Well, in regards to my new portrait portfolio (in the above slide show, the outdoor image isn’t new), I’ve written a lot already how important the teaching of the folks over at Kelby Training was, and how important Nik Software was. So today, I wanted to write a bit about how important the Elinchrom lighting kit was.

Recently, I purchased the Scott Kelby’s Light It. Shoot It. Retouch It. LIVE Tour Kit from B&H. You can see an unboxing video here.

I am loving this kit. Elinchrom products are excellent. The monolights are powerful and easy to use. Most notably the wireless system. This allows control of the power output of the various lights independently from the camera. This makes working with few or no assistants much simpler and efficient. The lighting accessories, the most important part of any lighting kit, are excellent. The quality of light they produce is amazing and other than initial assembly, are easy to use.

Any deficiencies in the kit would be there isn’t a boom, or any accessory to aid you in holding the light away from the stand. I quickly rectified this by buying an Avenger miniboom. It turned out to be a bit of overkill, but always better to have more performance out of your equipment than you need than less. The other deficiency would be that there are only two lights. Some of the setups discussed in Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It, require three. I rectified this by using a speed-light I had on hand. The only problem I had with this system was that the speed-light needed to be run by hard-wire. Thus, not allowing the wireless system with this setup, being less convenient. It worked fine though, and I will make do with that system until I can acquire a third BxRi 500.

Take a look at my portrait gallery or my older portraits.