Going Octa! What's your experience or lust quotient?

Frank's work with his models show the beautiful wrap around soft light with an Elinchrom. My big interest is shooting scenarios which is set up in a large room or a set with on or more people being photographed at a time and the separate images assembled.

I'm planning to devote an Elinchrom 72" Octa (or something like that) for the actors.

I have been wondering how to put together a head and power system with the least money, if possible to have battery power. I could start with AC power.

So what experience do you have and any luck using other light sources using mods to fit the Oct? There's other competing Octadome styles but are they any good?

Asher

Profoto

Asher,

I have Profoto Monolights. The light is consistent; they are reasonable compared to a pack/brick but need AC power, The lights aren't what are expensive. It's the modifiers; The good thing about the Profoto stuff is that once you buy it it works on any other component so if you want to move to a pack system, like the Acute, you can take all you stuff and use it with the pack and new heads. The newer ones come with the Pocket Wizards built in.

My studio is available to you as my schedule permits to come and see. I've been considering an Octabox as well. I have a few sizes of softboxes that I have been using.

Thanks so much for the offer! We've been shooting clothing lines and I want to get away from my clumsy 4ft x6ft Westcot. I'd love to use your system.

For the full length suites and dresses, one needs length for the model to pose in and strut without getting out of the iso-flux zone and screw up the lighting. I just think the Octa will be very forgiving and one can even shoot in front of it!

You are using the Acutes? If so the Acute heads, AFAIK, don't work with the higher end power packs as they are really two different electrical systems. However, the modifiers work with any Profoto head.

A lot of Pros use the Octa with a mating adapter for their Profoto heads.

I have general lit things in pieces and stitch together but I want to cut down on the post processing work as much as possible. The great thing about the Octa is that it can be set up much more easily than the large light boxes which are "herniagenic"! This needs an assistant for outdoors use but otherwise it's easy to set up.

I'm awaiting to hear what power range people use. I'd like it to be the case that I would only need 1200 W.S. but I fear it might need more.

BTW, look at Frank's thread on his latest model shoot here and check out his video on using the Octa. It's impressive. I have actually shot with the Octa and am impressed. Unfortunately Profoto and Elinchrom don't come cheap. Still, I'm planning to use mine until I'm 97!

Asher

Compact 600 & 300

Asher,

I have two Compact 600's and a 300. Nikolai has these too with an Octa.



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...2_304_ComPact_R_600_Monolight_90_260VAC_.html

Hi,
For broad light and control the octa is great, for just broad light you could use an umbrella (not shooting through).
But I still prefer the octa for the control of the spill.

The Elinchrom is the best one because the head is placed in the unit with the strobe pointing backwards, thus making the light very even.

Hi Frank,

We need some introduction in the choices for a head/monolite in the Octa. How much power are you using in full length shots? If course we'd want to specify a distance.

1. 3ft at f 2.0

2. 10ft at f 16

This will tell me that I can get both a sufficiently low power to use a lens wide open and then a shot needing more depth of focus and a large grouping where more light is needed.

Asher

Depending on the camera you use, but f2.0 at 3ft I think will be a problem, even the RX series will not go that low.
What you could do is use ND filters on the lens OR use ISO50/25 if shooting with a digital back.

f16 at 10ft is no problem for the RX 600/300 on ISO100.

I guess I also could add another layer of the fabric on the Octa to get really low.

Thanks,

Asher

P.S. Why do your pictures make me think of "18% gray"? It's a paradox since none of your absolutely lovely models are 18% grey!

lol it's the mantra

Asher Kelman said:

P.S. Why do your pictures make me think of "18% gray"? It's a paradox since none of your absolutely lovely models are 18% grey!

Click to expand...

Nor (thank God) are their surfaces planar, nor Lambertian!

Hi, Asher,

Asher Kelman said:

P.S. Why do your pictures make me think of "18% gray"? It's a paradox since none of your absolutely lovely models are 18% grey!

Click to expand...

Do note that the infamous "18% gray card" is 82% gray!

Best regards,

Doug

I also have an octo, well generic unit which I can use with literally any light manufacturer on the market. It even has a honeycomb grid for it to even further prevent spill, and does work from my testing. My lights (Bron mobil, visatec 800b and jinbei portable pack) have all worked very well with the octa, but it is not as even as what I can see Frank getting. I personally feel it is the way the light is mounted on the elinchrom, which is "backwards". I have taken a few shots of the flah fireing and cannot really see a hot spot in the middle......but I need to test more, I might just have powered it too high.

