Lighting Test of the Spotlight SE by Aputure
Up front this is not a sponsored or endorsed blog post, this is simply my review in using for the first time the Amaran Spotlight SE, which I purchased myself, but will happily accept gifting by Amaran if they’re on the look out for an ambassador ;-)
It’s been a few years that I’ve had my eye on a Spotlight and the many available pattern gobos (go-between the light). In the past, I’ve had to get creative in replicating the effects, by using natural light. This sort of light effect is not as practical working with strobes. I found working with the Spotlight can be just as fiddly as shooting it in sunlight, as it can sometimes take a little time to get the patterns or shadows lined up to where you want them.
This is captured in camera except for the added dust particles which I was fooling around in post processing and liked how they gave a cosmic feel to the image.
In photography, there are different types of test shoots; a test shoot to create a portfolio of images for a model; a test shoot as a form of treatment proposal when pitching to a client and in this case, when a photographer has new lights or modifiers or some new prop to play with, it calls for a light test.
Yesterday, I had a quick little play enlisting Tamara from Tamblyn Models and Summer Renolds, a budding photography student, who’s been shadowing me as part of her school assignment, to assist me with this shoot. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to try out with the Spotlight, but at the same time, we were loosely being creative and making things up as we got inspired. With no makeup artist or hairstylist planned for this shoot, I had pre-planned some props to add some styling flare to the images, as this type of lighting calls for a bit more drama. There were my trusty stickers, glitter, feathers, and even red merino wool which Summer and I fashioned into a makeshift wig on Tamara. It wasn’t about being perfect, it was mainly to experiment with the new light and get a feel for it. Are there things I would change about the styling we did, of course! I’d probably spend more time perfecting it, but the styling wasn’t the point of this day.
Building upon the previous image, here we added a second light to illuminate the background, as I wanted a clean crisp white background for more contrast with the model.
If I’m being honest, when this light arrived, I was a bit intimidated by it, but using it yesterday, it was quite fun and straightforward to use. Sure, there is a bit of a learning curve in using the shutters (which I found the most fiddly in shaping abstract light) and in changing out the VERY HOT gobos! Boy does this light get hot quickly! I also played with the 18-Leaf Iris, which is an additional feature you have to buy separately.
Of course, we ran out of time, as there are just so many ways one can use the Spotlight, but I also think some pre-planning on the styling elements to really achieve more dynamic results. All in all, I’m happy with what we created in the time we had and my head is buzzing with more ideas of how to create with this light. This is another reason why testing is useful, for if you’re in a creative slump, or bored, then set yourself a challenge of organising a test shoot to execute a concept you’ve been dreaming of, in order to refresh your soul from constantly creating for others.
This is using a patterned gobo on Tamara’s face, while still having the second light on the backdrop.
Here I am playing with the shutters of the spotlight to carve out an abstract shape of light with some deliberate in-camera blur for a moodier image.
The 18-Leaf Iris added for a tighter focus of light
Playing with the colours built into the Amaran light whilst using a gobo
After taking the previous image, I tweaked the styling, by asking the model to remove her high neck top for a strapless top, so more skin would be visible for the spot pattern, and then we added some white feathers onto the head, as I felt we needed to play with silhouettes, after seeing the previous image, and using something white which more colour would project on it
Thank you Tamara for your patience on the day, as I really did not know what I was doing, literally making it up on the spot (see what I did there) and thank you to my human gobo, Summer, in her collaboration of ideas and at one point, also literally acting as a gobo to cast shadows on Tamara.
