For those of you who shoot outside and have wondered how the SpinLight 360® works and holds up in a variety of conditions we are happy to relay some information which one of our customers, Michael DeYoung, posted on his own blog.
“SpinLight360: This was also the first shoot that I’ve used the new SpinLight 360 Extreme light mod system in these temperatures. I was concerned with the plastic becoming brittle and breaking during my typical hard use of my strobes. This system is mainly targeted for wedding and event shooters but I have really taken a liking to this system. Once the base unit spin ring was attached to the flash with Velcro ,which is very secure, the modifiers (dome, snoot, grid, bounce cards) were easy to attach in the cold with gloves on; a big plus in extreme conditions. I used a the diffuser dome, the grid and snoot and I am really impressed with the quality of light from these mods as well as their light weight and ease in attaching and removing various mods.” (On assignment in Willow, Alaska in sub-zero weather. Lynn Wegener and Karen Combs with Canon 600EX-RT speedlights equiped with Spinlight 360 light modifiers with Michael DeYoung shooting environmental portaits of 2012 Iditarod Champion Dallas Seavey.)
“Using Speedlights on Snow. Sometimes, action and portraits on the snow will benefit from the use of a speedlight. The light could be flat, the sun below the horizon or your setting lacks a big bank of snow opposite of the natural light source to use as fill. The key to using strobes in the snow is to absolutely keep stray light off the snow and focused on your subject. Blown out foreground snow is very distracting, amateurish and usually indicates direct on camera flash use – a big no-no for snow. I use grids and snoots (my favorite is the Spinlight 360 system) to control and focus the light on my subject and keep it off the snow. In most instances, it takes a little trial and error and tweaking to get your light right when dealing with snow especially when using more than one off camera strobe.”
Michael also sent us some images of the SpinLight 360® in use shooting an Ironman competitor in Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico. His assistant Lauri is shown here holding the off-camera flash with the SpinLight 360®.
Here’s the review Michael sent us, which we just added to our website:
“As an adventure and lifestyle photographer working outdoors in wind, cold or harsh sun, I need a lighting system that is portable, easy to use and set up and delivers studio quality lighting. The Spinlight 360 Extreme system is just GREAT for outdoor on camera and wireless off camera speedlight mods. I’ve use several other modifier systems like Honl, Gary Fong, and Digital Light and Harbor and I think the Spinlight 360 is by far the best designed and capable speedlight light modifier kit out there. I especially like the grids, the snoot and the bounce cards. I use the white card to bounce and soften light and the black card to block light where I don’t want it to go. The spinning housing that attaches to the speedlight really makes this easy. I like the grids and snoot for harder edged environmental portraits of athletes. I like the amber gels for their pleasing warmth and how they solidly attach and don’t interfere with the attachment of additional modifiers. I have a kit for each of my 3 canon 600RT speedlights.
This past winter I had an assignment to photograph a champion Iditarod dog musher in Alaska in late December and it sure was cold. The spinlight 360 system performed well at sub-zero temperatures and was easy to work even with gloves on. The snoot and grid along with the black gobo cards were very effective at keeping unwanted light off the snow and focused on the subject.”
Thank you Michael DeYoung for your images and information.