Night out in Copenhagen - Testing the Broncolor Ringflash C

Playing around with fashion photography is definitely fun and as I was on my way from Italy to Iceland with a two day lay-over in Copenhagen I decided to take out the Broncolor Ring Flash C for a test shoot in the city.

Instagram - Behind the Scenes by Anna Neretto.

Going out in Copenhagen is something I vividly remember from my 14 years of living in the city. I really love Copenhagen and no city is really comparable when it comes to the style of the bars and restaurants. So my idea was to capture the style of the Danish nightlife and using the Ringflash as a powerful light source to give a kind of raw and semi trashy look to the shoot.

We quickly got together a good team consisting of StylistAnna Neretto, Makeup artist Vivi Pilgaard, the two fantastic models Natasja and Cecilie from unique Models and Lorenzo, my assistant. With us we brought the Broncolor Ringflash C and the Broncolor Verso Powerpack and my Phase One 645DFcamera with the IQ180 back.

In the Metro getting into town.
The Ringflash really dispersed the light well and gave good detail in both skintone, hair and makeup.

Now the Broncolor Ringflash C is amazing in many ways. It has a good number of accessories that you can combine with its powerful light but I wanted to use it in the simplest way possible. I wanted to use the powerful output to give some edge to the scene and simply mounted the flash around the lens on the camera body without any kind of soft reflector or honeycomb. It had to be a simple setup as we were moving trough the city on foot and had to carry all the gear along. This is very different from shooting in the studio and we had a long shoot, but actually everything went smooth. I was truly amazed about the girls that were walking for miles around the city in high heels and all the time being ready for being photographed.

City ZOO
Here I dialled down the power of the flash to give me the ability to capture the ligth of the ZOO sign above, but still the girls are evenly lit.

One of the new features of the Ringflash is that it is equipped with powerful modeling lights. 10 small halogen lamps of 20 watts apiece are really helpful when you are shooting in the dark light and it made focusing so much easier. The modeling light also served well to make the pupils small and thus we were able to shoot without getting red eyes.

The powerful output made me able to dim the light from the surroundings and create a powerful focus on the girls and when needed I could easily turn the power down and use the surrounding light to make a mix of colors.

It was fantastically easy to work with and performed well in synchronization with the Phase One camera. The Verso proved to be a huge advantage and gave a fast reload of the flash and we shot the whole evening with only a single battery change.

Calling a cab.

 I have always loved the light of the Ringflash and the special kind of shadows that they give. The Broncolor Ringflash C certainly lights all areas of its range quite evenly and I got a good skin tone from using the flashlight white balance on the camera. 

Last shot
Model Natasja on the pavement of Versterbro.

Although the Ringflash is a system that jumps in and out of fashion I surely wish to make it a permanent piece of my gear. I can see many uses for it in both fashion and nature and I really look forward to check out the many new accessories as well.