On to Light Shaping is a new video series in which get to see 18 renowned portrait and wedding photographer create magic with Profoto Off-Camera Flash. In this video we join photographer Jaleel King for a street photography session in Philadelphia. When you are done watching, click here to see the rest of the series.
Jaleel King is a Philadelphia-based portrait & lifestyle photographer who despite being wheelchair bound has none-the-less proved himself to be an accomplished street photographer. A big fan of TTL flash, one of Jaleel’s ongoing challenges has been finding a lighting solution that is not only reliable and accurate, but also easy to take to the streets. Now, he seems to have found it.
“The beauty of the Profoto Off-Camera Flash system is that everything is really compact and light. Even when shooting from a wheelchair there’s little to stifle my creative abilities. The B2 Off-Camera Flashes are light, easy to use, and for me the cool thing is that the high-speed sync feature worked really well at the higher speeds. No black frames. None!”
For this shoot, Jaleel packed a bag with two B2s, a Profoto OCF Softbox 2×3′ Octa, and an OCF Grid Kit and headed out solo. After shooting a series of portraits on the windswept walkways of the Ben Franklin Bridge, Jaleel and his model headed down to street level for additional shots.
The low-angle portrait shown here was captured using a Canon EOS 1D Mk IV and a Canon EF 24mm/f1.4L II USM lens. The exposure was 1/8000th-second at f/1.4 with the ISO set to 250. Because of the B2’s diminutive size and weight factor, Jaleel was able to hand-hold a B2 Head equipped with an OCF Softbox 2×3′ with a OCF Softgrid in one hand and his camera in the other. According to Jaleel, this sort of shooting would have been near impossible with any other lighting solition.
“Not having to worry about exposure accuracy is a beautiful thing,” he says. “I finally have a solution that not only allows me to have fun rather than worry about exposure issues, but is extremely reliable regardless of how light or dark my subjects complexion might be.”
GEAR
1 x Profoto B2 Off-Camera Flash
1 x Profoto OCF Softbox 2×3′ Octa
Canon EOS 1D Mk IV
Canon EF 24/1.4L II USM
