to avoid such shadows, we recommend soft- and octaboxes. These light shapers belong to the most important tools in a studio. A professional studio should always have them available in a few different sizes: one or two rectangular softboxes, at least one octagonal box and a narrow striplight-shaped softbox.

In the images below, you will see how the size of the octabox influences the light characteristic of the LED F160. You will notice that the bigger octabox 150 offers much softer light and creates less shine on the object compared to the smaller octabox 75.

 

Soft Light Reflector P-Soft and Beauty Dish on the LED F160

Soft light reflectors and beauty dishes have a long tradition in beauty and portrait photography. With its silver coating, soft light reflectors can texture the skin of a model incredibly good. However, same as with silver umbrellas above, you have to watch out for multiple shadows.

Beauty dishes, on the other hand, have a white coating. Thus, their light is softer, less textured and the risk of multiple shadows is reduced.

See the comparison of a soft light reflector, an open beauty dish and a beauty dish with a diffuser on the LED F160 below:

 

Beautybox on the LED F160

A good compromise between a beauty dish and an octabox might be a beautybox.

Indirect Lighting with the LED F160

The softest possible light effect you can achieve is a diffused light. Thanks to the high light output of the broncolor LED F160, it can also be used to illuminate the object indirectly via a reflective environment. The light comes from everywhere. This means, there are no more shadows seen in the picture.

 

The LED F160 is a highly versatile LED lamp with incredible features. The immense power output, the ability to effortlessly adjust the colour temperature and the green-magenta axis, as well as its vast range of optional attachments, make this lamp a highly sophisticated asset for professional photographers and video producers.

---

Experience the LED F160 in action:

LED F160 in action – shoot stunning images and video with the same lamp

LED F160 – Exceptional Light Performance for Portraits and Shooting Film

Find out more about the LED F160:

www.broncolor.swiss/ledf160

Follow us:

@broncolor

www.facebook.com/broncolor

www.broncolor.swiss

 

 

 

The LED F160 is a highly versatile LED lamp with incredible features. Adjust color temperature quickly to fit the natural light circumstances, see how continuous light in combination with an additional Siros 800L can lead to great outcome, experience working with broncolor’s vast range of light shapers, and learn easy lighting setups for interviews, vlogs or portrait photography.

 

Adjusting Color Temperature on the LED F160

Changing the color temperature from 2800 to 6800 K while keeping the CRI exceptionally high over the whole range, enables you to perfectly simulate a natural light situation. By exactly matching the light to the sunset it is effortless to achieve a smooth and natural skin tone for the model.

During Still Moving’s shoot, a blood moon rose – a ideal situation to get use of the adjustable color temperature on the LED F160. This shot perfectly shows how effective the options on this lamp are. It is extremely time saving to adjust the color temperature on the set, rather than editing the footage in post-production.

“The ability to just grab that light, change the color temperature on the LED F160 to match the moonlight and reposition it so that it felt like it was illuminating our model was extremely effective. It was really quick and easy to make those adjustments and spontaneously jump on something that just happened.”

Dale Campbell, Creative Director at Still Moving

 

 

 

Combining Flash and Continuous Light with the LED F160

There are endless creative ways to use the LED F160. One of them is combining its continuous light with an additional source of flash. This effect is often sought, when photographers want to introduce dynamic movement in their images. When color temperature and light power output are correctly matched between two lights, the results can turn out outstanding.

Pairing the LED F160 to another broncolor flash, in this case the Siros 800L, there is no need to change any light adjustments because all broncolor lights are perfectly synchronized in terms of color temperature. However, even when pairing the LED F160 to lights of other brands, the color temperature on the LED F160 can be adapted within seconds.

“We kept the LED F160s still in position but we also set up a Para 177 for the Siros 800L. That allowed us to get that beautiful motion blur as the dancer moved through the space.”

Spencer Mcpherson, Chief Creative Officer at Still Moving

 

 

Enjoying the Vast Range of Light Shapers

While shooting the video of a street dancer, Still Moving could benefit immensely from the vast range of optional attachments available for the LED F160. They hooked the lamp to a movable boom arm which enabled them to follow the speed of the dancer while trying out several light shapers. With the freedom of creativity and versatility that the LED F160 offers, they created astonishing video sequences.

“The LED F160 has allowed us to use all of the lighting modifiers that we previously used for other photography projects: beauty dishes, softboxes, reflectors, grids and snoots. Being able to then get both the still and moving imagery at the same time – that’s really huge!” 

Dale Campbell, Creative Director at Still Moving

 

 

 

Lighting Interviews, Vlogs or Portrait Photography with the LED F160

Let’s now discover how to easily set up a light environment for portrait photography as well as for filming an interview or a vlog. The effect of a Beauty Dish, Softbox and the Para directly influence the atmosphere created with the LED F160. With each light shaper, the model looked immediately great .

The Beauty Dish with the attached grid limited the light from spreading out and illuminating the background. When Still Moving switched to the Softbox, an immediate illumination of the background was visible. In addition, when they used the Softbox we could see a more graduated fall-off on the face of the model. When the Para 88 was used, it created a significant change in the catch light of the model’s eyes as well as in the fall-off around her face.

“You’ve got lovely illumination around the models face, a nice little catch light in her eyes, a graceful fall-off to the shadows on the right side of her face giving definition under her jawline as well as glossy hair. It’s nice!”

