The ELB 400 on stage

When we asked photographers to test out our new portable battery pack, the ELB 400, we were looking for something new, fresh and funny, but more importantly…

Swiss. A combination you wouldn’t think could ever combine together. Then we came across these crazy guys who call themselves “The Bunos”. Let’s try to understand how they come up with such crazy and hilarious stuff!

Hi guys, before we go into this interview, can you please tell us what happened to the lady on the composition called ”Power” ?

If you ever had an Elinchrom Action head set to full power on your head you’d know about its power 😉 So the lady… Unfortunately… Got literally flashed away.

Ok, well… Tell us, who and/or what is BUNO?

BUNO is a name for a group of 4 crazy Photoshopers. 3 compositing-cracks (Jurek Gralak, John Flury, John Wilhelm and one famous matte painter (Christian Gerth).

“If you ever had a head set to full power on your head you’d know about its power”

The name BUNO means actually nothing. It was a mistyping in our groupchat (we wanted to write “Bubi”, which means something like Baby in Swiss German) and we decided it would make a great name for us.

That means, when you guys are together for a drink you always talk about photography?

Yep. We talk about everything concerning digital arts. Photography, 3D Modelling, Painting etc. And once we’re on a certain level we usually create a few funny projects. It’s easy for us because we always meet in the studios of Jurek Gralak or John Flury.

How did you come up with this project? What’s the story behind it and why did you do it?

Simon from InMyBag asked me, if I would create something for a posting about the new ELB 400 from Elinchrom. I thought it would be great to involve my BUNO friends and InMyBag asked Elinchrom if we could have an ELB 400 to work with. We did it because we all work with Elinchrom equipment, we like new gear and we need some stuff to work with anyway.

“Short story, lot of work”

Can you explain us step by step how you build up these compositions? From the idea to the final result?

First of all we had a long chat to fix the ideas. We came to the conclusion we wanted to emphasize the features of the new ELB 400: power, versatilitly and portability. The main ideas were the “Snake Charmer”, the one with the capricorns, and the one with the “flashed away” model (smoking shoes on the floor). But we had a little more time and fun in the studio and so we were able to create 3 additional images. We often sketch our ideas on paper (I usually work straight from head for my part but in this case I printed the capricorns (diorama from the Museum of Nature in Bern) and sketched my girls in it), shoot the single elements and put them together in Photoshop. Short story, lot of work.

Who is the most unpredictable guy in the crew ?

I guess the other 3 BUNOs would say that’s me, John Wilhelm… Okay I confess… probably it’s really me.

This picture, “ELB 400 Full Power” is so frightening, what happened to you John after you flashed yourself like this?

We did this absolutely spontaneously. I set the ELB to full power and put those nice little flash heads right on both sides of my not so nice and quite bigger head. The moment Jurek shot I could feel for a very short moment the warmth of the lamps and for a very long time after the shot I had lots of purple bubbles in my field of vision. I wouldn’t recommend anybody to do this. This little thing is so strong.

The spirit of this project is strong and full of humor, how did you manage this with 4 photographers with each his own background, own style, ideas and ego?

We respect and like each other a lot. To create something in such a crazy group you need quite a some planning and lots of discussions but the fun was always predominating and the mutual inspiration is just a great thing.

Details in compositions such as “Just a very portable flash system” are very high. Where did you get those “Alpine Ibex / bouquetins” ?

This is a diorama I shot in the Museum of Nature in Berne.

“The ELB 400 should have a sticker on it that says”

And what about your little girl John, she’s playing with an ELB 400, it’s clearly mentioned in our safety rules not to let play children with this stuff!

The battery was empty and no flashes attached I swear. And a care team was ready to help in the background.

About the compositing material, the burned wood on “Power”, how did you get this done? Is it 3D imagery or a real sample of burned material?

Jurek used textures from a stock library and applied them with layer-blending-modes on the grey wall. He’s an absolute genius in creating environments this way.

And what about the background on “Snake Sharmer”? It looks like we are in the middle of a science fiction world!

This photo is a collaboration of John Flury and Christian Gerth, with John providing the concept and photography and digital painter/3D artist Christian creating the background with Cinema4D, ZBrush and Photoshop. These futuristic buildings were created with snake bones in mind. Christian uses all available techniques to create his fabulous landscapes and sometimes it’s almost a little creepy, how fast he can learn something new and integrate it immediately into his work.

Do you think you need to charm the ELB 400 like you would charm a cobra?

Not at all, the ELB 400 was a delight to use and should have a sticker on it that says “easily charmable”. We tested it with different triggers, Elinchrom skyport, PocketWizards and the built-in optical slave. The unit danced along beautifully and never skipped a beat.

About The Vampire Flasher. Can we assume that the ELB 400 is like a light weapon against vampires?

I think vampires hate bright light. So I guess the ELB 400 set to full power was a great weapon against them. Perhaps Elinchrom should check with Hollywood to bring it to the movies.

Technically speaking, why don’t you use a blue or green background during your shootings?

A colorless background does not reflect or spill colors on the subject. In filmproduction, where you can’t extract subjects frame by frame greenscreens or bluescreens are absolutely necessary. But if you work with a single image a grey background is much better.

One last question. Do you have the picture of the selfie you did in Paris?

Yes we do. It showcases four grinning lads with a lot of concrete sidewalk behind them. Just kidding. It’s all a composite of course. The only BUNO who was in Paris to take that shot was John Flury. The rest was shot in our studios.

Thanks a lot for all your great work on these compositions!