CLAR Illumi Max 300 Light Review

"Light turns the ordinary into the magical" – Trent Parke

If you haven't noticed, I'm obsessed with lights right now.   Small ones, big ones, portable, cumbersome, hard, soft-- I've got to shape me some light.  I want a light that does everything.  Fit into a backpack, be hugely powerful, be accurate, silent, battery-powered.  Of course, no light can do everything, so you end up with a library of instruments to choose from.

Enter the CHAR Ilumi 300, a two-thousand watt equivalent LED at an amazing price.  This light challenges me in more ways than I’d like.  So let’s get into it.

www.HurricaneImagesInc.com

The CLAR Illumi 300 comes in three parts:  a light, controller unit, and power brick.  It also comes with a case that is, quite frankly, excellent, and a remote control that is cheap but functional.  It uses a Bowens mount for accessories.  You can power it with a V-pack battery, though they have to be huge, and it can be controlled via DMX.

What’s stunning about this light is that you get all these features and 2K watts of power for just $400.  That’s less than half the cost of the competition.  So how does it perform?

First, it’s as powerful as it says.  At one meter, it comes in at roughly 18,000 lumen, putting it on par with the original Aputure’s 300D.  It’s controllable in 10% increments, which is a little crude in theory but finite enough in reality. I don’t have a professional color meter, but my phone app rates it at 5400 Kelvin.  It’s also claims a CRI of greater than 96, but I don’t have a way to accurately test this. I did shoot a white card and analyze the color balance, and I was surprised to find it perfect.  My RGB was 246, 246, 246.    So that CRI is probably spot on, too.  The bottom line is that LED chip technology has been getting better and cheaper, making lights like the CLAR Illumi possible.

Noise is always a big concern with lights.  The CLAR is fairly quiet.  It has fans in both the light and the power brick, and between the two of them it’s audible but not intrusive.  Given that you’ll probably position the CLAR farther away from your subject than other lights, I don’t think fan noise will be a problem in 95% of the situations in which you’d use this bad boy.  For the other five you’ve got noise reduction.  One of the few shortcomings in the design of this unit is that the power cord is long, but the cord from the power brick to the controller is just 6 feet.  That puts the brick’s fan six feet behind the light.  This should be the opposite, with the longer cord being between the two units so you can get the power brick as far away from the mic as possible, preferably in another room altogether.

So those are the positives: great power, color quality, price, and relatively low noise.

Build Quality

The negatives for this light can be summed up in two words:  build quality.  Much of the housing is what they describe as “aircraft grade aluminum” which I think is just a silly marketing name for “aluminum.”  That includes the light housing, knobs, clamp, controller body, and power brick housing. The metal on the light is fine, the controller feels pretty thin.  But where the plastic meets the aluminum really feels flimsy and brittle.  The dial on the controller compresses a bit, and the rotation is a little rough.  This feels like it will break with regular use, so I’m thankful there’s a remote that can also control the light. Overall, the build quality is a little better than the ZUMA 60 I reviewed, and the build is where the budget aspect of the unit really shows.

To add to these worries, there’s some quality control issues at the factory.  The CLAR Illumi appears to have been made specifically for Adorama, and they're aggressively moving it into the market in different formats, including flexible panels.  But with quality control issues like this, it's difficult to predict if they'll grow into even a Neewer level brand.  Though mine arrived perfectly encased in boxes and plastic, it still had a dented reflector and a bit of odd colored dust on it.

These build quality issues would normally disqualify a light for me.  My biggest concern would be showing up on set and not having it function correctly.  But the issue of build quality isn’t quite as straightforward as it sounds, especially when it comes to something with a bargain price.  Drop the Illumi from a foot off the ground and you’ve got a 50-50 percent chance it’ll survive.  Those are bad odds. But if you drop even the best quality light from four feet you’ve only got about the same survival rate.  In reality, there's a big difference between the abuse LED lights can take compared to the old instruments we used to use. Old fashioned lights will break a bulb that you can replace, but LED’s will break a circuit board or fan or something integral.  The Illumi comes with a great case, so it’s protected in transit. It’s only on set that you need to be concerned about blunt trauma.  So if you don’t want to knock over any light, should you be concerned that you can’t knock over this one?

