Reader Jerry Hamby just sent in this great hair light project. It is made from a cheapo 45 ws ebay flash and - believe it or not - a green-bean super value can (the kind you don't want to eat too much of at one time). Just before sharing his tutorial with you, allow me to extend two small tips:
1. Empty the bean can before using it.
2. Do not empty it alone.
Now, to the tutorial. Click to continue ›
The previous post about the Vertex flash light splitter raised quite a few eyebrows. First question was "is this for real?".
Ken at PRESSlite answers this question by providing an image gallery with sample shots and setup shots.
The nice thing is that the setup shots are linked with the sample shots. So you can watch a picture along with the how it was taken.
If you are considering getting one of those, watching the demo is a great fun. And don't miss the dancing flash show. (Click "Dual Panel Rotate and browse through the gray buttons).
Strobists - I'd love to hear what you think about this. share your thought on the comments.
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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.
Setting up lighting for a portrait can be quite a complex task. If you, like me, are using small strobes which have mo modeling light it is hard to predict what will be the outcome of each lighting array.
There are however some basic lighting schemes, kind of a starting ground for new portraits. Of course, once you lay out the initial lighting you can change it, move it around and use modifiers to soften or restrict the light.
Wouldn't it be nice, though if you have a magic card that will show you what will be the final lighting of almost every lighting scheme? I think it can be pretty darn cool.
Craig Colvin (Flickr) came up with a great design for a gel holder on a flash. The design includes an L shaped plexiglass.
Now, if you ever followed the strobist way of mounting gels on your flash, you know the great value those little pieces of colored tape can provide.
You probably also know that it can very annoying to apply the gel strips on the flash or to remove them. Not to mention stacking them together - this becomes a Velcro hell.
The nice design by Craig solves this problem by providing a Velcro free gel chassis. Sometimes you need nothing more than some bended plexiglass. See Craig's full design and instructions here.
If you can not bend plexiglass yourself you may want to consider using an Acrylic stand. I could only find big ones but I know that there is a smaller version from my local coffee bar.
This got me thinking on alternatives to gel holders and the thing that popped to mind was name tag pockets. Those are pretty cheap and once you place on over your flash, you can freely insert and remove colorful gels.
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More Gels:
- Homemade Gridspot
- Painting With Light
- The Optimizer
- The DIY Speed Strap - Accessories And Samples Click to continue ›
Ok, this is something I have not seen before. With the big war on who has the bigger better accessorizeable speedlite diffuser there has been a ruling paradigm - bounce your flash to get softer results.
This has been the case with Stofen line of products (see the DIY versions: 1, 2) as well as with the Gary Fong diffusers family (DIYed this as well, though results are just OK with the DIY version).
If you are a Strobist fan, you are going to love this. Presslite just came up are about to release a new concept for flash modifications - Vertex.
They do not try to diffuse the flash, nor bounce it from the ceiling. Instead they try to break the flash power into two halves. This is done using two mirrors, each to control half of the flash output.
Now think of the options - you can bounce half of the flash from the ceiling or from the wall while you direct the other half to your subject. You can control the spread of light. And you can direct your flash anywhere you want to. Nice.
I guess that one question that has to be asked is how sturdy is the Vertex. By aiming it towards a press audience I would think that it needs to be strong to take the abuse pros give their speedlites.
Check out the 3D demo - it is hypnotizing.
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In the previous post I demonstrated my lack of patience by constructing a Honl Speed Strap, while waiting for my Amazon Honl speed strap to arrive.
In this post, I'll show the accessories I built, and explain their various effects on a picture taken.
All my DIY accessories have real commercial products made by David Honl. While the lighting result is usually similar, I must say that Honl products look way more professional. (In fact they look professional enough that I bought some of them, even when I knew I can make them myself).
But, just before I go into the details of constructing and demonstrating the different accessories, I would like to highlight some of the comments on the original post, dealing with different materials that can be used to construct a better model of the speed strap. Click to continue ›
I really wanted a speed strap. Ever since the restrictive light post over at Strobist, I wished for one of those magical straps. If you are not familiar with them look at David Honl's site, it is filled with goodies.
"Why do you need one", you ask? Because they are A - Really good at blocking light. B - Small and can get in my small bag when I go out for a shoot and C - They are just too cool that I could not effort not having one.
I even designed a new one. (Not so good, more on that in a few lines).
Then I decided that I am going to get one from Amazon. Since I (like my eight months son) can not delay satisfaction, must take photos to live, I made a new one that really works (and inspired by the Thomas Schwenger Complete Two Seconds Lighting Kit). Click to continue ›
As you may know, I am a great fan of off camera flash
I've owned a Nikon SB-28 since my analog days and added a Nikon SB800 when going digital. Advised by Strobist, I added a third flash - a Nikon SB26.
To get all those flashes going off camera, I bought some cheapo Cactus (AKA Gadget Infinity) flash radio triggers - those can be found at eBay for just a few dollars. I initially bought two receivers and when I added the Nikon SB26 to my collection, I bought the third one.
I really like those cheapo triggers and up until now they were lots of fun (see this shot, I just can't miss a shot at showing my son off). Of course, if you need high reliability, you should consider the big brother: Pocket Wizards.
Photographer J. Chris Hansen built the soup bowl beauty dish for his photography studio. It was all well and dandy while it was mounted on a speedlight. But when he tried to mount the beauty dish on an Alien Bee flash they melted. Luckily for us, Chris did not give up and upgraded the design to use stainless steal bowls. From here it is all Chris. Click to continue ›
