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Are monolights your bread and butter? Sohail Mamdani has a helpful post on the BorrowLenses blog covering how to control power on a Profoto pack.

Mamdani admits after getting used to monolights, he found the idea of a pack a bit daunting. What? You can control three lights at once? In response, he put together this guide to illustrate the basics of working with a Profoto Acute2R 2400 pack. It will have you shooting with confidence.

Using a Sekonic light meter mounted on a light stand, Sohail visually demonstrates how to alter the output of the pack from full power at 2400ws down to 75ws, a much greater degree of variability than the typical monolight.

Read the full guide and stay tuned to the BorrowLenses blog for part two of this series, which promises to take you through controlling light for multiple heads on one pack.

©David Hobby

Tireless off-camera flash enthusiast and educator David Hobby of Strobist fame has a fine post regarding the use of quality extension cords for plug-in strobes. Hobby is all about spending a few extra dollars and getting a quality, although often overlooked, piece of gear.

“Cords are cheap and strobes are expensive,” Hobby sums up. He also explains how some voltage is always lost across the thinner cables, which inherently have more resistance. Do this and you’ll get dips in voltage, which is, of course, bad for your flash units.

Do yourself and your expensive gear a favor. Read this Strobist blog post to see why it’s smart to invest in some quality extension cords to power your lights.

Last week, New York’s famed Fashion Week had it’s opening salvo not in its usual location of Manhattan’s Bryant Park, but in the county just north of the city. The Westchester, an upscale mall in the county seat of White Plains, New York, played host to its version of Fashion’s Night Out.

Many mall vendors to the goodie bags given to the first 200 guests, but the real excitement was at the Neiman Marcus anchor store, where any photographer who wanted to could participate in a live fashion shoot presented by Profoto. Models held their best poses as shooters tried out Profoto gear and built up their knowledge of off-camera flash.

You can learn more by checking out this story by Novella Nicholson writing for The Daily Harrison.

©Thomas Chadwick

PopPhoto.com has an insightful piece by Peter Kolonia on how photographer Thomas Chadwick shot a large moody alley to create a classic music video vibe. Chadwick composited eight exposures to achieve his final image.

A Profoto Pro-7b pack and a Pro-7B Head with a Profoto 7-inch Grid Reflector was used to backlight each dancer. A Profoto Softlight Reflector and another 7b head and pack were used for frontlighting, according to Kolonia. The article is replete with a comprehensive gear list and a detailed lighting diagram. Don’t miss it!

You can find individual shots from this composite on Chadwick’s site.

We’ve covered the beautiful and innovative portrait work of Profoto shooter Robert Seale before. His work is innovative, beautifully framed, and often composed the way a portrait painter would.

If you’re in the San Francisco area today, Seale will be speaking and showing his work at 5pm today at the Adobe “Pop-Up Store” Photoshop and You Experience in San Francisco.

If you’re unable to attend, check out Seale’s site or blog to see more of his work.