My ultimate mobile flash set-up

I was looking for a low weight and a powerful flash combination to take with me for non commercial shoots.

It is very important to expand your portfolio with new work.

I own and use several Godox flashes.

• 1 x AD100 Pro

• 6 x AD200

• 1 x AD200 pro

• 2 AD600 Pro

• 2 AD1200 Pro

All together a total of 52000 Ws and that is a lot of flash power!

For commercial work I use my AD600 pro’s and AD1200 pro’s. The AD200 are mainly used as a vignet light. When you have to take a lot of photos you better have extra power so your flashes do not overheat. It is not very professional when you need to tell your client to have a 10 minute break so your flashes can cool down again.

I do love the AD200’s because they are portable and very powerful and battery life is excellent. You can attach a fresnel head, a round head or a bare bulb head.

I very rarely use the standard (fresnel) head and recently found out the output of the Godox mini wistro AD-M reflector is excellent.

It is not only excellent but the light it produces is between soft and hard.

I came up with a very mobile solution that is both low weight and extremely powerful!

Here it is:

You can use any lightweight stand like a Manfrotto nanopole.

In the middle a standard Godox AD200 flash holder. I use it to attach an white umbrella.

On a nanopole stand. I do recommend a more stable lightstand. It is doable though.

After this picture I cut the grass.

Trust me. This is a very powerful combination. I use the Godox AD200 extension heads and the AD200’s are in fomito pouches I bought at least 5 years ago. Godox now also offer pouches for the 200’s so I recommend to buy these ones.

It all fits in a bag (+ an AD100 pro).

My mobile flash bag.

I mainly shoot models with the sun on their back, expose for the general ambient light and use flash to get a balanced photo like the photo below.

The photo in the middle is without flash and the photo on the right is using an AD1200 Pro and a small open 50 cm octabox. (with small inner diffuse)

In general I place the flash a few meters away from the model. When you shoot towards the sun you need flashpower. For the photo above I used an ND4 filter, 1/200, ISO50, F/4. Flash Power was in general between 1/4 and 1/8.

I don’t use HSS very often because you loose at least a stop of light. It drains your battery faster and your flash can overheat faster.

HSS is fantastic but if you need to shoot a lot of pictures in a very short time using an ND filter is the way to go.

I did some test shots outside and I was impressed with the power and quality of light this setup produces.

I also added an extra AD200 holder so I can attach a white umbrella when I want the light to be softer. I don’t use umbrellas very often because thet are not the best light formers. There is always some light that bounces back and therefor the light efficiency is not as good but they are very lightweight and portable.

This setup is all I need when I want much power with a minium of gear. Check my ‘what is in my bag’ blog to get an idea what my total setup is for TFP shoots.

In the bag is also an AD100 Pro that I can attach on the light stand to brighten the lower parts of the model and as a general fill. This AD100 pro is in general at the same power as the AD200’s. That is 2 stops of light less compared to the 2 AD200’s.

It only takes a few minutes to assemble the complete setup and very easy to carry when you move from one place to another.

This setup (without the AD100) is 2/10 of a stop more powerful than an AD1200 Pro with standard reflector. That is 400Ws compared to 1200Ws and the 400Ws is even more powerful. This proves reflectors can make a huge difference.

When AD200’s are placed in a dual bracket (AD-B2) a Bowens mount lightformer the advantage of having extra power is lost.

But there you have it. The ultimate powerful mobile light setup using only 2 AD200’s.

Shoot with Alina

I own several Godox flashes like the AD200, AD600 Pro but also the AD1200 Pro.

When you need to shoot a lot (and I mean a lot like 1500 photos a day with flash) you better have too much flash power. However the more flashpower you need the bigger & heavier the flash. These 600 Ws or 1200 Ws flashes are far more expensive compared to a normal on camera flash.

The AD200 was released in 2017 and I bought my first set in april 2018 and these little 200Ws flashes are one of my favorite photo tools. They are small, powerful and batterylife is excellent too!

These AD200’s are too small for a 165cm umbrella with white sock but excellent as fill light in the studio. On location outdoors they are very useful too!

Alina contacted me some time ago for a shoot and it was because she had a cute movie on her Instagram I decided to accede to her request.

I drove to Antwerp to the Izy coffee bar and we went to the top roof to start our shoot. It was cold and windy but Alina’s roots are in Seberia so she didn’t mind at all.

I only took my Manfrotto Nanopole with me and a AD200 with AD-S7 softbox. This softbox is a small foldable umbrella and is excellent on location. I used this setup for all the photos you see below.

It was rather dangerous as the ladder was not 100% fixed. When Alina sat on a wall and was posing I was afraid she would fall and asked her not to take any risks. The picture might be very beautiful but it is just not worth it to take risks. Here you see the topview of a AD200 and AD-S7 with diffuse. There is also a metal curved plate you can screw inside (and a grid) but I never use that because it creates a shadow in the middle.

The roof was high and I was a little bit scared that she would loose balance and fall to death.

It was a gray day and absolutely not the light I love. I called this flat light because it is just too soft. Using a AD200 you can add some punch to get this result.

Good she was wearing a red suit to make the photo more colorful. I LOVE the color red in photos.

I shot this using 49 mm as a focal length. Personally I like this photo a lot. Alina poses really well.

On the other side of the roof I took this photo below and decided to make it black & white. Another photo I like very much.

For some reason this photo could have been taken in Russia too.

Here is a perfect example of using a 24-105mm at 105mm f/4.

Alina changed clothes and we did a few more photos on the top floor. The top building was not used for some time and there was dust everywhere but it gave the photo something extra.

I decided to shoot using a 35mm f/1.4 prime lens and it was the right choice. I very rarely use 35mm but I really should use this focal lenght more.

The color picture were variants of beige. I already decided at the location I would post process this photo in B&W. In my opinion another beautiful photo. Always make sure you straigthen the vertical lines first during post processing.

For this photo I used a 35mm prime lens at f/1.4 and balanced the ambient light with flash light: AD200 + AD-S7

Settings: ISO200, 1/125, f/1.4

Alina changed clothes again with the idea to shoot in the streets of Antwerp but when we got outside it was raining a bit so I decided to shoot inside the coffeebar and I am happy I did.

I did not adjust my white balance(which is no problem shooting in RAW) and had to lower the yellows with at least 1500 Kelvin to get the colors correct.

Here is a close up I love. The way she tilted her head at a perfect angle is just fantastic. I said “wow” and it was the first photo I photoshopped when I was back home.

Isn’t this beautiful?

For the picture above and below I used one of my favorite lenses. The Sony GM 135mm f/1.8. It is an expensive prime lens but the results you get from this lens are stunning, just stunning. The bokeh is buttersmooth and the focus speed is top notch and it always nails focus.

I moved the AD200 flash several times but only used it to fill the shadows.

I could have used the 35mm too. Shot from another angle the legs would be much longer but in general I made more close ups and photographed her in portrait mode (vertical).