DIYPhotography.net

After Just Fab introduced her fabulous Ghetto Studio, which was a ghetto setup for the butterfly lighting (AKA Glamour Lighting; AKA Paramount Lighting) I felt like taking a shot with this kind of setup. (Pan intended).

It was my bad luck that the PVC store next door has ran out off all the PVC piping they usually hold (Yea, right! try - my wife will kill me if I build another PVC monster in the living room). I had no alternative but to go with another butterfly lighting solution. (The final deal, by the way, was "OK, OK, I will not build it, will you model for me? pleeeeease?"). Click to continue ›

Reader Mike Coutinho saw the post about the studio compression pole, and this triggered something in his mind.

Mike told me about the Third Hand system (via toolmonger) which provides a very similar functionality.

Same as with the DIY system, you can create a vertical pole from floor to ceiling and hang stuff on it (Flash, backdrop, diffuser panel).

The extra value of this solution is that it does not have to go vertical; the top pad can support various angles, so you can go diagonally wild. Another "feature" is that the Third Hand comes ready and there is not much DIY you need to assemble the pole. Click to continue ›

Gary Fong has become a de-facto standard for speed light diffusion. The accessories made by Gary include the famous Lightsphere and lots of other small flash improvements.

I have tried to make some flash modifiers in the past, like a flash mounted softbox or an improvised beauty dish. Zond is following this approach with a Lightsphere solution.

Zond2 came up with a small and cheap flash application that mimics the lightsphere effect. The materials: A soda bottle, some foam cardboard and a starbucks latte cap.

I did not test this at home, but the concept looks really nice. Click to continue ›

Just Fab has come up with a great PVC contraption she calls the Ghetto Studio. It's a great and portable setup that takes great Glamuor shots.

I asked Just Fab to share her plans and setup and she kindly agreed. Below you will find the instructions to build such setup. Total cost is less then 40$.

We have showed a PVC setup before, but it was very big. This PVC setup can be used both indoor and outdoor. The bottom and top are tiltable, covered with Ripstop nylon. Bottom hasa car windshield screen as a reflector. The strobe goes behind the topscrim and bounces off the bottom to reflect up. Instant one light setupto do butterfly lighting. I did have to glue some of the piecestogether to keep it from falling over in the wind, but it's modular andtears down. The bottom screen tilts about 1/16 the way down, the top istilts in the middle. I can reverse those is need be. You simply shootin between the two.

Here is an image taken with this setup. Look for shadows under the eyes. Found any? No!

Sweetness by Just Fab

The next following images show the materials you need to create this Ghetto Studio, as well as assembly needed.

Click to continue ›

Tom Barnett (pxlsnfr) has come up with some great High Speed Photography shots.

Tom uses very basic circuitry to trigger the flash on "hearing noise" and a bit more complex (though still pretty simple) circuit to avoid repeating flash triggering.

In fact the basic circuitry is just one SCR with plus and minus going to the flash and minus and gate going to an amplified mic. See pictures below.

From the number of crushed bulbs on Tom's photostream, I'd recommend his services to any person that wants to be environment friendly and move to Energy-saving compact fluorescents (CFs).

What I like about Tom's High Speed Photography, is that Tom controls this technique flawlessly, and can use it to photograph images with a great amount of creativity.

Click to continue ›

When strolling at my local autostore I stumbled across this very interesting gadget. (Well, not exactly this interesting gadget, but a close sibling).

It is a windshield mount for a GPS device. The natural thing for me, being the why-don't-you-stop-and-ask-for-directions-said-the-wife kinda guy that I am, and the natural and logical thing for me is to buy a GPS. However, those babies cost millions.

I had no alternative but to go to my other hobby - photography and see how I can use this mount for my photography studio. Click to continue ›

So, let's see what we had here in the last month: we had a cool way of using a disposable camera and an Altoids box to make a small flash.

We also had a cool way to create a ring light (no wait actually we had two cool ways of doing that).

So, of course the question comes, what next?

In my mind the next step of evolution should be combining the two to create the first ever 25 Dollars professional ring flash.

With disposable cameras with flash costing as low as 3.50, it is simply a crime not to build such studio lighting device. Click to continue ›

usefulguy from DIYPhotography's Instructables group has posted a pretty neat Instructable explaining how to make a photo studio compression pole. It kinda reminds me of the hardware store light-backdrop stand, but it is even easier to use.

The good news is the cost: all the parts cost 9.43 at Home Depot. Real cheap for an all purpose studio stand.

To make a good thing better, he even has a video showing how one can use the pole in a studio:

Click to continue ›

I got lots of comments and question asking how to print the flash mounted homemade diy softbox. Some readers have had trouble printing the diagram on multiple pages.

One of DIYPhotography.net readers was kind enough to help me figure out why it was not printing on some computers. Are you having the same troubles? Do not despair.

It appears that the driver for the mdi format I was using to span the print over several pages is not installed by default when you install office. Look at this Microsoft article to learn how to install the driver for this file. Click to continue ›

There is some great stuff going on at DIYPhotography.net instructables group. This fantastic group is a true demonstration of the DIY spirit that is behind this site. I have talked before on the subject of creating your own flash. In that article Avner Richard explained how to utilize xenon tubes to create some real Watts/Second power flashes. It is a great piece for the ones that are electrically capable.

If you are not an electrician and fear the high voltage involved, Martin (AKA PKM) has posted an Instructable just for you. Click to continue ›