March is one of my favourite months in the photographic industry. Along with the annual migration up to the NEC in Birmingham for The Photography Show (and previously Focus On Imaging) comes a whole host of announcements of new cameras, lenses and gear that will inevitably end up on my Christmas wish list in a few months time! I don’t often get much of a chance to walk around the event as I’m working on the Wacom stand, but this year I made a special effort to go and see the guys and girls on The Flash Centre’s stand, who had just released an announcement about at launch of the Elinchrom ELB 400 series, which will be replacing the Ranger Quadra Hybrid series I have been working with exclusively for the past two years.
As it happened, Photo Professional Magazine (one of the magazines I write a regular monthly tutorial for) were looking to test and review the ELB 400 series, so I found myself entrusted with one of a small handful of pre-release demo units to experiment with in the studio for the next few weeks and to push to its limits. During this time I was able to use the flash kit on a number of my regular commissions, but I also invited back Burlesque Hall Of Fame’s Most Innovative Performer 2014 Aurora Galore to spend some time really pushing the lighting equipment to its full potential.
Aurora and I recently worked together testing the ELC Pro heads for Elinchrom, so we both had a good idea how the Strobo and Delayed modes would work. However, my favourite shots were these one light, side lit portraits of Aurora in a plunging TG Jorogumo corset dress by Torture Garden Clothing. I love how the angle of the light picks up the texture of the chains around the neck and on the headdress as well as the shine of the latex. Its been a while since I had the opportunity to shoot any latex fashion, plus we also had the rare opportunity to play with fire in the studio, allowing Aurora to show off some of her newly acquired fire breathing tricks.
If you’d like to read my full review of the ELB 400 series as published in Photo Professional, you can find a PDF copy available in my Press Archives.
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