AirX: a speedy image creation process
Profoto AirX is revolutionary for all image creators looking for a faster workflow. It has the potential to truly slash the time between a creative concept and a published/posted image.
AirX gives you the ability to combine external studio flashes with the convenience of an iPhone. Using such flashes is vital to create the light as you want it at the moment of capture. No need to wait for the sun or waste time adjusting the light in-post.
Launched just two weeks ago, there are no established work processes yet but as I’ve been lucky to play around with the AirX during development, I’ve got a few tips and tricks I’d like to share.
Onboarding
So, you have a B10 and an iPhone (7 or newer). Firmware on the B10 is upgraded (to B1 or newer) and you’ve made sure you’ve got the latest Profoto app (2.3.0 or newer).
To ensure correct set-up, select the cog wheel in the upper left hamburger-menu and chose JPEG, RAW as the image format to harness the full power of post-processing
If you enjoy direct feedback, set Preview captured image to On. However, if you leave this off it will speed the process up a bit when shooting in RAW.
Now go back to the camera function button, connect your light(s) using the “+” sign and you’re good to go! Remember you can use up to six lights.
Cameras and lenses
When choosing your camera/lens, there are a few things you need to know. Apple’s native camera app doesn’t always use the lens you think it does. For example, in some cases it chooses the 1X lens and performs a digital zoom-in, rather than using the 2X lens. With the Profoto app, you always get the lens you want. The advantage is that you are in full control. This, however, means you’ll also experience the limitations of the different lenses.
A few things to keep in mind for the iPhone 11 Pro:
Selfie camera
Avoid the selfie camera. It doesn’t support RAW and flash images can look a bit flat.
Normal wide (1X)
The default 1X rear camera is your best choice. It offers optimum image quality and provides RAW support.
Tele (2X)
The 2X camera is second best. One limitation is its fairly long shortest-focus distance, which results in blurry close-ups.
Ultrawide (0,5X)
The 0,5X lens should only be used when absolutely necessary. It doesn’t support RAW (but it does tiff). Personally, I think it distorts things too much to prove useful if you’re an ambitious photographer.
Controlling exposure
ISO
As a general rule I choose the lowest ISO. The Xenon light is so powerful and the iPhone doesn’t have an adjustable aperture, so a high ISO is difficult to use. There will be too much light for the sensor to handle. The base ISO of the sensor is actually higher than the lowest number, which means that brightness is suppressed somewhere deep down in the ISP (Image Signal Processor) firmware of the phone. It still looks good though and by saving in RAW you get a good dynamic range, allowing you to change the exposure later in Lightroom.
Exposure time
The next step is to select an exposure time that provides the right exposure to the background of the scene, i.e. the parts of the image the flash doesn’t reach. Now is your chance to capture that deep blue sky! Remember that AirX supports flash sync in the full range (1/25000 s to 1 s) — using the shortest time, you can freeze motion!
At shorter shutter speeds it runs HSS (which is basically a square pulse of light) while at longer ones, a normal flash. Depending on what iPhone and what lens you’re using, the starting point for HSS is different — typically around 1/60 s to 1/30 s.
In case you suppress the background so much you can’t see the subject properly, press the small eye-icon in the Profoto app. This will maintain the exposure while brightening the preview.
Flash power
Profoto always grades flash power in f-stops. So a change from 10 to 9 gives you half of the light…but you already knew that.
Now it’s time to adjust the flash to get the subject exposure just right. Don’t forget that the distance between flash and subject is important: half the distance gives you four times as much light.
Once you get to grips with AirX and your B10, you’ll be able to set the light as you want it in just one or two shots. As a rule of thumb: when indoors, the distance between flash and subject matters much more than the level of ambient light.
Exposure in general
Always try to be on the underexposed side rather than the opposite. The dark areas carry loads of information that Lightroom for mobile can bring forward. When you have time, play with how much underexposure the RAW file from iPhone can carry. You’ll be amazed!
Edit
From the image library in the Profoto app, choose “share” (square with arrow) and select “RAW”. Next, import it to your favourite editing app (one that can handle RAW). I love Lightroom for mobile as it syncs to my Adobe cloud.
As mentioned before, many people are surprised by just how much information the iPhone RAW file contains. You can really play around a lot!
If you want to share the final results on social media, you can then easily export the edited image from Lightroom in your chosen format.
Final words
I hope this article has been useful as a base to start using Profoto AirX. Functions and the user interface will be refined and improved with each new app release. With this being brand new, we might have missed some obvious points, so please share your thoughts, hints and feedback to hello@profoto.com
