Gamilight Review: Portraits

Vancouver, WA Senior Photographer

Update: Thank you to Grey at Infinity Point Studios for featuring this review! If you are looking for Gamilight products, he is the North American Distributor. You can check out his store here.

 

 

My first attempt at using the modifiers, I loved the results…

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(straight out of the camera, no editing)

I used the Gamilight Octave 53 high and slightly to my left and the Box 60 in the back to camera left to get some rim/backlight.

The light spread was great, I liked the diffusion that the 53 offered. Not only the cloth diffuser, but the inside opaque panel to spread and soften the light even more. The Box offered a nice strip light that also had the inside plastic diffuser and the cloth outside. Most other diffusers I have used you either face the flash towards the back and reflect the light, or straight out and just shoot the light through one opaque panel. This gives more diffusion than the more commonly used boxes.

Transportation from my home to my studio, a breeze. The fold flat design and cases make that part super easy. Second time setting them up? Quick and painless. Once you get it down once, its super simple.

However I found my downfall shortly after moving the modifiers on the flash to the outside. Inside my studio, they were pretty much stationary, so not being moved around much while mounted on my flash. My studio is located in a historic building in Vancouver,WA and has amazing grounds to shoot on. After moving around for a bit, the Octave started to fall off . I was getting quite frustrated and ended up placing some tape on the modifier and my flash to keep it on.

After my session, I broke them all down and brought them back home.

After a quick browse through my gear, I found out what my issue was.

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See those foam strips on my flash? Yeah, I didn’t have them on at first. My plastic mount was twisting around due to no grip. The foam comes with the modifiers, I for some reason just overlooked them. They ended up being longer than the top section of my flash, so I cut them to size, peeled off the tape, and BAM, no more moving around!

The next day I had a senior session, so I put everything together, but this time, correctly!

 

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Octave 53 high camera left and Box 60 light behind.

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Octave 53 High Camera left, Box 60 aimed towards back brick wall for some ambient light.

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Octave 60 to my left, model height

After my second session with these wonders, I am wondering what to do with all my other modifiers. I love the light quality, the ease of setup, and the portability of them! I think I’ll be checking out some more of them to see what else I can come up with.

 

Next up, wedding test this weekend!

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