If you remember a while ago, I was full of pain about my crappy you-get-what-you-pay-for radio slaves. When they worked, it was a match made in heaven. Sadly, they did not always work.
Long story short. I made a change. In this two posts series, I will first detail how and why I came to select Pocketwizard as my radio system and then share my first impressions after using it for more than a month. Click to continue ›
Photographer Matt Kenney came up with quite a clever way to provide external power to his battery operated strobe (Canon 430EXII).
Instead of building a specialized case with a dedicated battery, or drilling a power socket into the flash, Matt went for the shelf product and used one of them $6, 6V flash lights (about a dollar a volt). I always prefer off the shelf products to making something new, always. Matt then went ahead and equipped it with a 6V rechargeable battery, and a charging jack.
On the strobe side, Matt used wooden batteries to allow the power to flow. IT get a recycle time of 1.2 seconds for full pop (holdya'rhorses SB900 users, it will heat up soon enough).
Matt was kind enough to allow me to share his picture tutorial on DIYP Click to continue ›
There's an interesting Instructable over at (ehem...) Instructables that deals with all aspects of creating a Photo Booth. The Photo Booth was built by the husband to-be as a wedding project for his (and hers) wedding.
There were only three requirements for the project: "Since our wedding was taking place several states away it had to be
easily portable. And since it was our wedding it had to look as
professional as possible, and be fully automated." Click to continue ›
A few days ago, I shared how I took photographs for an instructions manual.
There was lot of good feedback on that post and the subsequent session went much smoother with white sheets on the bottom.
One thing that I wanted to linger a bit on is the improvised sandbag that counter balanced the camera. (See circle 5). Click to continue ›
Yuval needed a few pictures for her facebook, twitter and other social media services she consumes (or is being consumed by hehe).
As profile pics seem to be popular these days, I thought I'd put the setup and photographs here on DIYP. It is going to be a one light portrait (and optional second light for background).
A while back we had a clamshot post that showed how to use two collapsible Westcott umbrellas to create butterfly lighting. It is a great light for the ladies that really gives that glamorous look. This is why it is also called paramount lighting. We also had a ghetto studio setup post for making a "table" kinda thing for this shot using a single strobe. This one was for the PVC lovers.
In this post I am going to explain how to create the same effect with a single light. (and then show what can be done with a secont light). Click to continue ›
Finally I got around to making a little change on my GI Radio Slave Transmitter set (those are also known as GI Triggers or Poverty Wizards).
I love the triggers dearly, and while there pop rate is not good enough to play Russian Roulette with, it is good enough for most of my usage.
One thing that has been bothering me for ages is the short rage of those triggers. While they work well indoors, they tend to be a little limiting once stepping outside. I looked around and found some great tuts (including a camo one) about extending the GI range. This post will describe how I did it (kinda quick and dirty).
UPDATE: IanW has a good point in the comments that flashes can go thermal on you. He is right. Pop to hard and too fast and you will overheat. "Fire a flash too frequently with this setup and you will destroy it due
to overheating, unless it's got a thermal cutout (most don't)."
UPDATE 2: if you're gonna do this, make sure you're doing this on a 6V flash, i.e. 4 AA batteries. This will fry your flash if it is a 3V flash (2 AAs)
We write quite a bit about portable strobes. If you've been around for a while you may remember an older version of those strobes. The Sunpak family. While I have not used them myself (too young, sorry), those behemoth shoot at a staggering GN of 48 (meters) and have the look and feel to support it. That makes them ideal for sun swamped on location lighting. The nice thing is that they are old enough to be bought at ridiculously low prices second hand.
The following post about portable power source for small flashes (and Sunpak 611 in particular) is written by John Hagar (blog). Click to continue ›
Photographer Peter Karlsson has it all worked out when it comes to travel light. Peter is a Strobist at heart and as such he is using small flashes quite a bit. The coolness comes in when you see how he places his flashes in space.
Instead of your orthodox light stand solution Peter uses a home brewed light stand made of tent poles. Those are great for travel for several reasons: There are super light-weight, they fold small and they will definitely make your subject go WOW! Luckily for photographers wold wide there are two vids available that shows how those light stands were made. Click to continue ›
The following guest post about the best invention since the invention of the power cord (and saving space while traveling) is made by Simon Williams of Simon James Williams Photography.
You’ve been looking for something that will change your photography forever, something you’ve never quite been able to put your finger on, the “Zen” some people say that you have been looking for.
You have the best camera that your wife (or husband) will allow – in fact you’ve got more mega-pixels at your disposal that the Hubble space telescope. You are in more debt than the Lehman Brothers website designer because of it. Click to continue ›
Today @AM time I discussed a light tent made from virtually nothing but coroplast and binders. (Not the previous supermarket-box-light-tent took more products to make).
Then I saw a variation on that theme by Nathan Moroney that used nothing but paper binders to create a very similar light same tent.
Now, if you think that coroplast tent was frugal, this one is on the fringe of being made from pure nothing. (Link and musing after the jump).
