Photo shoot with the Magmod Professional Strobe Kit XL as light shaper

“Finally available, a Magmod with Bowens mount!”

Magmod's light shapers are part of (many) photographers' daily setup. These universal add-ons are suitable for universal flash units for both rectangular and round flash heads (Magmod 2).

The success of these light shapers are mainly due to the ability to quickly install / remove accessories such as a grid, a diffuse, sphere or snoot by means of magnets. Many wedding photographers always have them with them.

A product engineer at the Magmod company must have thought of making an XL version with Bowen's mount. It is now available. Other mounts such as for Profoto can be ordered separately.

The Dutch importer Disnet sent me a copy of the Magmod Professional strobe kit XL a few weeks ago and asked me to test the product. As a portrait and fashion photographer, I use various light modifiers in my daily work. So I was very curious in which circumstances I could best use the Magmod Professional strobe kit XL.

Contents of the XL Kit

In a beautiful printed cardboard box you will find a sturdy cylindrical carrying case with the following parts.

• A collapsible XL reflector

• A magsphere (a soft white sphere in soft white transparant rubber)

• Two rubber grids. (angle of 40° and 20°)

• 3 CTO gels (1/1, 1/2 and 1/4). (no CTB gels)

Each part feels very sturdy and professional. It is therefore not surprising that this product is aimed at both professional and amateur photographers.

The carrying case has a clickable strap at the back so you can attach it for example to a tripod. However, there is no handle, but you could attach a carrying strap (not included).

The collapsible reflector has a silver coating.

A 20° and 40° rubber grid are part of the package.

The 3 CTO gels fit together. You will find a 1/1, 1/2 and 1/4 gel in the box.

Dimensions:

All parts together (with the collapsed reflector) measure approximately 21 cm high and fit perfectly in the supplied cylindrical bag.

With the reflector unfolded, we measure approximately 28 cm

The three supplied CTO gels in hard plastic fit perfectly in the folded reflector.

The CTO gel placed (here a 1/1) in the reflector

The grids (made of rubber) are easy to apply magnetically

You can magnetically attach the Magsphere on top of the grid.

Light output:

The basic part, the XL reflector, is made of plastic and has a silver coating on the inside. At first glance, this seems to reflect a little less compared to a standard metal reflector. I was therefore curious about the light output of this light shaper. Mounted on a Godox AD600 Pro, I measured the light output of the standard supplied reflector of the Godox AD600 Pro as well as that of the Magmod XL with a Sekonic L-858D. I also compared the light output with a Godox RFT-19 with ribbed silver interior.

Here are the values I measured:

•          Standard AD600 Pro head: f/22

•          MagMod: f/22 (same)

•          Godox RFT19: f/32.2 (1 & 2/10 of a stop more light)

•          MagMod with full CTO: f/11.2 (Almost 2 full stops less light)

•          MagMod with 1/2 CTO: f/11.8 (1 stop and 2/10 less in light)

•          MagMod with 1/4 CTO: f/16.1 (Nearly 1 stop less of light)

•          MagMod with Magsphere: f/16 (1 stop less of light)

•          MagMod with 40° grid: f/11.8 (1 stop less of light)

•          MagMod with 20° grid: f/16.1 (1 stop + 1/3 less in light)

Certainly not bad values. It is completely normal that the light output decreases with every addition of an accessory.

You can stack accessories. For example, you can first place a grid. On top of that you attach the Magsphere (although you probably won't use it much in practice).

The supplied three CTO gels are made of a hard plastic and slide into each other. The very first time you have to pull them apart with a little force. After that it goes a lot smoother.

Weight & Build Quality:

The collapsible reflector weighs 420 grams. That is about twice as much as a standard metal reflector.

Comparison:

• MagMod XL: 420 grams

• AD600 Pro standard reflector: 202 grams

• Godox RFT19: 161 grams

The whole set together weighs 1690 grams.

Because the majority of the kit consists of plastic and rubber, they can take a beating. It is no problem, for example, to play Frisbee with the supplied grid.

The Magmod in practice:

I tested the MagMod XL during a shoot in the heart of Prague. My model was the beautiful and lovely Kedist Deltour (Miss Belgium 2021).

For these kind of photo shoots I like to work with a lightweight and compact setup. No arsenal of primes, but three zooms: Sony G 24-105 f/4, Sony GM2 70-200 f/2.8 and a Tamron 17-28 f/2.8. All photos were taken with a Sony A1 in RAW format. White balance was set to manual and focus was set to continuous focus with eye detection.

In the end it turned out that I took all the photos with the Sony G 24-105 f/4 . The background for this shoot had to be quite recognizable so I took all photos with an aperture of f/4.

I brought a lightweight carbon camera tripod that served as a tripod for the AD600 Pro that I equipped with an extension head. The AD600 Pro was in a Godox carrying bag and served as a counterweight. (see photo below)

The Magmod reflector is easy and quick to apply. I was pleasantly surprised with the result of the first photos. The light was softer than I expected. A reflector remains a small light source and that means in general hard light.

The photos underwent minimal post-processing with Capture One Pro that consisted primarily of dodging and burning, adjusting contrast, and sharpening the photo.

