My gift to you readers for DIYP 3rd Year Aniversarry - 43 Photography Hacks, Mods And DIY Projects. (And some shameless self promotion)
3. Using A Cooling Honeycomb As A DIY Gridspot
5. The DIY Speed Strap - Accessories And Samples
6. Kimel’s Pop Up Flash Soft Box Diffuser
7. Drinking Beer - Out! Snooting - In!
10. V Cards
The following guest is written by Matt Haines (site, blog, Flickr). After surfing his awesome Flickr stream, I asked him if he'd like to share his mojo with DIYP readers. I should have known better. Now I am trying to find a new lighting trick to make my face look less red.
I’d like to thank Udi for inviting me to do a guest blog posting (my first!). Initially when he asked me to write about V-cards, I thought…huh? V-cards? Just a couple of foam panels taped together, what’s the big deal?
But Udi is wise. Oh he’s a wise one alright. The more I thought about it, the more I realized there’s plenty to say about such a simple—and cheap—light modifier. They’re so simple, the DIY construction part is hardly worth mentioning. Although I’ll mention it anyway. But it’s not how you build your V-card, it’s what you do with it. And you can do a lot!
I used to love a good what do you get when you cross jokes. I still do. What do you get when you cross a battery with a pure sine inverter? Read on to find out.
As you probably know, I am a big fan of small flashes. (*cough* Strobist *cough), but sometimes small flashes just don't have the juice to light up a scene. It may be a big place that needs tons of power or a huge light sucking modifier that eats up all the light from your strobe. (Try using the SB 900 on the westcott 2.15 meters octabank, that would be an interesting strobe challenge). So I do have one big 400WS flash. (Ok, just before you hit me with the "you call 400WS big?? ppffffhhh!", I'd say that it was big enough for me when I bought it, and it was I could afford.
So anyway, if you are in a studio this is no biggy. Plug the flash to the wall socket, dial up the power and you are good to go. But what if you are outside the studio. On the beach, park, moon? [Image by andyarmstrong]
When I just started exploring artificial lighting, I had no strobes. I had no light stands and had no nothing. Yea, when I was your age, we use to walk barefoot to school. In January. When it snowed. *cough* *cough* sorry. Something just took over me.
Anyway, when I just started lighting, I looked for the cheapest light that I can afford. Halogen seemed like a good choice. It was cheap and it could be plugged in even cheap light stands. With some baking paper, it ever provided some diffused light. [Image by fangleman].
Kindergarten teachers are gods. No really. Gods, I tell you.
I just had a really wacky weekend, where I volunteered to shoot thirty something little hurricanes kids at my daughter's Kindergarten.
They had a huge custom party and wanted some portraits to remember. As the teacher knows I carry a camera on occasion, she asked. How did I byte into this one could I say no? I'll post a complete on assignment on this soon. In the meantime, here is a little tip: How to Child Proof A Lightstand.
First a confession, I really like Flash Frog. FF is a blog with a nifty idea - create great images, post the entire shooting process, help others get inspired. Just before zetson AKA Joakim Tangstad goes into the details of his Film Noir setup, a few words about Flash Frog.
I find FF to be a great companion to strobist readers. Allot of the theory and ideas that David shares on strobist get to life with a creativity twist on Flash Frogs. I really get myself lost whenever I visit FF, finding ideas, techniques and inspiration. This is why I got really exited when zetson (Flickr stream) - the person behind the blog - agreed to do a guest post here on DIYP. Read on for Film Noir setup details.
Light tent, or Light box is a piece of lighting gear used mostly for product shots. It creates a nice, smooth, safe light with almost no hot spots.
We've posted a tutorial for a really simple light box before. This light box was made of a simple cardboard box and was super easy to construct and really dispensable.
Reader Randi Scott constructed a PVC light box skeleton that is both sturdy and, not dispensable, but can be stowed away so your significant other will not complain. Read all about it and learn how to make one yourself on this link.
One of the simplest mods that were featured in DIYP is the lightstand to backdrop holder mod.
It is fast to make, has some PVC in it - PVC ROCKS - and it is a can be a cheap and easy alternative for on location instant backdrop.
Martin Kimeldorf (Flickr) who is the master mind behind this simple-yet-genius contraption has been busy. Taking in the great reader comments on the original post, Martin has improved his original design. I was really happy when I got the note in the mail asking to share the new generation of the Light Stand Backdrop Holder.
Remember the story about that king from ancient Greek called Midas? Midas was a greedy, greedy king that loved gold more then life itself.
In fact Midas loved gold so much that he prayed the gods to grant him a golden touch. His wish was granted, and now, everything the king touched turned into gold.
This was quite a party trick with the wooden cup, table cloth and the chicken and apples. Wait a minute, chicken and apples? Yes. Midas could not eat. With his fear of starving to death he prayed the gods again to take his gift away. His new wish was granted. Moral at the and of the post.
Here is another great one from Martin Kimeldorf, converting a LumiQuest popup diffuser into a softbox thingy. This will work great to add some direct flash fill in. Now, I am not saying that you should run and buy one of those just to mod it, you can start with silk and some black Bristol and get the same place.
I liked the LumiQuest Diffuser for Pop Up flashes except that the diffuser panel hung rather limply on my camera and thus produced an unreliable surface shape. Also, I wondered about the light escaping the sides. Then I thought, I could add sides and create a miniature soft box, especially if the inside had a silvered lining. Click to continue ›
