Intro by Skip Cohen

Yesterday Profoto USA launched what has to be one of the coolest features yet! It's an interactive directory of fifty-six of the finest artists in professional portrait and wedding photography. With a solid foundation in education, Profoto has created an easy way for you to keep track of some of your favorite artists. When you click on any head shot you're immediately linked to the artist's website. Want to follow them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?  Just click on the appropriate  icon.

I just shared a post of Tamara Lackey's on Marathon's blog recently, so I made her the first "test drive" of the Legends of light. One click and I was on her website. Then three more and I linked to her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Several of the featured "legends" also have other channels like YouTube, or in Tamara's case there's a link to her Redefine Show.

Intro by Skip Cohen

If you don't follow what's being shared every week on the Profoto website and blog, you're missing out on some great content. Sue Bryce packs a lot of solid information in the short video below, and Profoto expanded the story with their interview.

There's a long list of what I love about Sue's work, which includes her uncompromising quest for quality - not just in her images, but in the way she teaches! One of her signatures has always been working with natural light or more appropriately described in this video, as the feel of natural light created with two Profoto B1s. She's got ultimate control because she's creating her the light!

Watch the video, then read the short article and you'll get to know Sue a little better. And, if you want to raise the bar on your lighting technique, click on Sue Bryce Education below and take a stroll through some great content and outstanding educational opportunities.

If you haven't taken the B1s or B2s out for a test drive of your own, it's time to visit a Profoto dealer or rental house. You'll find all the information about Profoto's Off-Camera Flash Systems, with a click on the family shot below. Then click on "Buy" or "Rent" at the top of the page and join Sue along with so many of the leading artists in professional photography and start shooting with some of the very best in lighting gear -Profoto!

Los Angeles-based portrait photographer Sue Bryce has spent decades creating contemporary fashion-inspired portraiture that makes everyday women look like Vanity Fair fashion models. And she built an international reputation using natural light almost exclusively. Recently, though, she has fallen in love with the Profoto B1.

“When I first started shooting portraits 27 years ago, I used softboxes and vaseline on the lens and soft vignettes,” Sue recalls. “But the modern turn was removing the old style studio lights leaving the 80s behind and developing a natural light look.”

“Then, for more than 20 years, my whole business has been built around shooting portraits inside but around a window and around window light,” she explains.

Contemporary, fashion-style images

Sue says that clients are not necessarily trying to look like fashion models, but they do want to experience what it feels like to be pampered and have a celebrity-styled day or have contemporary, fashion-style images. “My clients are not models,” she says. “But I want them to look and feel like they are in a Vanity Fair photoshoot. And, at the end of the day, I want people to see my work and say, ‘She’s a fashion and contemporary photographer and I want to experience that.’”

After 27 years of building her entire business on natural light, Sue saw fashion photographer Lindsay Adler taking pictures with Profoto lights at a trade show and decided she had to try them herself. “I started seeing studio lights the way I see, use and master natural light,” she says.

“Then it was Felix Kunze who opened my eyes to what I could really do with them. It’s ironic that after leaving old-style studio lights and the 1980s behind and developing a natural light look, my new love is to return to strobes and reinvent my style with them.”
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In a recent shoot, Sue used Profoto B1 Off-Camera Flashes with two of her favorite light shaping tools, an Umbrella Deep White XL and a RFi Softbox 5’ Octa. With one light directly above the subject, the octabox was positioned so it was just touching the backdrop, making the light flow down the backdrop.

Lighting a crucial element for contemporary look

“It was critical to have the light directly overhead and coming down the backdrop,” she explains, adding that the light was set at 5.5. “I tried multiple angles, but they kept making the shot look too much like a traditional portrait. Extending the light right over her gave it a more contemporary and fashion-style look.”

The second light, with the umbrella, was set at 2.8, which was just enough to bounce in and take away the shadows under the subject’s eyes. Most of the photos in this set were shot at F5.6, 1/125 and ISO 100. “I have been obsessed for over 20 years with creating contemporary portraiture that lets women look and feel like a celebrity for a day.”

Like falling in love

After working with B1s for a year, experimenting with them and mastering the light she can create with them, Sue says she felt really accomplished, opened her mind and discovered something new for herself and her work.
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“I fell in love with the way they shoot and what they are capable of,” she says. “And they’ve changed the way I’m shooting. I can shoot pretty much any time of the day and I can control the light. It’s incredible to learn something new after 27 years! When you’ve been a photographer for so long, learning something new is one of the coolest experiences. It’s like falling in love with photography all over again.”

by Skip Cohen

I shared this video three and a half years ago, but whoever said you can't go back was wrong, at least when it comes to measuring the success of a new concept/product. Pay attention to where artist, Richard Walch is shooting - he's in a quarry with the then new B1 Off Camera Flash System. He's got nothing to work with except the industry's best lighting gear and his own creativity.

As members of an industry where technology is constantly pushing forward, we become so jaded with a "been there done that" or better yet, "been there seen that" attitude. We forget how Profoto created the "game-changers" with the B1 and later the B2 systems.

Since Richard Walch captured these images, I've shared stories of Profoto's B1 and B2 going everywhere in the world. They've captured images in some of the most remote locations - places where previously artists would never consider having the control and quality of studio lighting to capture an image.

Profoto essentially raised the ceiling on creative applications and controlling light. So, if you're still on the fence, it's time to take the B1 or B2 out for a test drive. What are you waiting for? Visit a Profoto rental house and turn your creative juices free - you'll never be disappointed.

Click on the Off Camera Flash System "family" portrait below to find the rental house nearest you.

There are lots of newsletters in the industry, but one of the very best and always loaded with great content is Profoto's. Just click on the banner above and sign up for it today. The newsletter sign-up take less than a minute and will set you up for a twice a month dose of solid information. It's like a vitamin for lighting, imaging education and creativity.

You don't always have time to stay on top of technology and what's going on in the industry, especially in terms of lighting. Profoto's doing the work for you and their tagline says it all - "Let the news come to you."

Not only is the newsletter filled with interesting articles, but it'll also keep you up to date on Profoto's promotions. For example - only until April 30 - buy a B1 or B2 Off Camera Flash System and get an Air Remote FREE!

Profoto's manufacturing the finest lighting equipment in the industry, but even more important they believe in education and helping photographers every day to raise the bar on their skill set and image quality!

Don't take my word for it - visit a Profoto Dealer and see for yourself!