A bigger worry, though, would be that the components aren’t well assembled.  Did they use cheaper parts inside, or cut corners in manufacturing?  At this price point, though, you could ask a roughly similar question of a brand light: would you buy an Aputure 300D used for $400?  The answer is probably yes, but you don’t know what it’s been through—humidity, moisture, dust, stressful vibrations and being bounced around.  Could you really trust it more?

For me, I’d say the big difference between those two scenarios is that after several uses I’d trust the Aputure completely, whereas with the CLAR by the time I trust its internal build quality, I’ll probably start to wonder about it’s longevity.

I’d trust this most in a studio.  Studios are a controlled environment, and you’ve got alternatives right at your fingertips.

In the field, I’ll probably bring a backup light, just in case—at least for the first few uses.  I don’t have anything with the same power, and it’s a pain to bring an extra light, but that’s better than having nothing if it fails.  The truth is, I’ll hold onto this light just because I’m just so curious to see if it will last.  Would I recommend it to others?  With the big caveats I mentioned before.  Buy with your eyes wide open.

 Illumi 300 also provides some highly coveted features for less than half the price of brand lights.  Or maybe I should say “logo’d” lights, since nearly everything is made in a handful of shops in China.

And this brings me to a curious observation I had when testing this light.

I’d never used a light temperature meter before, and what struck me is how many different temperatures exist at once even with natural light.  The idea that 56K is daylight is a bit misleading. By the time the light reaches your subject, surface reflections create a broad spectrum of light on different parts of your face that can vary as much as a thousand degrees. Unless you live in a grayscale world, light is never just 56K. So is it really important that daylight LEDs are 56K plus or minus 200 degrees Kelvin?  I welcome your thoughts on that.

Day 75, Learning 75: Light as Time Travel

"Wait a minute, Doc.  Are yo telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?" ~ Marty McFly, Back to the Future.

We think of light in many ways: sheer illumination, texture, drama, and artistry.  We first learn to light the subject, and later the environment.  Then we return to lighting the subject with greater nuance.  Today I'd like to think of light as time travel.  By that I mean  light can place a moment in any time of day (or night).

Our minds are so accustomed to interpreting light that it's completely unconscious now.  We see long, sideways shadows and immediately understand the time to be early morning or late afternoon.  Short shadows indicate noon time.

Even though we can't see these women's shadows on the ground, there's no question that the sun is either rising or setting in this image.  Which do you think it is?  If you guessed sunset, you'd be right.  But how did you know?

We can re-create that time of day using flashes or continuous lights.  The well-advised adage is "when the sun is high, place your subject in shade."  When that shade is too dark (say, beneath a large building) the resulting image can lack contrast.  Adding a flash can give your images vibrancy, depth, and also a place in time.

The image below looks natural, but there's a Nikon SB800 in a 24" soft box camera right to give it a little more oomph.  Notice the soft shadow under her chin and camera left.   For this portrait, I wasn't concerned with time (though from the bright spot on the wall immediately behind her we might guess that it's late afternoon).  I was focused on depth and texture.  Our minds, however, are seeing time in the picture.  The light is imitating mid day under a light shadow; only the rectangle of sunlight on the wall behind her head (camera right) says otherwise.

Time of day isn't just shadows, though.  Long shadows without the corresponding change in color temperature will look fake.  Mismatched light temperatures are an annoyingly common mistake when photographers combine flash portraits with sunsets.  The color temperature on the model is 5200K, while the sunset light is closer to 2000K (the solution: gel your flash-- you can correct this problem in post but it's a pain).

