DIYPhotography.net

The idea behind this cheat sheet is simple - it features three settings of strip light.

Those should help you pre-visualize the use of strip lights as part of your lighting setup.

I began working with strip lights not that long ago and I really love them. having a light source that is hard on one axis and soft on the other is a very interesting tool to work with. Not so easy to pre-visualize though, hence the card. Click to continue ›

when I was your age we used to squint/half squint to measure light!

OK, I am not that old. Actually my father didn't even take photographs beyond the average vacation on the beach photo.

Yet, there are times when you have to calculate exposure manually, or even harder, calculate flash settings. Mixing flash and ambient is no rocket science - to quote a certain DH. However, it seems that one of the issues that is hard on everyone is when to start in terms of aperture, shutter speed and flash output.

Photographer Domjan Svilkovic came up with a nifty little card that can help you do just that using the ultra highly modifiable yet super cheap YN460 strobe. I would go and say that it may be considered a printable flash meter. Seems that the low price is driving those to be very popular.

The card and instructions after the jump. Click to continue ›

A long while back I read a semi-theoretical post about using a room corner and a brolli as a full-fledged setup.

As a preparation for an on location job I decided to test that premise, and took a few head shots at my basement studio.This will add up to the butterfly one light setup I reviewed earlier.

Mind you that this little setup can be brought up in any place that features a corner, that is just about anywhere. Click to continue ›

A new member is joining the ever expanding lighting diagram tools family. Sylights (which stands for Share Your Lights) is a Strobist oriented tool for sharing and creating lighting diagrams.

The tool was created by Paris based photographers Pierre-Jean Quilleré  and Olivier Lance to encourage photographers to share their lighting diagrams. This would, in turn allow other photographer to learn more about lights. Click to continue ›

So we had a Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet that was designed to help placing the light in space around the model. While I called it portrait lighting cheat sheet card, I was only telling half of the truth.

The half that I did not include in that card was how different modifiers will change the light falling on your subject.

It is time to correct this wrong, so this lighting modifiers cheat sheet completes this gap.

There are some new things on this sheet, like a perfectly still model, dark walls to control reflections and a few beers that you can not spot in the actual card. But they were there. Trust me.

You can download a "super size" here.

Again, we tried to keep it simple. We usually ask a wife or a boss to model for those kinda things, but since the differences between the modifiers can be subtle we wanted to keep everything constant but the light. So... We asked Lady Plastic to come to our aid on this one. She kindly agreed or at least did not mind. Click to continue ›

After reviewing the Rosco Strobist gel collection, I just had to take it for an intense spin.

Since one of the main uses I see for this kit is the ability to color objects and backgrounds for creative effects, I did a little matrix of colors. (I am a computer geek, I know).

As with all the other cheat sheets on the site, I will go through the idea, the setup and end with a creative commons statement. Unlike the other cheat sheets, we are also going to have a Rosco Strobist gel collection giveaway. That stuff is near the end of the post.

Click to continue ›

Yesterday I posted a cheat sheet that tried to question the applicability of the Inverse Square Law (ISL) on the way we use portable flashes I called this post The Inverse Square Law Cheat Sheet - Myth Busted.

The post stirred up a great conversation from which I learned about Light, some physics and some in camera processing facts. But mostly I learned that it is great fun to experiment and to share your findings. It definitely helped me get my knowledge to a higher level (at the small price of throwing a way my totally wrong fringy and conventions breaking experiment.

Click to continue ›

UPDATE: This Experiment is all Wrong. I should hit my head on the same wall I used to measure reflected light off. Some great comments about what went wrong, and great discussion going on - I posted the main points here.

Have you heard about the Inverse Square Law? It's the law that says that light intensity falls the farther you move your light from your subject. It also tells you that if you move your light to be twice as far it will fall by 4 (the square of 2). if you move the light three times as far, it will fall by 9.

We all swear by that law. The only thing is this law does not apply to the way most of us use flashes.

I'm gonna explain this in a beat, but first here is my newest cheat sheet. (I love cheat sheets. If you are as senile as me, you can print them and then pop them up later and look really smart).

Click to continue ›

As part of my ongoing exploration of portrait photography in general and flash studio photography in particular, I wanted to examine the effect that a large light source will have on light fall off. This was a great chance for me to produce a new cheat sheet to companion the portrait lighting cheat sheet and reflector cheat sheet that are already out there. (And this time we have a special guest, read on...)

Click to continue ›

My previous cheat sheet dealt with the impact of light position on portraiture. The idea was that you can print this cheat sheet and carry it around for fast consultation and getting fast results.

My next investigation involved a single flash again (this time shot through a shoot though umbrella) and different uses and positions for a 5 in one reflector.

Again I suggest printing the card so you have a quick look when ever you are not sure of what a certain reflector effect may be.

Click to continue ›