Profoto just announced the brand new lineup of OCF II light shaping tools, and I had the opportunity to use them on location for my first shoot in nearly three months. I was not only thrilled to get back to shooting, but also excited to try out this newest gear.
We’ll take a look at what Profoto came up with and I’ll share my favorites that I’ll certainly add to my kit! To test out the gear I shot my lovely model in the woods while creating two very different moods with the Profoto B10, B10 Plus and OCF II tools.
The B10 and B10 Plus are battery operated strobes that are powerful and really compact. They are my favorite location lights that I have ever used, so it was exciting to play with some of their new modifiers for this shoot.
In the first scene I channeled a warm sunset vibe while the second concept sought to create a more colorful, moonlit look. Both scenes were shot just minutes apart, but changing my white balance, OCF II modifiers and OCF II gels allowed me to quickly transform the location.
Let’s take a look at the gear I got to work with.
OCF II Snoot ():
This snoot helps create a tight area of illumination and this portable version folds and unfolds quickly, really helping with setup speed and portability. Normally, I’d probably not consider a snoot on location simply because of the size and shape, but the compact design of OCF II snoot makes it extremely easy to take along.
OCF II Barn Doors ():
These portable barn doors fold up into a very small footprint. Typically I use barn doors to flag (block) light to carefully control the spread of my light in a scene.
For the warm sunset shot, I utilized an OCF II snoot on the face. I wanted to create a tight area of light to give just a kiss of light and illumination on the eyes. I placed the light (B10 Plus) just to the left of the scene to more closely match the direction of the light in the scene.
The sun had set behind the trees but I still wanted the warmth of golden hour. To create the sun, I used OCF barn doors layer with an OCF II CTO gel to give me the warm haze and highlight I needed. Fundamentally, I took the environment that was already present in the scene but made it even more dramatic and cinematic.
OCF II Gels:
If you know my work and tutorials, you know that I regularly utilize (and love) grids and gels. The design of Profoto’s new OCF II grids and gels is what really got me excited about this release!
Profoto designed an OCF II grid and gel holder with a magnet mount, so now the gels snap into place in a fraction of a second.
I know that often I struggle to tape on gels or awkwardly attach them onto my lights — it wastes time and slows me down. The OCF II gels (they have 12 colors so far) are the easiest gel attachments I’ve used. Plus, I can stack multiple gels and grids (which I do often) to layer creative effects.
OCF II Grids ():
The new tools offer a 10-, 20-, and 30-degree grid to help control the spread of light. They are designed to attach just like the gels — they snap into place using magnets and I can layer multiple together. Grids are one of the tools I use most commonly in my work.
For the midnight scene, I transformed the shot by using a 20-degree OCF II grid illuminating the subject. This allowed me to control the spread of light so I was just hitting the subject and not the ground around her. Next, I chose two blue OCF II gels as rim lights on either side of my subject. The way that they illuminated the foliage and made it look as though it were glowing blue flowers.
I chose a wide aperture (using both the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens and Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens) because the narrow depth of field created a beautiful bokeh on the reflection of the leaves when shooting at a low angle. Lastly, I selected a tungsten white balance to cool down the entire scene for an even more dramatic, moonlit result.
Final Thoughts:
All of these OCF II tools were well designed because they keep in mind that they need to be lightweight, compact, and fast for the user — which is important to the way I work on location. Often I take a lot of gear with me on location, so I really need the gear to be compact so it is manageable, especially when I’m bringing many strobes and modifiers.
Certainly everything was compact, but what I felt was as important in this launch was the key word of “fast.” I can pop the snoot open quickly. I can attach two gels and stack a grid on in a matter of seconds (or less). The grids and gels will be the first I scoop up and add to my location kit! I can’t wait to get back to shooting, and I know a lot of it is going to be on location and with these new tools.
Feature photo by Lindsay Adler