Once you've created your shadows, adjust your color temperature.  Flash is a daylight temperature of 5200K.  Warm it up to 3500K with an orange gel and see how much more natural your sunset portraits are. The difference in light temperature between sunset (roughly 2000K) and your gelled flash (3500K) will make your subject stand out without appearing unnatural.

Now that you're attuned to time-cues in images, browse Flickr, Instagram, or your favorite photographer's website and practice identifying the elements that create time of day, and the mood it evokes.  Check out mine, www.hurricaneimagesinc.com, and let me know what you find.

Day 73, Learning 73: Sharpen Your Directing Skills

I describe myself as a "people photographer."  That covers a lot of ground-- portraits of all types (business, personal, theatrical, editorial), but also fashion, boudoir, wedding, and commercial. I enjoy photographing people because, quite frankly, it unnerves me.  I'm naturally introverted and not especially articulate on the fly. I photograph people because I'm both fascinated by them, and because it challenges me.  But I am good at putting people at ease and listening.  Twenty years as a theatre director has taught me quite a bit about communication.

I've written before about how to pose models, and hands, and how to coach them in a session.  Dig through the blog and you'll probably find some other advice on working with models. One of the more difficult aspects of posing, however, is communicating to the model in the moment, and being clear and assured so the subject is at ease.  That really only comes with practice, but practicing on paying clients is never a great idea.  So here's an approach to practicing your communication skills.

First, you have to know what pose you want them to be in.  I take screen shot clippings of interesting poses and put them into folder categories; I find it's the only way I'll remember what I saw a month ago.  Typically before a session I spend time reviewing my folders, or looking for new material. The next challenge is remembering those poses during a session.  In the past, I've tried writing notes to myself (and found I never looked at them); and I've seen an interesting tip whereby you transfer pictures onto the camera's card so you can check them on the back of your camera; if you've newly formatted your card, your references images will be at the top, always one click away.   Some pro's are more upfront, printing images and bringing them to the session to share with their clients.  Any of these approaches is fine, just so long as you have ideas.

Next comes the harder part:  communicating your vision to your client efficiently.  Like most portrait photographers, I advocate mirroring the pose for your client and using your hands to align and tilt the head.  If you want them to turn their chin to the right and up, you use your hand almost as if you were physically moving their face-- gesturing to the right and then up-- as you tell them what you want.  Of course, it's more challenging in a real session.  You've got a camera in one hand, a thousand things on your mind, and their right is your left.  So here's the exercise to improve your directing skills.  Pick a dozen posing images.  They can be one's you've shot or something you grabbed off the internet.  Put one on your computer screen.  Stand up.  And physically "direct" your computer-- out loud and with gestures-- into the pose.  Practice verbalizing, mirroring, and gesturing at the same time.  Aloud. An additional bonus with this technique is that it makes you deconstruct the pose, making it easier to remember.

In posing a client, start from the feet and work up to the eyes.  If you position the torso before the feet, people often twist themselves up.  Go through a dozen images and I guarantee you'll feel more comfortable working with a live model.  Go through a hundred and you'll be communicating like a pro.  You can try these to start:

In most real life situations you only need 5 or 6 poses.  The skill is in working in the moment to create small variations.  The talent is when those variations are based on strengthening something you see through your viewfinder-- their emotion, physical attributes, or the lighting-- and not just for the sake of variety.

Go out and shoot or go out and practice.

Special thanks to Chrystal Wing, NP Walker, and Underground Runway

Day 70, Learning 70: Making Eyes Pop

In many respects, eyes make the photograph.  They are the one thing that is always supposed to be in focus (traditionally, though there is the occasional brilliant exception).  They are one of the main characteristics of beauty.  And in all honesty, they can be difficult to capture well in pictures, especially when you're working in natural light.  Overcast days can make for dull eyes.  Converting to Black and White can also dull them. 

So here's a Photoshop technique for making them pop using Color Dodge in Blend Mode.

Let's start with the original image above.  I haven't adjusted or touched it up in any way, so it has many issues.  We're going to focus just on the eyes, though.  Being dark, they were especially vulnerable to turning dull on our overcast day.

