Sunday, January 16, 2011

LumoPro Lite Panel


A few months ago, the good folks at LumoPro sent me a Lumopro Lite Panel to try out and, of course, talk about. I've been getting great results from it and use it often!

If you've been reading this blog for a while or you've purchased and read either my Guerrilla Glamour or Guerrilla Headshots ebook, you're probably aware I'm a big fan of reflectors and scrims.

The image above is from last week. You can see the LumoPro Lite Panel in the lower left of the photo. At 40" x 72", it does a terrific job of providing full-body fill. In the pic, I have it set up with the silver-side out to give it a bit more "punch" than the white-side delivers. BTW, I'm somewhat mechanically-challenged and I gotta say, even for someone like me who becomes easily confused putting things together, it's a piece-of-cake to assemble. (It takes me about three minutes to do so.) Once it's up and ready, LumoPro's Lite Panel is easily and effortlessly moved about and/or adjusted to different reflecting or diffusing angles and heights.

The LumoPro Lite Panel Kit comes with just about everything you'll need to use it in a variety of situations, whether you're using it in a studio lighting configuration, like in the image above, or outside with daylight. (You probably should have a sand or shot bag with you if you're going to use it outside.)

The kit they sent me came with two, separate panels: One is silver on one side and white on the other, the other is translucent. (It knocks the light down by about a stop.) They also make and sell a gold/white panel. The kit sells for $131 and includes a Lite Panel, stand, ribs (no, not bar-b-que ribs) and the handy-dandy ball head which allows you to adjust the Lite Panel all kinds of ways. Such a deal, right? I think so. I think this kit's moderate price and many uses makes it a makes-sense addition to most any guerrilla's shooter's bag of gear and tricks. LumoPro also throws in a small carrying bag so you're less likely to lose any of the kit's components.

The model in the pic above is Ashlyn. The black bar across her chest is there because I also used the pic on my Facebook Pretty Girl Shooter page and I sure didn't want to violate FB's TOS and have them get all upset with me for posting (shudder) boobies. Below is another high-key shot of Ashlyn, this one minus the FB censor bar. I captured the image below using the lighting setup you see above. Canon 5D w/Tamron 24-70 f/2.8, ISO 100, f/11 @ 125th.

2 comments:

Mac Photo (Mark) said...

I bought one of these about a year ago. I don't use it as often as I should, but it's great for adding some soft fill. I have the gold reflector as well and find that I use that more than the silver/white.

Ryan said...

The black bar won't keep Facebook's content goons away from you if someone reports the photo. I've had plenty of black bar photos removed despite there being no clear indication of it being a violation as per their TOS. They play fast and loose with their definition of "nudity".