13Sep Light Blaster Strobe looks pretty interesting

You don’t often see something new or innovative in the world of flash photography. Sure there are advances in wireless controls, and lower price flash units are coming with more and more features, but overall it’s just been improvements on the same thing. The Light Blaster Strobe is actually the first light modifier style flash device that’s actually peaked my interest.

When I first took a look at the Light Blaster Strobe, my first thought, was “What the heck is this and why is there a lens attached to it?”. It turns out this is a case of old tech in a new and interesting format. You’re all probably familiar with a projector and how it uses a film strip and a bright light to shine an image through a lens and onto a white wall or screen. Basically the Light Blaster Strobe does the exact same thing.

You simply insert a 35mm slide, attach a lens, and use your strobe as the light source. Instead of the lens gathering light to focus on a small sensor, it uses the lens to magnify the image and project it onto a wall or subject. The major difference between a projector and the Light Blaster Strobe is lens selection.

Old projectors were designed with 90mm or 200mm lenses so that the projector could be placed in the back of a large room and still magnify the image large enough to fill a whole wall. With the Light Blaster Strobe you can use any lens in your collection which opens up the opportunity to use very wide angles. With the right lens attached you can fill an entire wall with a background image from only 4 or 5 feet away.

This example image from their catalog of a young girl with a circle laden background gives you an idea of the kind of things you could do. I’m sure the same could be accomplished with a good backdrop or some photoshop work, but it’s always interesting to see what you can accomplish in camera.

I have a review model of the Light Blaster Strobe coming and I’ll post some more info on it once I’ve got it in my hands. Now I just need to find somewhere that can make 35mm slides at a reasonable price. A background filled with gears for the steampunk ball would probably go over pretty well or a film noir high contrast background could be useful.

Tags: Flash photography, Light Blaster Strobe