In the Great City Of Kawartha Lakes, on a cloudless early afternoon under the full sun, Ridout Photography peeled the plastic off the brand spankin’ new lightweight portable Translite 2.0 strobe. The good people over at Willow Paper Works (WPW) were kind enough to let me try out this unit and I couldn’t have been more happy. Willow Paper Works will be a Canadian distributor offering the units through their website. They will be available in two different sizes as well as kits that will come complete with stands and the unit itself.
All of the goodies come neatly packed in what appears to be a small compact camera bag. I charged the battery the night before and I was ready to go. The battery has a simple on/off switch and a green light to show you that it is powered on. I placed the head on a portable light stand and used a white shoot through umbrella for a number of shots. I also fired off images using the translucent diffuser that comes as part of the kit and attaches to the reflector as shown below. My main goal was to see if I could over power the full day sun as well as try and turn the output power down enough to fill my subject with soft light while still trying to obtain a 2.8 aperture. The hard part obviously with trying to shoot wide open in full sun is that your shutter speed will more then likely be higher then 1/200th of a second (sync speed of my camera). I was able to get the exposure I wanted by using iso 50 and shooting in full shade. This flash head has no problem keeping up with the demand. I tested it in both shade and full sun at different exposures and got great clean images. The battery that comes with the unit can also be used to power my Canon flashes (optional cord required) That’s a huge bonus alone. The ease of carrying the unit because of its weight and size make this a great flash to bring with me for my outdoor shoots that require some fill or more power then I can muster out of my Canon 580′s
The Translite 2.0 head features 19 manual power settings adjustable in 1/3 steps over a five stop range. The flash head can also be fired with an on camera flash using the Translite’s built in slave. I like the digital display on the back as it’s easy to read even in full sun. I was able to dial down the output and get some great soft fill light while shooting through my umbrella. The images below all were shot using a signal Translite unit. The last image has the flash directly behind the subject pointing at her back.
If you are in the market for a lightweight portable flash unit and don’t want to break the bank this is an excellent choice. Email Willow Paper Works for pricing and availablity
The image below was shot if full shade with my 400 2.8 Flash held up high camera left near the model shooting through a white translucent umbrella.
The image below was shot on the shaded side of the wall with the flash camera right hence the flash shadow off the left arm. I was using the diffuser which hardens the light a tad…if I shot through the umbrella I could probably eliminate that shadow. Flash shadows suck
by Mark Ridout
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