Did anybody say obsessed?
OK, I'll admit it. Over the last month or so, I've been obsessing with home studio tweaks - backgrounds and seamless whites in particular. No wonder too. I'm about to enter my own kids place space studio in about a month now.
This setup has been around for over a year on the web. I can't believe it went under the radar. It's cheap, quick to build and kill and best of all it is continuous, so it is also good for video A-LA matrix style.
In this edition of DIYP speedlinks: scanner cameras, setting up and tearing down, food photography and bedsheets.
We also have some classic DOF tutorial. Just to keep it linked with some good ol' photography.
Oh yea, and a flower pot. Click to continue ›
How do you take a lovely portrait like this, on a perfect white background? Of course you'll need a beautiful model. But how would you handle the lighting? Just throw about 10000 Watts/Seconds on your seamless white and you're good.
Or use a single strobe and 5$ worth of white Coroplast. Read on for the full details.
UPDATE: assignemt results are posted here.
Welcome to the first assignment of Studio @ Home.
As I promised in the first post of the series, Studio @ Home will be accompanied with a series of assignment (or exercises if you will) that will put some structure on the evolution of your home studio. Those assignments can also be used a motivation leverage - and provide some great opportunities to win great prizes. Read on for the full details.
Once we have explored location and a few basic backdrops options we are going to hit lighting. The backdrop assignment will be up next. However, I thought it would not be fair to do the first assignment without even a little bit of home lighting discussion.
After all, light is the substance from which your photograph is made of.
There are several lighting options if you are building up your home studio: Tungsten, Halogen, Florescent, small speedlites and the big canons - studio flashes. Each with its vices and merits. I will dedicate a full post to explore the several options. But just to get things started, I wanted to discuss the most available light of all: Available Light.
Stefan Powell made one of the coolest pinhole camera's I've seen. (He does that when he doesn't make his head spin)
It is not accurate. It does not use regular film. And it is a close relative of Just Fab's Turkey Pan Beauty Dish. Click to continue ›
Ever had your light stand taken down along with your precious 5000$ Profoto? Not a fun experience.
Next runner up on the not-so-fun light stands falls is a knocked-down speedlite. While the cost of speedlites is considerably less than the cost of a Profoto, if this is all you have it can still be pretty annoying. Especially if you're on the beach where it's sandy.
Keep reading for a cheap and ingenious solution.
Just a quick news flash, if you're not up to date yet with the Magic Lantern.
Similar to CHDK, a firmware hack that allows you to take control over all the hidden features in your Point & Shoot, Magic Lantern unlocks some very nifty features on your New and shiny Canon 5D Mark 2.
Magic Lantern Firmware is mainly focused on video, but hey - if you're techie enough, feel free to jump in and download the source code and add whatever feature you'd like. (A movie, feature list and some thoughts after the jump).
What's better than Obama? An Obama Panorama, of course.
If you clicked the link above, you will find a 1,474 Megapixel image of president Obama inauguration. Yup you heard right. 1,474 MP.
This image was made possible with a cool robotic device called the GigaPan. The GigaPan is an automated robotic cradle that tilts and pans in small steps to complete huge panoramic views. It even has a little robotic arm to press the shutter release button for you. And now it is going DIY.
UPDATE: coolest app added at the end of post.
The iPhone (or THE iPhone) is gaining popularity fast with photographers. Well, it has an in-phone camera. That kinda means that you carry a camera whenever you go (admit it!! you carry your cell anywhere!!). See Chase Jarivs's Twitpic iPhone pic stream for example. Just another argument to show that it is not the gear that makes you a good photographer.
Another evidence is the ever increasing number of "how to take good pictures with your iPhone" tutorials. Here are a few that I like: Wired, Goodtree & company, Chase, Neutralday, but really, the net is loaded with tons of tips, guides and creativity enhancers for iPhone images.
So iPhone is popular. OK; no news here. The news (at least for me who still wears black headphones) is that iPhone also packs great applications for photographers. The round up below, courtesy of Ladislav Soukup, is probably just the first mushrooms in the post forest rain of iPhone apps for photogs. I'd love to hear (on the comments) what's your favorite iPhone app.