After you make a new layer, select both eyes.  I'm going to do just one eye so we can compare.

 

 

After you've selected the eye, you'll want to smooth and feather is slightly.  There's a "Refine Edge" button near the top of your screen for this dialogue box.

 

 

 

Then copy it into a new layer.  On that layer, set the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.

 

 

 





In most cases the result is extreme and you have to pull the transparency down to between 10%-30%; in rare cases you'll need to boost the effect by duplicating the layer.  The final result should be subtle but noticeable in comparison:

See the slight boost in color and vibrance?  This is much closer to how she was in person.

Day 65, Learning 65: Tips for Coaching Models

Posing models is one school of expertise and I wrote a little about it here, here, and here.  What I'm writing about today is talking to models during a session.  This is especially important because the sage advice to never touch a model is very very true... even if there's a little bit of over-simplification involved.  Directing and coaching blur together, but they are two different things.  If you want your model positioned a certain way, you direct; if you want to bring out a particular emotion, you have to coach.

The first and most useful technique is to physically show the model what position you'd like them to be in by mirroring it.  This is not only quick, it makes them feel less self-conscious because you're doing it, too.  This includes both taking the same position and things like pointing in the direction.  Don't be afraid to put the camera down to show them what you want.

Because you're facing each other, your left is there right.  With practice you can also learn to give verbal directions by reversing everything.  So it's possible to say, "shift your weight onto your left foot."  If the direction is simple, they'll get it. Something else I occasionally do is turn around and look at the world from their perspective.  That way I can say, "look at that tree...."  

Coaching
These are the basics for finding the right poses and positions.  Now comes making your model relaxed and emotive.  It's hard to be on the other side of the lens, taking chances with poses that might make you look ridiculous (and be immortalized forever on film).  This is especially true if the photographer is silent.

Be specific with your models:

• Soft smile / Big smile / Smile with your eyes / Don't smile
• Part your lips a little
• Raise/lower your chin
• Look towards/away from me/down and to your left

Encourage to your models:

• That's good/great
• Nice, Excellent
• Beautiful
• You look great
• Just like that
• A little more

Warm them up:

• Shake it out
• Wiggle something
• Make a pucker face
• Make it a gesture-- run your fingers through your hair

Create emotion:

• Think of: your favorite part of your partner/ your favorite dessert
• Remember lying out on a sunny day/watching the rain fall

There are endless scenarios for creating emotion.  Consider them before the shoot and choose the ones that match your client or the emotive quality your creating.  When shooting for a theatrical production (such as the image above) I often have them pick a line from that moment and repeat it over and over again.  With inexperienced models, having them do a gesture that ends in the pose you want can appear more natural than having them hold the pose.  In theatre, I often combined both those techniques.

Day 55, Learning 55: Chance and Unpredictability

Holy Toledo, I missed four days of posting.  I did keep up with learning, mind you, it was just the blogging that suffered.  What caused this failure, you ask?  A most lovely shoot with jazz siren La Mariana (and her husband Mark).  This is the kind of shoot you hope for:  a great, fun couple, eager and playful, exceptionally photogenic.

You can never count on that kind of client, though.  Chance and unpredictability are much bigger elements in a photography session than you might think.  Weather, children, pets, bad moods, bad hair; one of the things I love about photography is that when you agree to a project, you're never absolutely, completely positive you can deliver the goods.  You have to trust your wits and be willing to freefall.  There are a number of ways to hedge your bet, though:

Know your subject.  Pre-visualize the shoot; learn their interests/passions.  I wrote a whole blog on how.
Have five photo options in your head.  If those are poses, have a couple of variations for each
Bring the sun in your pocket.  I'm talking a flash or two.  They're even helpful outdoors to give blah light a little punch; helpful indoors for your subject or your background. If you've got an assistance (or can commandeer one), your can move quickly.

