Good day, guys! Your mate, Aries Tao, welcomes you back to Godox's Basic Lighting 101. One of the most frequently asked questions I've ever got is: What's AD1200Pro for? Let's put it this way: AD1200Pro is not for everyone. You can solve most of your portrait problems by AD300pro, AD400pro, or AD600pro. To me personally, I find AD1200Pro comes in really handy in the next two scenarios.

AD1200Pro Sunset Simulation

Number one is to create your own sun. AD300pro and AD600pro come in really handy when you want to light up your subject as key lights or face light. But AD1200Pro is something else. 

Because with the harsh sunlight created by the AD1200Pro, it's very high contrast, which means the highlight is really hot, and the shadow is really dark.

AD1200Pro+AD300Pro Sunset Mimicry with Enhanced Shadow Detail

For close-ups, I prefer less contrast, in other words, brighten up the shadow so that the model's skin looks even nicer. That's where AD300pro comes in handy with the umbrella as the fill light. For all information on how to use AD300Pro with an umbrella, please check my previous episode.

Here is another typical example. You see the building up there. It's going to always block the sun, so I will never have the sun cut some nice shadows over this wall, as the way I vision it. But with AD1200Pro, you can create the sun.

You see, here is a nice corner right, but over there, it's just a blank wall. I either shoot with natural light, which is very soft nice light anyway, or I can create my own dramatic sun with AD1200Pro right next to the wall. So basically, you can create your own ambient light wherever you like. That's the power of AD1200Pro. 

AD1200Pro+AD300Pro Emulating Harsh Midday Sunlight

AD1200Pro can mimic the sun anytime. You can mimic the sunset, and of course, by placing the AD1200Pro overhead, you can mimic high noon, sun casting strong shadows overhead.

AD1200Pro Overpowering Ambient with HSS

Another typical example is overpowering the ambient. With AD600pro, we can easily overpower the sun already. But what if you need high-speed sync, and you need to overpower the sun at the same time? The flash system sacrifices some lights to achieve HSS. But with AD1200Pro, you can achieve HSS and still have lots of power to use. In this scenario, I mimic a patch of sunset and I use HSS at the same time, which is at 1/2000s, so that we can do some movement photos.

Summary

To conclude this video, there are two cases you need AD1200Pro. 

Scenario 1: You need AD1200Pro to change the lighting dynamics within the image, not only on the model but also on every single subject within that photo. 

Scenario 2: You want to use HSS, and also you want to overpower the ambient with dramatic lighting at the same time. That's where AD1200Pro comes in handy. 

I hope you guys like the video. This is your mate, Aries Tao. I will see you guys in the next episode.