Dale Campbell, Creative Director at Still Moving Media

 

Check out our previous blog to learn more about the LED F160’s amazing features:

LED F160 in action – shooting stunning images and videos with the same lamp

 

---

LED F160 – The first LED lamp that shapes light precisely

Shoot stunning images and illuminate your videos with the same lamp – compatible with the extensive broncolor range of light-shapers.

Find out more about the LED F160:

www.broncolor.swiss/ledf160

 

Follow us:

@broncolor

www.facebook.com/broncolor

www.broncolor.swiss

 

More about Still Moving

Still Moving Media is a leading creative agency which produces photography, film campaigns as well as content for globally renown brands. With clients such as Universal, Disney, RIMMEL, Superdry and more, Still Moving Media has reached a great reputation around the world.

@stillmovingmedia

www.facebook.com/StillMovingMedia

www.stillmovingmedia.co.uk

 

 

 

Bring your studio to the next level. Order one Scoro 3200 S and one Pulso G 3200 at your local broncolor dealer until the 30^th of November 2019 and get two additional Pulso G 3200 lamps for free. Make the most out of your Scoro 3200 S. In total you will own three Pulso G 3200 lamps, which you can use simultaneously on the Scoro 3200 S to create extraordinary images.

Face the most challenging photography tasks and put your studio to the next level. With this offer, you will own all the equipment that you need to build your professional light setup for any possible challenge.

Both the Scoro 3200 S and the Pulso G 3200 belong to broncolor’s most renowned products. In combination, these two give you limitless photographic abilities and will turn your photographs into outstanding images.

Find out more about the Scoro 3200 S and the Pulso G 3200 below:

 

Scoro 3200 S

Unleash your potential in photography with the unmatched power of the Scoro S. With the Scoro 3200 S, you can plug up to three lights simultaneously and have absolute freedom of adjusting each light output individually.

Redefine what is possible with its stunning accuracy and impressive recycling time. The remarkable short flash duration lets you capture the most rapid movements and keeps you on track for the next shot strikingly fast.

All packed into an extremely robust housing.

This is the Scoro S.

Find more information on the Scoro 3200 S here:

https://bit.ly/340KwBk

 

Watch the following videos to experience the Scoro 3200 S in action:

 

 

 

Pulso G 3200

 

 

Pulso G is broncolor’s bestselling lamp. And there are some good reasons for that: constant colour, light intense, robust and reliable.

It adapts automatically to the mains voltage of the respective country and works properly with each broncolor power pack. Pulso G is equipped with the broncolor bayonet fitting – opening up a world of high-quality accessories for maximum creativity and efficiency.

Find more information on the Pulso G 3200 here:

https://bit.ly/2qM9Lc8

 

---

Find a broncolor dealer in your area:

www.broncolor.swiss/broncolor/buy-rent

 

Follow us:

@broncolor

www.facebook.com/broncolor

www.broncolor.swiss

 

Creating not only outstanding photographs but also breathtaking videos with the same lighting is a challenge for most professional content agencies. That is why we developed the LED F160 – the first LED lamp that shapes light precisely.

To see it in action, we have sent the LED F160 to a fast-growing creative agency – Still Moving. They worked with the LED F160 for a variety of projects shooting both, photo and video. The stunning results they produced demonstrate the LED F160’s power, versatility, and creative possibilities.

All videos and images below have been shot using LED F160 lamps.

 

 

 

Slow Motion Video using the LED F160

The first shoot where the LED F160 came into action was for a cosmetic product. The small size and lightweight of the LED F160 made it particularly comfortable to move the lamps around in the studio. In addition, the ability to use the whole spectrum of broncolor light shapers gave Still Moving absolute creative freedom in achieving the exact look that they had in mind.

While shooting the video, they focused on its lighting abilities for slow motion. It is absolutely necessary to ensure flicker-free lighting when shooting videos with a high number of frames per second. The LED F160 is flicker-free and ensures the smoothest slow-motion sequences under any circumstance.

 

 

 

Splash photography with the LED F160

Shooting the still photographs, the crew of Still Moving used the same subject. However, this time they focused on the light power output required for photographing with high-shutter speed.

In order to freeze the moment and capture a rapid movement, the shutter speed on your camera needs to be set to very high. Consequently, the higher you set your shutter speed, the more light you need to illuminate the subject. The LED F160s were powerful enough to work with shortest shutter speeds to freeze motion. The image below portrays extremely clean and sharp edges of the fast-moving paint splash thanks to the power output.

 

 

 

Stay tuned to discover how the LED F160 was used in combination with flash; what colour temperature modification can bring to a short film; and see the effect of different light shapers used for an interview.

 

---

LED F160 – The first LED lamp that shapes light precisely

Shoot stunning images and illuminate your videos with the same lamp – compatible with the extensive broncolor range of light-shapers.

If you want to find out more about the LED F160, visit the following link:

www.broncolor.swiss/ledf160

 

Follow us:

@broncolor

www.facebook.com/broncolor

www.broncolor.swiss

 

More about Still Moving

Still Moving is a fast-growing creative agency that produces photography, film campaigns as well as content for globally renown brands. With clients such as Universal, Disney, RIMMEL, Superdry and more, Still Moving has reached a great reputation around the world.

@stillmovingmedia

www.facebook.com/StillMovingMedia

www.stillmovingmedia.co.uk