American Night Look: Flash Workshop with Mario Dirks

In the past flash workshops led by photography professional Mario Dirks, Rollei's new HS Freeze 6s and 4s flashes were able to demonstrate their full potential. Eight participants each thoroughly tested the flashes with two photo models in different setups.

In addition to classic lighting setups in the photo studio, flashes were also used outdoors. The location for this was a specially rented open-air parking garage deck, where the "American Night Look" was to be implemented.

"In this type of flashing, the ratio of existing daylight to artificial flash light plays a crucial role" - Mario Dirks, professional photographer

This technique, also known as "Day for Night", originally comes from filmmaking. To save costs and time, filming is done during the day. However, through targeted underexposure, an effect is achieved as if the film had been shot in the evening or at night.

The Rollei flashes are perfect for implementing this technique photographically. Due to their powerful lithium-polymer battery, they are very flexible and can also be used mobile. The light output of 600, or 400 watt-seconds, is sufficient to achieve the special look even in bright sunshine. According to the manufacturer, up to 500 flashes can be fired consecutively at full power. After the workshop, however, the battery indicator of our tested flashes showed even more than 90 percent!

Before the photo session, Mario Dirks and the participants set up two photo sets, each with two flashes positioned diagonally opposite each other as "crosslight". The Freeze 6s served as the main light from diagonally in front, and the 4s as a contour light from diagonally behind. Strong contrasts and hard shadows support this image look, so standard reflectors were used as light shapers. Since the flashes feature the very common and popular Bowens mount, a variety of light shapers can be used.

One of the models slipped into an astronaut suit during the shoot, while the other model made herself comfortable as a cello player on a chair. Two groups of 4 participants were formed. A brief intermittent drizzle didn't bother the dust and splash-proof flashes, allowing the shoot to begin under professional guidance. The participants were noticeably enthusiastic about how easily the flashes could be adjusted via the wireless remote control. The universal radio transmitter works with almost every manufacturer and also transmits important HSS & TTL data.

With much fun, the different modes of the flashes were tried out: Manual mode, TTL, HSS and the super-fast Freeze mode, where the flashes fire with an incredibly short duration of only 1/19000 second, allowing even the fastest movement to be captured sharply. For specific technical questions, Felix Goebel and Olav Brehmer were on hand to assist the participants. They are product managers at Rollei and were involved in the development of the flashes.

Some of the participants photographed fast image sequences one after another, which was also not a problem for the flashes. The recycling time of the Freeze flashes is only 0.9 seconds at maximum power, and even only 0.2 seconds at the lowest power.

So time flew by. Finally, the resulting images were jointly analyzed and discussed in Mario Dirks' photo studio, with the participants being absolutely positively surprised by the flashes and the resulting photos. To make the farewell a little easier, each participant received a 50-euro voucher from Rollei, and then they went home with heavy hearts but creative input.

Photographer Mario Dirks has been working as a photo trainer and coach since 2007. In addition to seminars for companies, he also offers guided photo trips abroad. In recent years, he has traveled with photography enthusiasts to Singapore, New York, Sydney, Paris, Florence, Iceland, and even Antarctica. He writes articles for various photo magazines and produces educational videos on photographic topics. In 2012, he traveled the world for 50 weeks as a photographer.

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