ADV TEST SIMPLE

The Ice Light Adds Natural Light with the Flick of a Switch

Business Growth

June 23, 2014

If you’re like me, your heart gets all aflutter when you start thinking about off-camera flash gear. I love the array of images that you can create using off-camera flash. From moody to vibrant, harsh to soft, using OCF opens up a whole new world of possibility for photographers. One of the products I haven’t had a chance to use yet is the Ice Light. Designed by world famous photographer and teacher Jerry Ghionis, the Ice Light is an LED daylight light source for both photographers and videographers.

Showiteer Lauren Pinson of Lauren Pinson Photography uses an Ice Light in her business for both detail and portrait work. I asked Lauren to share with the Showiteer community how she and her husband, Seth, incorporate their Ice Light into their wedding day photoshoots, and some images and their camera settings.

I picked up an Ice Light this year after seeing and hearing so much about it. I researched what I could and then just made the jump and purchased it at WPPI. Just a week later, I had a very rainy wedding day and we were stuck indoors for most of the day. Usually indoors, I would use my speedlights for lighting, and I did that for the family portraits. For quick portraits of the bride and groom and detail shots, I utilized the Ice Light. Since then, the Ice Light has become my go-to light for detail shots, but I also look forward to opportunities to use it for portraits as well. It depends on your budget, but I would say for me the price tag is worth the use I get out of my Ice Light. It’s the same price as one of my speedlights, but has zero need for me to set up and get the flash power correct. It’s like carrying a window in your gear bag. That’s the best way I can explain it: Pure soft light that’s powerful but won’t overpower the sun. Remember the gloomy rainy wedding I mentioned? It was so dreary outside that the window light with the lights off wasn’t great. The room also had ochre walls and wood trim so there was a nice yellow cast to every image with my on-camera-flash and it’s such an odd color that even after trying to gel my flash the bounced light wasn’t great.

Here are two images I photographed of the bride on that very rainy wedding day. The first shot (on the left) uses only the natural light available. The second image (on the right) was taken using the Ice Light (positioned on the right side). I love how the natural light and the Ice Light have the same color temperature!

icelight-examples-lauren-pinson-photography_0009

Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm 1/100 f/2.0 ISO1250 Ice Light was about 5 feet away

One of the biggest selling points of the Ice Light for me is speed and ease. The next two images are from a wedding a few weeks ago where we were running behind and needed to get to the reception. I was working fast, and daylight was pretty much gone at this point. These images are all within a 6 minute time span, and about 400 feet apart in location. We were going fast! The first image was shot with the Ice Light about 4-5 feet from the subjects.