A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the broncolor website, searching for interesting lighting equipment for my next order. That’s when I came across the Balloon Lightshaper.

This area light with its all-round light angle of 360 degrees is ideal for shooting naturally illuminated interiors. I got very interested and contacted Dan, the Broncolor representative. He was very helpful and sent it to me for some tests.

I came up with the idea of my Moon image right away because of the perfect sphere shape of the Balloon and the nice soft light that it creates.

I decided to make this shot a self-portrait. It was made in my apartment and only took me a few minutes to prepare the setting. I used the Move 1200L kit with the Balloon attached to one MobiLed flash head and another MobiLed directed to the wall to create a contour light. I set up the tripod with my camera and took the remote control. I used the flash heads with the impulse light at their lowest intensity and a simple Nikkor 50 1.8 D lens. Camera settings were 1\200 s shutter speed, f3.2 aperture, ISO 400. The rest was made in postproduction.

It was a fun test and I am very happy with the results. I can’t wait to create new work with Balloon in the future and maybe even try a Moon series!