OK, I admit it – when the mood takes me I follow links on the internet and find myself down some pretty odd/infuriating/entertaining rabbit holes. The other day I was suckered-in by a full-on click-bait link on Facebook with the oh-so-inviting headline “Is this the biggest lie in photography?” It started out saying that photographers who believe that expensive lights give better light than cheap ones aren’t correct. It started out with all the hallmarks of something controversial but quickly fizzled out but not before I had started to compose a bit of a rant of a comment to add to the growing conversation on the Facebook page from a few others who hadn’t bothered to read to the end before getting on their hobby horses either.

Five minutes later, and having read the whole thing, I stopped, copied what I had agonised over writing, and pasted it into a note on my computer with the idea of doing exactly what I’m doing now; turn that rant into a blog post featuring better reasoning and more detail.

I have been a working photographer since 1986 and not long after the arrival of usable digital cameras and the easily accessible internet I started to get noticed for some of the images I was shooting and sharing using portable flash. Suddenly my opinions on light and lighting were in demand and it was extremely flattering. Very little of what I was doing was particularly new but, to an awful lot of people out there, it appeared to be just that. 

I’ve now clocked up over 37 years as a professional and I still think back to experimenting in the studios at college and some of the huge lessons that we learned there. One of my biggest take-aways has always been that it is all about the light… with some important caveats.

It’s not about ‘good light’ or ‘bad light’. It’s all about adaptable, dependable, predictable and controllable light. In general terms, the more expensive kit gives you all of those whereas cheaper options take a bit more work to achieve them. As a working photographer I want my lights to do exactly what I want and expect them to do. If I can do that with lower cost options 100% of the time then I will go with them but in my experience that doesn’t really happen. You can get interesting, surprising and even beautiful light from really cheap kit but do I need to take that risk? Risks are, well, risky.. 

The joke is that when I was getting my work noticed a lot of what I was showing on my website was the experimental stuff which was normally shot at the end of an assignment using the gear often at what were its limits and regularly with something less than predictable outcomes.

A big percentage of my work is still shot using my now aging Elinchrom Quadra ELB packs and heads. Their power output are colour temperatures are consistent. They are pretty tough and the recycling times are good. The batteries hold their charge well and are powerful enough for the kind of work that I do. All of that, added together, adds up to my definition of good lights. Add in some decent light modifiers and my knowledge, experience and imagination and the sum total is good light. 

If I were to hop onto eBay or surf some decent used equipment sellers I could pick up a kit to replace what I have been using for many years reasonably cheaply and the newer options wouldn’t cripple me either and so I can safely say that the difference between good light and not-so-good light isn’t all about budget but having enough money to spend on it makes my working life  considerably easier.

I have said before on this blog that anyone who buys photographic equipment solely based on a list of features and/or the opinions of others could well be wasting their money. That couldn’t be more true when it comes to buying lighting kit – especially flash. On paper the gear that I make a living with wouldn’t be anyone’s wish list yet, and it is only my opinion, but it really does give good light.