DIYPhotography.net

A long while back I got familiar with Stick In a Can method for light positioning through the (sadly retired) Pro Photo Life Blog by Jim Talkington. In this post, I'll show how to make one of those and what are some great uses for them.

A stick in a can is the poorman's solution for positioning lights in three dimensional space. Basically it combines a stick, which provides some height and a cement filled can which provides anchoring weight. It works great for positioning worklights, reflectors and just about anything you can clamp.

The Caterpillar above was shot using one of those stick in a can and some magic. (more on the magic in a future post). Click to continue ›

The next hack is pretty trivial so if you have a seamless backdrop mount already feel free to skip forward, if not here is a way to build such a mount for as little as $5. (Actually, the mount by itself is about $2, the other three are for some extras).

Actually, This is how I mount (and store) my seamless white backdrop at my basement studio, and thought it may have some sharing value if you are in a similar position and space confined.

I started off with two angle strong ties, the ones you use to bind wooden beams together. I am using the ones that are about 7cm on each side of the angle. Click to continue ›

Now, here is a question, what do you do with all your seamless backdrops while they are not in use?

Store them of course. Savage has a nice sponge system for storing backdrops, the right way - standing up.

Why do you want to store them standing up? Because if you store seamless paper lying down you will get rippled paper. The weight of the paper sets on the bottom part of the paper and presses it against the floor. While this does not crease the paper, it reshapes it into an oval, and when rolled out it will show ripples. not that good.

So, how about that Savage system again? Well, to store a seamless upright, you'll need a wall as high at least as the length of the paper - 3 meters. While this is not rare in studios it is kinda rare in home studios. Click to continue ›

After reading David Hobby's post about rim lights, I decided that I wanna have a go myself.

In spite of David Advice, I went with strip lights. Made from an electrical racer. I did push them a bit more then on that post though.

Since I was not using a real "store bought" strip light I wanted to see how far I could push the light down the racer in a way that still produces good light through the diffusion screen. (Or actually, up the racer, since my flash was set on the bottom).

I placed the flash on the bottom of the racer and popped a few shots. I got nice blow out up to about 70cm. So that was the length of the strip light. From here the build starts. Click to continue ›

The following post about 3 ways to DIY your Chroma Key was made by Ben Eadie of DVRebelGear.com.

There are several ways to get a decent chroma background for a photo for the DIYer and the results are just as good as any pro system I have encountered. We will cover 3 solutions I have used with great success and all cost less than $15. You can use a green sheet, you can paint a wall and you can make a pop out chroma key like a pop out reflector. I use green for my key but you can also use blue if you choose. Click to continue ›

UPDATE: Looks like Kurbster droped out of flickr taking the very excellent set of strobist studio with him. I am going to leave the post here as the text still has value, although the images were soooooo much better to understand the concept from.

Just spent some good amount of time over at Kurbster photo stream. Seems like he completely nailed the whole, turn-a-room-into-a-strobist-studio thing.

Kurbster challenged Home Depot classic departments and generously turned some cheap and ordinary items into studio elements.

I'm gonna go over some of the challenges that Kurbster so elegantly solved.

Multi flash mounts are cool. I have discussed them before when we did a DIY on a dual flash mount. Just a quick recap: Using multiple flashed allows you to either drive more light or to remain on the same light level, while recycling faster. You can read it all here.

Using some objects that my wife will call junk elements smartly scattered around the house, photographer Brent Pennington made a three-way flash mount. Ha! Three is better than two. It will drive a stop and a half more.

As a bonus, Brent's device relives you of the need to use a stud on your swivel. That's a major bonus if you are like me and keep losing them. Kudos.

Of course, you could always sin and get the one made by Lastolite, but then where would all the fun (and your 70 greens) would be?

Read the entire tutorial and deep thoughts on Brent's Blog. Click to continue ›

One of my favorite home studio instruments is the light box. I like it for several reasons. First, I like it for the light quality that it produces. It produces light that is soft and even very much like a light tent. Only instead of lighting it from the outside, you push light from the inside.

The "walls" of the light box reflect the light source, and making it bigger, however the light quality is a bit harsher than the light tent, especially if you are using a semi reflective material such as foamboard. Light boxes are also commonly used with worklights, which are a personal fav of mine due to their low cost. Click to continue ›

I've had it happen when I heard a veteran photog telling another, "This one? You cannot do this one, you don't have the gear".

Now, as the name of the site suggests, this is not what I consider a good answer. A better answer would be a breakdown of the shoot, trying to get some understanding of what is a must for it, what gear is needed and how can we make up for the gear we don't have. Maybe with another piece of gear; maybe in post; and maybe by changing one of the underlying assumptions that we initially had when thinking about the shoot.

Photographer Scott Bourke (flickr) shows this exact king of thinking in his Sportraits session. There is a nice how to video and then some thoughts. I'd love to hear your take on dealing with gear shortage in the comments. Click to continue ›

Light tents (also called light boxes) are a great way to shoot a product. They eliminate harsh reflections and create appealing highlights. This specific light tent from Robert Miler has a nice twist since it can fold flat for storage.

It is all Robert from after the jump

Click to continue ›