Profoto’s founder Conny Dufgran | ©Get Krautbauer

Photokina 2012 has closed its doors. Thanks to all those of you who visited our booth and followed us on our blog. Without you none of it would have made any sense. We would also like to take this opportunity to once again say thanks to the photographers who let us use their images in our booth. For your information, the response from the visitors was very, very good!

Finally, we would like to share some portraits of Conny Dufgran, shot in our booth by German photographer Gert Krautbauer. For those of you who do not know, Conny Dufgran is one of the two founders of Profoto. Conny and his partner Eckhard Heine introduced the Pro-1, the very first Profoto generator, at Photokina in 1968. Eckhard is unfortunately no longer with us, but Conny is to this day at the heart and soul of Profoto.

If I remember correctly, Gert used a single D1 monolight with a White Umbrella M for this shoot. You can see more of his images at his website.

Profoto’s CEO Anders Hedebark & founder Conny Dufgran | ©Gert Krautbauer

Profoto Booth (hall 9 stand B10)

Today is the final day of Photokina 2012. The Profoto booth can be found in hall 9.1 stand B10. Seize the opportunity to try the new Pro-B4, see the entire line of not yet released RFi softboxes and participate in our competition and win a Light Shaping Tool of your choice.

In fact, since it is the final day of the fair, we have a special gift for those of you who find our staff writer Fredrik Franzén and says ‘hello’.

See you there!

The Docma booth

Today, we visit the Docma booth in hall 4.2. Docma is a printed magazine for advanced Photoshop users, and each issue comes with a free Adobe Lightroom preset, created by the staff at Docma. To promote the presets as well as the actual magazine, the staff has set up a small studio at Photokina where visitors can get their picture taken and retouched with the above-mentioned presets.

The set up they are using is quite unusual. They have four diffusion panels and a white carpet floor. There are D1 monolights with Beauty Dishes on each side. Another two D1 monolights with Softbox 1×6’ RFs are standing on each side of the photographer (Doc Baumann, who also happens to be the Editor in Chief). Finally, there is a fifth D1 monolight above the subject – equipped with an Umbrella XL White.

The purpose of this lighting set up is to create images that are rich in detail yet subtle in contrast, which in turn cuts down the retouching process to a couple of minutes. You will find a couple of before-and-after examples with different presets below. (more…)

David at MotoGP speed

Yesterday, we paid a visit to Ralph Man, who is shooting with Profoto gear at the Olympus booth in hall 2.2. Today, we are saying hello to British photographer David Newton, who is keeping busy at the SanDisk booth in hall 2.1.

David is standing in front of the entrance to the SanDisk booth, right next to multiple MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi’s muscular Ducati motorbike. David has a simple set up, consisting of one Profoto Pro-8 generator, powering two ProHeads equipped with a Silver Umbrella M and a Zoom Reflector. The lights are aimed towards the motorcycle, and any by passer who so wishes may be photographed together with the aggressive looking, 200,000-dollar motorbike. (more…)

Ralph Man at the Olympus booth

You do not have to visit the Profoto booth to see Profoto gear at Photokina. It can be found in other places too. For example, the enormous Olympus booth in hall 2.2, where German photographer Ralph Man demonstrates the features of the new OM-D camera with the help of Profoto strobes and continuous light units.

“Even though it’s small, the OM-D is capable of taking images of fantastic quality,” says Ralph. “I don’t use it very often in the studio – there I use my Phase One Camera. But whenever I’m on location, I prefer working with a smaller camera. I believe it lets me be creative in an entirely different way.” (more…)