First Hands On Session with the Broncolor Pulso

Our exercises today involved setting up a number of shots using the Broncolor Pulso Studio flash units. The initial shots used only a single flash head with a softbox and then later we moved to a softbox as well as another head with the flood reflector. Using the studio flash systems was a huge improvement from using the tungsten lights as I could now obtain sharpish images (no camera shake issues :)

The first two shots we set up were to demonstrate Hollywood and Rembrandt lighting. Without a light meter we were just guessing the exposure on all shots.

Rembrandt Lighting - f8 @250 ISO100

Hollywood Lighting - f8 @250 ISO100

The aim of the next 3 shots was to demonstrate the use of black, grey and white backgrounds. We achieved this by varying the distance of the light to the background.


To get the black background we moved the light a long way from the background as it had completely dropped off.

Black Background - f8 @250 ISO100

To get the grey background we attempted to get the light 2.5x time further away from the background as it was from the model.

Grey Background - f8 @250 ISO100

To get the white background we attempted to get the light the same distance from the background as it was from the model. About 1.5m each.

White Background - f8 @250 ISO100

We were then supposed to experiment with two power packs and different power outputs. Unfortunately there were none spare so we moved on the the next set of shots.

 The next task was to pick a picture from a portrait book and try to recreate the lighting. We picked two shots, one quite bright and clean and the other a bit moody with heavy shadows.

For the first image we positioned a large softbox directly behind the subject pointing towards the camera. This gave the very crisp white background. The 2nd light was fitted with a flood reflector and was positioned high left of the photographer. Overall I think the lighting worked well and was pretty close to the image we were trying to replicate.

f8 @250 ISO100

 For the 2nd image we had the flash head with the flood reflector positioned directly to the left of the subject at about shoulder height. We then positioned the large softbox directly on the other side to the right of the subject. We used a flag to cut out much of the light from the softbox, leaving only a small slit to provide a small amount of light to the back of the subjects neck. Again I think this lighting worked ok.

f11 @250 ISO100