Throughout my career as a photographer, I have used several different lighting brands each with their own merits. However, I recently spent the day using a handful of different lights from Elinchrom, and now I can't imagine using any other.
The key to lighting is understanding how light behaves and from there you can control light to create the look you want, and more often than not, it's not the lights that make the image but the knowledge of the person using them.
Take Albert Watson's masterclass as an example, he beautifully lit a portrait with just a single lightbulb. Looking at the final photograph you would have expected a bunch of lighting rigs and a team of techs operating them.
This is all to say, a lot of the photography lighting on the market can be manipulated or modified to produce similar light, but it's the ease of use and extra features that make all the difference, and for me, Elinchrom takes the cake.
A couple of weeks ago I spent the day at a portfolio-building event organized by Creativity Hub, sponsored by Elinchrom, Fujifilm, and London Camera Exchange. Throughout the day I had access to a whole host of Elinchrom lights, and I can safely say, it was the easiest experience using off-camera lighting I have ever experienced.
Throughout the day I used a combination of the Elinchrom THREE, Elinchrom ONE, Elinchrom ELB 500, and Elinchrom ELC 500. The lights worked seamlessly and the connection between them and my camera via the trigger was instantaneous and never missfired. All I had to do was attach the trigger, make sure the lights were set to the corresponding group and away I went.
In addition to producing fantastic quality light via the Elinchrom modifiers, the lights were extremely portable, invaluable in this instance as we had access to an entire manor house grounds, interior and exterior, along with 4 models. Carrying the lights from one scene to the next was effortless, and despite the various setups, the communication between them never failed.
The Elinchrom ONE and THREE were especially versatile. Having reviewed the Elinchrom THREE previously, I already knew its qualities, but it still stood out to me along with the ONE. In addition to being extremely compact and portable, they included features such as the touch screen making changing settings a breeze, HSS, and bright modeling lamps.
Due to shooting in such a large house, areas were dimly lit, meaning I had to rely on the modeling lamps to ensure my camera caught focus. They provided a bright light enabling me to nail focus in the dark, and gave me an understanding of where my light would hit when fired – very useful!
I recommend the THREE to anyone asking me for a portable off-camera light for location shoots, either to work with natural light or overpower the sun.
The lights enabled me to capture pin-sharp images, even when shooting dynamic scenes, but they also enabled me to shoot in my own style, which is a little slowed down and less clinical.
I don't shoot much like many other photographers I know, and despite shooting at an event called Flora in the middle of summer surrounded by flowers and greenery, other than getting shots for content, I shot in black and white. I also don't mind missing focus or sacrificing image quality for the feeling of the shot. The lights adjusted to my workflow with ease and will be my go-to for the foreseeable.
I can't say enough good things about the Elinchrom lights and would recommend them to both professionals and beginners, as they are ready to go straight out of the box.
The other fantastic thing about Elinchrom is the level of support that is provided by the staff and the company as a whole. It is a company passionate about photography and educating users on how to get the most out of their lights with fantastic tutorials on its YouTube channel which should be watched and watched again for those wanting to learn studio and location lighting.
You may also be interested in our guides to the best studio lighting, the best-LED light panels, and the best lighting for video.
