If you are mounting your lights indoors you are safe, but what if you are outside in the blowing wind?
This is not the first time that two shooting hobbies meet. Last time I talked about weapons photography cases and rifle camera straps. This time Christian Hedegaard has a great idea to prevent your light stand from blowing in the wind. The materials? Right, from the gunshop. Here is Christian's story:
I have to hand to you, Ever since I started the "Readers Projects" Quest, I've been getting a ton of great DIY/Photography ideas and projects. After hitting it with the Thomas Schwenger's Complete Two Seconds Lighting Kit and the Christmas Tree Ring Light comes Ben's great project that does not have to do with lighting but can defiantly improve you life if you are one of those photographers that use a hand strap but disappointed from what the market has to offer. Click to continue ›
Nick Wheeler is becoming a dangerous guy to leave your boxes by. It looks like whenever a box is around, nick DIYs it into a lighting modifier. This is what I like about Nick, he is never afraid to experiment, be it a mission impossible image or a floor lit lighting setup, Nicks investments in setups pays up big time. I heartedly recommend to check Nick's flickr stream for more inspiration.
This is also my message to you. Go out and try something new. I bet that four times out of five you, like me, will end up with just another glued box. But the fifth time is the one that makes all the difference. This is the time where you put what you have learned by ruining the other four boxes into use and build a really nice piece of studio equipment and saving money for more lenses.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. The reason why bloggin' about DIY and Photography makes me a happy person it because I get to tap into a great stream of creativity fro mother great photographers out there.
Take Thomas Schwenger for example. After getting some from the Strobist and DIY community Thomas now gives back one of the lightest and easiest lighting kits for portables strobes. With a single page snoot, a mini GOBO and a filter holder, Thomas wins the DIYP kit of the year award. (Of course, like a being a warded a knighthood, there mostly honor in the title, no dough at all.
What do you get when you cross a Nine Cents Tripod with a Pocket Foldable Tripod? A DIY Gorilla Pod.
Reader Alan Muller came up with a great way to combine the two tripods into a new even-better-then-each-of-the-originals tripod, which is very similar to the well known Gorilla Pod.
On his example Alan uses a bottle flash holder, but this Gorilla pod will firmly hold a medium sized point and shoot.
Alan used number 10 wired to make the legs: twisted and then folded and twisted again. This gives the Tripod a firm set of legs.
The wired can then be wrapped with shrink-wrap (fancy) or electrical tape (Ghetto).
At the base of the bottle, Alan used an eye bolt instead of a cap nut (or machine screw) to allow the attachment of a safety line or bungee etc.
Another bolt of ingenuity (pan intended :) was to use washers to separate the tripod's legs. Those give it stability and make some order in that messy area.
DIYP reader, Jerry, made a great comment on the process of making a tie-dye muslin backdrop.
It appears that Jerry remembers those happy days from when Tie-Dye was in fashion, and hair was the best show you can catch on Broadway.
Jerry tells that back is those days Tie-Dye shirts were the thing to wear and making Tie-Dye shirts was a common art. (Well, Digital cameras were very expensive then - they cost was just about a time travel ticket plus 1000$).
To spice up the color of a fabric, Jerry spiced up the Tie-Dye process. After the dying process has finished, but before removing the cord and hanging out to dry, you place the fabric in a fixer container.
This is a guest post by Ken Stewart, a real DIY pioneer. Having recently gotten into macro photography with a set of Raynox close-up lenses, I found myself wanting a macro focusing rail so I could smoothly and precisely vary the distance between my camera and the subject to get the focus right. A quick check of the web showed me that the cheapest Manfrotto slide I could find was $80 (plus tax and shipping, of course), but I figured I could do better with a little ingenuity, and an obligatory trip to Home Depot.
WizWow and Just Fab have done it again. In this nice fun little video Don Giannatti shares three lighting techniques.
In this short video, Don Giannatti really packs in some stuff. The first setup is shows how to do a single strobe glamour portrait.
The second setup is an upgrade to the Three Dollar Beauty Dish by Just Fab (you may remember her from the Ghetto Studio post). Just Fab has gone from one time aluminum pans to more sturdy IKEA pans. Don also uses foam core and window sun shield (My guess is five more dollars to the setup).
The last setup is has another mode from a lightshere, an old reflector and some tissue.
It is mighty kind of Don Giannatti to share his unique lighting in this video. You can see the picture and some more explanations on lighting essentials.
One of the things I like most on DIYP is the strong warm community that has build around it. It is more and more often that readers are sending ideas, hacks and modifications that far surpass any ideas that might be having on the late hours of the night.
Reader Joseph A. Sorrentino (flickr) gets the genius-of-the-week award for moding a cable-wrap into a pocket wizard mount device.
Joe has tested several options before going with the cheapest and easiest solution I have seen so far. Here are his thoughts and reasons for designing a whole new Pocket wizard mount from scratch. In my mind all the other alternatives are very good and offer some advantages, but Joe's mount is the best of class. (Check them all for great mounting ideas.)
After taking some shots with the Floor Lit Table Top Studio by Nick, It's time to take it up a notch.
The previous article showed how to take great liquid product shots, though the set up can work for both liquids and solids.
In this part of the tutorial Nick will show a modification of the setup that allows you to add some color effects to the shot. If you like it, stop by Nick's flickr stream and say "Hi". In addition to showing your appreciation, you'll get some great studio images and setup shots. Now for todays exiting twist:
