Light your setup by mixing HS and HSS

Using the ELB 400 and ELB 1200 in tandem is a very complimentary setup and works really well.

On the other hand, you can also use an ELB 1200 along with an ELB 500 TTL and thus mixing its HS and HSS technologies. Michael Clark shares his experience in mixing both the ELB range and both HS and HSS technologies.

The Elinchrom ELB 400 and ELB 1200 complement each other incredibly well. For a lot of my work, I often use the ELB 400 to compliment my ELB 1200 and also to save some weight. When capturing action, I may have one ELB 1200 as the main light and an ELB 400 as a secondary light.

Similarly, when working on location capturing portraits, I almost always use the ELB 1200 as my main light, which is usually feathered off, in tandem with a few ELB 400s that are used either as rim lights or to light the background.
Together, the ELB 400 and 1200 offer the ultimate versatility for location lighting whether shooting in HS mode or in normal flash modes.

Using one ELB 1200 pack and one ELB 400 pack, both with their respective HS flash heads, I was able to travel relatively lightweight and still pack enough light output to create a light trap for this mountain biking image. The lighting helped to create a very stylized image straight out of the camera.

Using Hi-Sync and HSS in the same setup.

Amazingly, HS and HSS can be used together to light a scene.

As in the image below, I used an ELB 1200 in HS mode as the main light in front of the boxer and an ELB 500 TTL in HSS mode for the rim light.

The Transmitter PRO figured out the timing for both the HS and HSS flash units simultaneously. As this image shows, using HS and HSS together might offer the best of both worlds and the ultimate versatility.

In the end, both HSS and HS technology have their place and can be very effective for a variety of scenarios.
At this point, Elinchrom is the only strobe manufacturer that offers both options and has optimized both HS and HSS to be as efficient as possible—and they also have the transmitters to allow for both HS and HSS to be used simultaneously. It is quite an exciting time to be working with flash.

The Transmitter Pro allows for both HS and HSS to be used simultaneously.

Using one ELB 1200 pack with an HS flash head as the main light upfront and one ELB 500 TTL pack using HSS for the rim light behind the boxer, I was able to combine both HS and HSS to create this multiple exposure image.