Trying to photograph dogs outdoors with flash can be challenging, although It’s often beneficial to use a little fill flash in brighten up the shadows on a backlit animal or add some catch light into your subjects’ eyes to help a dog look a little more alive. As Rio our Border Collie is only 9 months old, he still needs three good walks a day to keep him happy and healthy. I decided to leave the usual lighting modifiers at home such as a soft box or umbrella and though I would experiment with a MagMod Mag Beam. Why opt for the Mag Beam? Simple, its small, can throw light a good distance and I can pair it with a Godox AD100, attached to a Phottix Padat Carbon Fibre Compact Light Stand 198cm. This provides an ultra-portable lighting kit that can be taken on a dog walk easily due to size and weight.
MagMod claims the MagBeam will increase the effective flash power by 2-3 stops. To be clear about this, obviously, the flash has a finite amount of power that it’s able to pump out at any given setting, but what the MagMod MagBeam does is simply funnel all of that light into a much tighter circle, effectively increasing the brightness of the light in that one particular spot by 2-3 stops.
The MagBeam has three incremental telescopic settings, which narrows the beam of light, thereby intensifying it, as you extend the rubber tube. Another advantage of the MagBeam is that you can place it out of frame and if you are simply using it for some fill, it’s providing a good balance in relation to using a softbox. Moreover, as the light is intensified you can reduce the flashes power output, resulting in faster recycling times and longer battery life.
For an ultra-portable lighting setup that I can take on a walk with Rio, I am pleased with the results.