Today I received a parabolic umbrella/dish. Also a generic from china and man so far the results are just super. I can control the darkness of the shadows by moving the light closer and further away from the umbrella, and the wrap around is simply stunning in pre testing. Funny thought, as the inner material is white and not silver.....so I will play more and take some pics and post for interests sake.

Johan Combrink said:

Today I received a parabolic umbrella/dish. Also a generic from china and man so far the results are just super. I can control the darkness of the shadows by moving the light closer and further away from the umbrella, and the wrap around is simply stunning in pre testing. Funny thought, as the inner material is white and not silver.....so I will play more and take some pics and post for interests sake.

Click to expand...

Hi Johan,

That's encouraging!

Mechanics: how easy to set up and how well made? Is it umbrella style? Name, make, source and price? Thanks so much for sharing.

Looking forward to seeing the results of your tests!

Asher

Asher,

An umbrella is fine, but the quality of light from a well-made softbox (rectangular or octa) is pretty notably superior when photographing people IMO. The two main advantages of the octa over rectangular are 1) the specular reflections (like from an eyeball) appear round instead of square and 2) the fall-off is more "circular" around the main subject which for people/portraits is generally more pleasing.

FWIW, I use an Elinchrom Ranger as my main battery-powered light, but *dislike* their reflector attachemnt design -- it's a downright PITA to mount a softbox on a ring relative to say mounting the same softbox/ring on a Profoto. IMO Profoto is superior here and IF you are shooting primarily in near power, then I would look at Profoto -- the D4 series is outstanding. To the converse, Profoto battery units are not weather sealed and I've seen them fry in a drizzle, so would NOT recommend them for portable or outdoor applications.

Also, if I were investing in new lights today, I would take very hard looks at both Hensel and Sinar/Bron --- both have excellent AC packs as well as excellent portables...

Best,

Hi Asher,

Lee filters makes something called tough spun that comes in different stops (quater stop, 3/8 stop, half stop, full stop) that works as a diffuser that would cut down the light without having to put an ND on your filter for the wide open aperture shots.

Also I have an acute 2 1200 pack and with 3 heads attached the power can be dropped pretty low, just aim the other two heads out of the scene to be photographed and put one in the octa.

Recently I bought the elinchrom deep octa and adapter to use for profoto so if you want to test out an acute 1200 to see if 1200w/s will be enough power with the elinchrom 72" octa I would be more than happy to supply the pack and adapter if you supply the octa (which I believe can be rented from FLashlights). You, Kathy and I could have a big melting pot of lights and modifiers to test out Just let me know if your are interested.

You are using the Acutes? If so the Acute heads, AFAIK, don't work with the higher end power packs as they are really two different electrical systems. However, the modifiers work with any Profoto head.

Click to expand...

They will work with the D4 series (up to 4800w/s) but not the Pro family of power packs that do indeed have a different electrical system.

Sorry guys, I have not forgotten about the pics and a write up on the para, just need some more time. I have taken pics, but like a fool, forgot them at home today......oh well....hopefully monday will be good.

Asher, to compare something with the Elinchrom Octa you have ProFoto's Giant Reflectors, 5' - 7' and 8'. These are very large and take more space than the Octa. Light is not quite as even as the Octa.

Regarding power, 600w may work in a low light studio. However, if you are working with ambient light also, a minimum of 1200w is needed. Just remember overpowering the sun during Frank's workshop. A 1200w pack was used and it was placed less than 3' from the model. In that instance ideally a Bi-tube head and 2400w packs would have been nice. It would have allowed placing the octa back farther from the model.

The Elinchrom 1200RX is a 1200w unit and you can dial the power down to 37w. In buying lights just remember you can always reduce the power but never increase it, without changing the head or pack.

Best thing to do is try each of them out.

Yes,

I think you are quite right about the need for higher power outside. I have a stand-in fashion shoot tomorrow and have decided only to take a medium soft box since with my strobes, 800 ws is going to be lost. I will set it up, if I don't like the light, I'll possibly just leave! They didn't want to pay for renting lights! I'm just standing in for Will at the last minute. I tested the set up and I have f22.6 at 3ft. So I should be O.K. close.

I hope they don't need a whole bunch of full length shots. We'll see.

If the worse comes to worse, I may just use reflectors. This will let me know what my lumedyne can do with some booster packs in the open. I can't believe how cheap people can be and I think that really means that the don't have faith in the clothes they want to market!

Asher

For those who are interrested I post some pictures of the para here