For much of my current work, the strobe is not a necessity; natural light is usually beautiful enough. But as I go deeper into portrait photography, I wish to explore different looks that only a strobe can provide. One of those cases is outdoor portraits shoot during the sunset or in the shade.

It was the right time to think about getting something more powerful than a flash. Godox AD400 Pro is one "budget" light that has been praised by many of the photographers, all over the internet. So I decided, too, to give it a shot.

The idea

Renan is quite a fascinating person, my colleague and one of the rare Brasilian guys that somehow ended up in Belgrade.

I thought that he would make a great model, and I've been eager to go out and try out my new light. My initial plan was to shoot in an urban setting, during the sunset so that I can bring it into the frame and balance it out with a light. That whole week we had some fantastic colourful sunsets.

Smelly photo-shoot

Somehow instead of the urban setting, we've ended up on Ada Ciganlija. Rather than a picturesque sunset, we were met with a cold and foggy day. To make things a bit worse, the whole area was covered by a strong foul smell of a nearby river tributary.

Despite everything, we both decided to make the best of the circumstances. We started the shoot a little before the sunset began, and finished shortly after the dark. The Godox AD 400Pro was coupled with their 85cm AD-S85W softbox.

The photo-shoot turned out to be quite fun, maybe because of all the weird smells in the air.

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did while creating it!