If you've been following this blog at all you know I rarely promote equipment or encourage people to buy more stuff.  So far I've recommended a $7 wireless remote for practicing your craft and a $6 notebook for making sure you actually learn something.  But the RoundFlash is quickly becoming one of my favorite tools for carrying the sun in my pocket.  On camera it does what it's supposed to (which has its plusses and minuses): at close range it creates a soft quick fall-off of light and a ring of reflection in the eyes (which I find kinda ugly and unnatural).  Attached to a monopod off-camera,  and you've got portable softbox that can fold up and go in your pocket.  If you've got an assistant, they can keep it positioned close for great results. There are cheaper knock-off versions of the Roundflash, but I can't vouch for them.

Day 33, Learning 33: Your Inspiration Book

Alrighty!  We're officially one-third of the way through my 100 Learnings in 100 Days experiment.  To celebrate, I'm going to cheat a little.  This was something of a learning for me, but really more of a way to learn.  Like the first best learning tool/investment you'll ever buy, this is a way to boost your learning because it's strengthens the foundations of your craft.  It's your inspiration book.  There are really two types.

BOOK ONE:

The first type of book is an e-book (or plain old Word document if you want to go that route) that is a collection of images that inspire, intrigue, or challenge.  Beneath each image you will deconstruct its creation: lighting, exposure, depth of field, editing, as well as theorize on how to make it better.  It'll look something like this:

 

 

Lighting:

          Flash or Fresnel above and to camera right; ambient fill.

Camera:

          Medium depth; f/4-f/8; 35-50mm lens   

Software:

          Dodge and burned, darkened on the lower half

Posing:

          Fairly "un-posed." Face and smoke rings work on the diagonal, bringing focus to the subject.  Arms at angles but not 90 degree.

Other:

          The wide horizontal framing has an interesting effect, isolating the subject

Improvements:

          Open the eyes further; dodge out the floating hands in the background; have light spill onto the back of his shoulders.  Mostly I miss the eyes.



Each image will have the deconstruction beneath it.  That's the first type of inspiration book.

BOOK TWO:

The second type, which I use regularly, is a set of images I've found (through google, other photographers websites, blogs, etc.) that inspire me as examples of what I could be putting to use in my current work.  These may include interesting poses, lighting, angles, environmental portraits, examples of theory put to spectacular use.  I put these in a folder and transfer it to my phone so I can have them at my fingertips. 

This group of images is ever-changing.  I'll remove them after I've tried something similar or if I become bored with the image.  I add new images constantly as I find them.  When I book a shoot, I'll often go back and look through these images for ideas I can put to use.

I ran across a tip the other day that I thought was interesting.  It hard to remember the different poses you thought up while in the midst of a session.  You may not want to refer to your notebook (I often write my ideas down), especially if you're feeling nervous.  Another option is to take a picture of them with your camera, so you can check them during the shoot without being noticed.  To do it effectively, you want to format or delete your card, then take pictures of the poses on your computer screen.  That way, your cheat sheet will always be the next image on your camera during the session.  You won't have to hunt for them.

Happy V-Day, all.

Day Nine, Learning Nine: Posing hands

 

Learning, I’m finding, tends to go in trends.  From yesterday’s exploration of posing the body, I’m going further to working specifically with hands.  Hands often look awkward on camera; they’re very complicated limbs.  So here are some more tips for working with models:

1.  As before, keep the hand and wrist relaxed (can’t emphasize that enough)

2.  Have them do something:  adjusting rings, bracelets, watches; twirling hair

3. Remember to create gaps with your hands as well.  Let us see through them

4. For women, keep the pinky side closest to the camera.  Never face the back of the hand towards the camera

5. When hands are one hips, lift the palm up so that its cupped; don’t let it sustain weight

6. Fingers on a hand should all point in the same basic direction.  Don’t “splay” them out

7. When hands are at the face, avoid actually touching.  It smears make-up and creates indentation shadows

8.  And finally, when in doubt, lift the forefinger like in ballet

Day Five, Learning Five: Classic Lighting

The Four Classic Lighting Patterns:  Butterfly, Loop, Rembrandt, Split.