The advantage of working with a smaller light shaper such as this Magmod reflector is in general the light is a bit harder and therefore richer in contrast. This allows you to place your tripod a little further and there may be quite a bit of wind, your tripod will not fall over quickly.

A reflector behaves like a reflector. It provides focused light, but at the same time the light beam is sufficiently wide. I usually place the light source between 2 and 3 meters from the model.

I generally place the flash towards the sun. You can see this by the double shadows in the next photo. The direction of the flash light comes from the left (+ 3 meters) while the sunlight came from the right side. I opted for a black and white edit. The AD600 Pro flashed at full flash power. Camera settings: 24mm, f/4, 1/200, ISO50

The flash light gives extra "punch" to your photos.

Also for the next photo I was pleasantly surprised by the light quality. You just have to try to find the balance between ambient and strobe light. When you place the light source at the right distance, height and direction, very little can go wrong.

CTO gels:

Time to try out the CTO gels (Color Temperature Orange) although I only used the 1/1 (Full) CTO gel in this test. Just place the gel in the reflector, and that is an easy task. To remove it, lightly press the CTO gel together. Despite the fact that it is a hard material, removal is easy because of the recesses.

CTO gels are mainly used as color correction when you combine flash light with the available sunlight. Especially in the golden hour they are very useful because the ambient light is very warm. The color temperature of a flash is approximately 5500 Kelvin and that is white light. Depending on the time of day, you place a ¼, ½ or 1/1 gel.

But first we went looking for a more suitable spot to continue our shooting. A beautiful monument made out of metal as a backdrop turned out to be an excellent choice.

To make everything more blue and to give it an artistic touch I set my camera to 4000 Kelvin. That is a difference of 1500 K. This choice is purely a matter of taste. Usually, using a Full CTO gel, a white balance of 3200 K is chosen when shooting in daylight.

Here I placed the flash at a distance of about 2 to 3 meters aimed frontally at Kedist (see shadow on the ground). The flash was fired at almost full flash power with the following camera settings: 1/400, ISO50 and f/4 (1/400 on the Sony A1 is the maximum flash sync speed, so HSS was not used)

You can like it or not but as you can see the result is much different compared to using only natural light.

In post processing I replaced the background using AI in Photoshop. The wall in the background is digitally created. You can see the real environment in the photo below.

Gels and black and white editing:

When working using contrasting colors, it is also easier to make adjustments afterwards when you convert the photo to black and white. For example, you can lighten or darken the skin by adjusting the value of red and/or yellow. If we want to adjust the rest of the photo (everything that is blue) it is just as simple. Another advantage of working with gels.

Photo of “behind the scenes” is a snapshot from a smartphone video recording.

Hopefully Magmod will bring other color gels on the market. Personally I would opt for magnetic gels.

I cut different gels myself with a cutting plotter and with 4 small magnets I can quickly apply and remove these self made gels. A magnetic outer ring adhered to the gel would even be a better solution.

The Magsphere:

I placed the 1/1 CTO gel together with the magsphere to see if the light would become softer, but as soon as you place the light source too far from the model, using any diffuser makes little sense. The light becomes omni-directional and is therefore much more wide (unless you really want this).

With the magsphere, the light became a bit softer, but also wider. just place the flash close enough to the model. Don't expect miracles. It remains a small light source.

For this photo I removed the CTO gel and I added the Magsphere back on. That's the power of this setup. The swap is very fast and that makes this product so interesting.

Using a Magmodsphere is certainly also useful indoors. You place the flash head with the sphere towards the ceiling and the light will spread nicely in the room.

However, if you want bundled light, then use grids. They are fantastic. You can literally use them as a frisnbee because they are made of rubber. The intention was to do a short shoot in the hotel, but that did not happen (due to lack of time). I prefer to use grids indoors rather than outdoors.

Conclusion:

The Magmod Professional Strobekit XL is a very interesting kit and costs just under 300 Euro. That is a significant amount but it is worth every euro. There is certainly no lack of quality (and light quality). It seems like it was made to never break.

You get in a cylindrical case, a reflector, the magsphere, two grids and CTO gels. This way you can quickly change the quality of the flash light. Of course, the magsphere cannot replace a large light shaper with double diffuse, but that is not the intention. You can easily use the set on location and in the open air, but also in your own studio.

Without the supplied cylindrical case, the kit fits easily in a travel case. If Magmod were to market an extension that turns this magmod reflector into a sports reflector (long reflector), I can finally take a long reflector in a travel case for my photo shoots (A metal sports reflector does not fit in a travel case). No manufacturer currently offers this.

I'm curious which accessories Magmod will bring to the market. A larger white transparant rubber sphere with a silver coating for even softer light is certainly one of the options. I would gladly communicate with Magmod about what I think would be very useful. 😊

If you want more light output with the same flash power, there are other light shapers available on the market, but then you miss the flexibility of the XL. You can place a grid in no time and if you want softer light with the magsphere, you can do this at 1,2,3.

Can I recommend this kit? Absolutely. I am using it already.

Photos copyright: Joeri Peeters