New investment in lighting equipment

Dear member,

I am delighted to share the news that I have just received delivery of a brand new lighting kit, which represents yet another significant investment in my photography business.

Specifically, I have received delivery of the Elinchrom One portrait kit which is the most portable of the off camera flash kits available from this Swiss brand together with the Elinchrom Transmitter Pro for Canon. The combination of the two should allow me to become more creative, if not also more productive, with lighting, especially on location, as the Elinchrom One is weather proof and can be used outdoors on its internal long-life rechargeable battery.

I could have gone cheaper, of course, but, as many of you know, I always opt for quality over price. And as I have experienced the high lighting quality offered by Elinchrom for nearly two years now whilst using the Elinchrom D-Lite RX4 soft box studio kit, the Elinchrom brand reputation seemed warranted, notwithstanding the technical glitches that I had encountered.

In my previous two trips I did in fact take with me one of the two RX4 heads and using that I was able to create some beautiful photos of Kayleigh Dunning, Eva Kann, Anna Nigriv, Anastasia, Marina Nelson and Vanessa.

For example, my latest FPI on Purpleport - a glam photo with Kayleigh in bed - was the result of using one of the Elinchrom RX4 heads with the flash on a relatively low setting thrown on the white wall opposite the bed.

Using the Elinchrom head in that very dark hotel room on a grey day in December made it possible for me to have sufficient light power to deliver the glam vibe that I was looking for without the light becoming overpowering - in fact I thought that the light remained filling and flattering. The settings I had for that photo can be seen in the screenshot below.

I could never have had those glam settings without the Elinchrom RX4. At best I would have had f4.0 and ISO 1600, which would have taken the glam vibe off the image. The bra (and nip) for example wouldn’t have been in pin sharp focus. In fact, with f4.0 which I would have had to use only one of the eyes would have been in focus.

Because of the results from my shoot with Kayleigh last December, I decided to take the Elinchrom RX4 head with me during my first Europa tour of 2026. It certainly helped and it meant I could even continue shooting during the hours of darkness e.g. my shoot with Vanessa on 31 January which finished well after sunset, wouldn’t have been possible without it.

However, the RX4 head is mains operated and as such it is not suitable for outdoor location shoots. Additionally, it is rather bulky so I had to buy an extra large suitcase to fit everything in. Having a large and heavy suitcase made it challenging for me getting on and off trains. Which is one of the reasons I started looking into more portable options.

The other reason is the trouble I had with the two Elinchrom RX-4 heads. Disappointingly, they have not been as reliable as one would have expected from products manufactured in Switzerland. Having said that, Elinchrom does offer a 3-year warranty and I tested that on three occasions already - with considerable success.

Those of you who read my posts may remember that a few weeks ago, when I was shooting with Kate Star, one of my Elinchrom 400 D-lite heads malfunctioned and I had to rely on just one of them for much of the shoot. The results weren't at all bad but I feel they would have been better had both heads been at my disposal.

Those of you who read my posts may also remember that it is not the first time that my Elinchrom 400 D-lite heads malfunctioned. One of them literally blew up during a shoot with Aphrodita a few months earlier - this was, in fact, eventually replaced by Elinchrom.

The other one, which is the one that malfunctioned recently, had already been repaired by Elinchrom a few months ago. However, through these experiences, I could at least see that the 3-year warranty itself could be relied upon to fix things should such unfortunate glitches emerge.

I could also see that it is useful to have another Elinchrom unit as a backup for the RX-4 heads. The Elinchrom One, in fact offers that possibility. Had I gone for another brand, that would not have been possible as I would require a separate transmitter.

The Elinchrom flash strobes are not the only lighting sets that I have been using in the last couple of years, of course.

Members who have been here for some time may remember that I very much love using my Hobolite Avant 100W creator's kit (currently on offer at The Flash Centre) - which provides continuous LED light. The Hobolite is great for videos - nearly all of my indoors videos are filmed with the Hobolite being the primary, if not the only, lighting source. Additionally, the Hobolite has helped me become more creative when shooting stills e.g. the whole of the Cabaret collection owes its very existence to the Hobolite.

Additionally, I have occasionally used the Rotolight Neo 3, which I bought three years ago. I have used the Rotolight as a backup when other lights failed or as the main battery-operated light on location during the hours of darkness. For example, during my recent shoot with Rebeka CsiManyo in Athens I used it to light the model, who was nude in the jacuzzi after sunset with the lit Acropolis in the background.

And in 2025, before I had acquired the Hobolite, the Rotolight saved the day during my shoot with Adrianna Floss, when my old Lume Cube 18-inch ring light literally caught fire. In the end from that shoot I was awarded two FPI's using just the Rotolight Neo. The photo below is one of them.

I will be putting my new Elinchrom One portrait kit through its paces in the coming days. With six shoots in March, three of which in Germany, there will be plenty of opportunity if not also necessity (the details of these shoots, including model names, location and dates, are available behind the paywall).

As usual, I will post real-time updates for paid members as soon as possible after each shoot has ended.

Really getting excited testing by all the upcoming shoots - testing the new lighting kit feels like the icing on the cake.

Enjoy the rest of your day!