There are four basic or classic lighting set-ups.  The terms refer to the shadow created by the main or “key” light.  In order to reduce the severity of shadows, there is often a fill light for the shadows, and a rim or hair light to help separate the model from the background.  I’ve ordered the light patterns here:

Butterfly:  the light is “on axis” with the camera, typically slightly above the camera at a 15 to 30 degree angle, but also right around the lens as circle light.

 

Loop:  Here the light is 15-40 degrees to one side of the model, and slightly above the eye line.  Go to high, and you create ugly shadows in the eye socket.  In Loop lighting, the shadow of the nose does not touch the shadow of the cheek.

 

 Here is an example of a fairly subtle loop lighting.  The shadow barely moves camera right; the flash is probably 15 degrees off axis.

 

Rembrandt:  now the light is 45-75 degrees to the side.  The shadow of the nose merges with the shadow of the cheek, creating a small triangle on the cheekbone.  Often the far side eye is in darkness.

Split:  This is light directly from 90 degrees to the side of the model and lights just half her face.  Sometimes you’ll see dual split lighting-- with the key and fill light to either side.

A little deeper into the classic light patterns:  Usually, the fill light is on axis for loop and Rembrandt lighting.  This allows for the most natural look.  Move the fill light to the side and it becomes more dramatic.

 Here's an example of Split Lighting from the sun:

 

You can see that the sun is just shy of 90 degrees... probably closer to 85, but his face is clearly divided down the middle.  Here's another, more subtle example:

This image is from a runway event using natural light.  She has a bank of windows camera right acting as the key light, and there's another set of windows behind me creating gradual shading on the left side of her face.

If this is new to you, set up your lights and practice.  See where the shadow falls.  Each face is different-- the height of the cheekbones and the depth of the eye sockets are huge factors in where, exactly, you can position the light.  Remember, you want to see a catch light in the eyes (preferably both eyes).

Day Three, Learning Three: Shooting Runway Fashion

 

Tips for shooting fashion runway models:

 

There are three basic shots in Runway photography, plus a couple of extras.  The three basics are:

            * Full body shot, with the front foot flat on the floor

            * ¾ body from above the knee to the head

            * Head and shoulders
 

 Full body, front foot flat on the floor

That’s it.  Nail those three and you’re doing alright.  Of course, it’s a bit harder than it sounds because the models are moving pretty quickly, the lighting can be difficult, and there are no second chances.  Plus, many show producers want you to capture those three for every outfit, so there’s very little time to look at the back of your camera to see if your settings are correct. So a few more tips:

 

1. Get there early and stake out your spot on the floor.  Try to be at the end of the runway so they’re walking directly towards you.
2. Zoom lenses work well on Runways.  Use a 70-200 if you have it.
3. Put your shutter speed between 125 and 325 depending on your lens (longer lenses will need faster shutter speeds)
4. Put your aperture between 2.8 and 5.6 to blur out the background.  If your camera is having trouble focusing quickly (or your images appear slightly blurred), increase your aperture setting to have more depth of field. 
5. Time your shots off of the music in order to capture their front foot flat on the ground.
6. Some shows allow flash photography, some don’t.  If you can shoot without flash your images will have better depth and dimensionality.  Your flash recycling time may also be slower than you need.
7. Bring water.  Shows can be tiring.
8. Typically there’s not room for a tripod, but many photographers bring monopods.  This helps if you’re shooting with a big lens.
9. Experienced models will take their moment at the end of the runway and look you right in the lens.

Okay, about  those extra shots:  after you nail the full body, ¾, and headshot, try to capture a couple of close-ups of their accessories:  earrings, necklaces, belts, shoes.  Many photogs forget to shoot an image of the model walking away.  Designers spend a lot of time making the back side of their outfits look good, so don’t neglect that shot.

Want to share a tip or offer a different perspective?  Please, write a comment!