Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Mole-Richardson 407 Baby Solarspot 1000W

Got a question from Phil about the Mole-Richardson today and thought I'd share with you guys :)

I've followed your blog for a while and have even gone back and read what you've written in the past. You've explained all about retouching and how you use your flashes with softboxes and feathering, etc but you haven't explained how you use your MR fresnel. Maybe you're keeping it a secret, maybe not...or maybe I've completely missed it but what is your technique?
You're photography work is amazing and reading your blog has really helped me out. Thank you for that. Phil


Hi Phil,

Thanks for following me and thanks for the message. You've probably noticed that I abruptly stopped talking about techniques and focused more on the abstract and sometimes random things of what I do. Partially because I'm lazy and partially because I need to keep some material to myself so I can teach my workshops :)

As far as the MR is concerned, it's only been 2 months and 4 days since I've had it. I've been using it primarily as a spotlight. It came with barndoors and of course has a fresnel lens. I keep the adjustment somewhere in the middle of spot/flood. Then I barndoor the top and left aggressively to keep the light fall-off sudden. Beyond that it's just a normal light to me. I keep it at about 10 feet working distance high and usually from camera left. I use it on a "white" wall (it's not really white but close enough). And the rest is history :)

I do try and keep it feathered and in front of the model so it doesn't burn the highlights. Which can easily happen. Fortunately my B&W treatment is highly tolerant of burnt highlights.

It's really a dynamic light for me. Not having to wait for recycle or refresh, not worrying about tripping the thermal breakers, it's as fast as you can shoot. Truly the best experience I've had with a light that just lets you shoot :)

Cheers,

Charles

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