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Getting Fired by My Daughter – a Homage to X Man

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Last night I got fired by my daughter. I kid you not. She firmly stood on her two tiny legs wearing an executive outfit and gave me the hard news. My Daughter is almost 3.

Not long ago David X. Tejada (blog, site) posted a video showing his setup for a firm executive shot. You can watch the video at the end of this post. One thing that I believe pushes me forward as a photographer is learning the techniques of great photographers like David X. Tejada, and then apply them on creative ideas that I have. Note that for this learning technique to work, you can not copycat an image (there is another technique of trying to reproduce an image to learn the lighting, but that is another story).

DIY Wax-Fen Flash Diffuser – Yet Another Bouncy Thingy

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This guest post by Rick S. (aka therickman), Pittsburgh, PA. features a stofen like device for no money at all. (OK, 2 cents, if you get really pecky). It’s foldable and it’s cheap and it’ll give you a bare bulb type of lighting. To learn more about bare-bulb lighting visit the strobist.

Here is a quick and easy way to make a “professional” flash diffuser without shelling out twenty or so dollars at your local camera shop. In fact, the cost of this homemade pearl is… well, nothing! Just your time making it, which should take less than ten minutes. Ready to start taking better images with softer lighting? Let’s go!

Just Fab’s Turkey Pan Beauty Dish

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Beauty Dish for the Mechanically challenged a guest post by Just Fab

I had the honor of being photographed by one of my mentors, Don Giannatti (Wizwow on flickr) the other day after attending one of his fantastic lighting seminars. He chose to use a beauty dish on me. I love the way beauty dishes look, especially the way it sculpts the edges of my roundish face. Soft concentrated light which falls off quickly. You can learn more about the merits of the beauty dish on Don’s site.

Most of my inspiration for lighting setups come from that site and DVD. Anyway, I was so excited when I saw the images I knew I had to come up with something that could recreate the look that was portable and wouldn’t break the bank. Although I am handy with PVC pipes, my ability to use power tools are in question. I was thinking of cutting out a hole in a wok or mixing bowl, but I still couldn’t figure out how to rig it to reflect the concentrated beam back into the dish, plus my lighting stand would probably never stay upright with that kind of weight.

Get Some Essential Lighting Into Your Photos

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Sometimes there is nothing you can do but be amazed by the sharing spirit of people around the web. Following Just Fab recommendation I surfed to check out a lighting site. (Yap, she is the fabulous one who brought you the Ghetto Studio).

I clicked her link and… TADA! Lighting-Essentials hit me all its glory. The site is run by Don Giannatti whom you might know as Wizwow.

Striplight Unstripped – Some More Info

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Photographer Nathan Moody Has posted a nice threatening portrait done with the strip light setup shown here.

After enjoying this great portrait and lighting,
I can see some more added value to this picture and discussion on the “picture flick thread” (click image to go there.

The first cookie is the method used to remove the light fall off – a bounce card under the camera.

A second cookie is fluorescent flicker discussion on the photo page. O’bran was concerned with flickering of the light caused by the way fluorescent works – they flickr many times a second depending on the current fluctuation in your electricity socket.

What to Carry; How to Pack; Where to Travel

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How to Pack: Chase Jarvis has done it again. In a series called Chase Jarvis Tech, the Seattle based photographer let us in on the ins and outs (literally) of his photography bags. In this video Chase give us the packing angle. (And as always it is fun to see what’s in the pro’s bag. You can start drooling now)

If you are a photographer on the go, always going from one place to another enjoying them fancy airport lounges this is definitely the vid for you (it beats the hell of caring your gear in a gun case).

DIY Studio Lighting – The Strip Light That Won’t Strip You

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Photographer David Greene was kind enough to share a cool lighting technique he uses for fashion photography. Using your everyday florescence fixtures and bulbs David creates two strip lights. Watch the flick.

http://youtu.be/UD9VVbE6ico

There strip lights are good enough to go with f/3.5 on100 ISO which is nice, and you don’t need to use florescence filters, cuz the bulbs (can you call florescence bulbs?) are daylight balanced.

Ringlight Bonanza with Joris van den Heuvel

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Not so long ago, I got a mail from a reader and fellow DIYer Joris van den Heuvel. Joris referred me to his site where to my astonishment I found a ringlight heaven.

Now, I know that the photography web has been sizzling with ringlights ever since David Hobby posted his challenge for a DIY ringflash, but this guy is something else. Got some cool stuff I haven’t seen anywhere else.

Starting out with a “regular” one liner LED ring light (AKA Ring Light 1.0), Joris evolved to a two liner LED array and even a three liner. BUT WAIT!!! It gets better. CFFL tubes are yet another version of a ring flash, and…..

Joris’s latest work in progress is a fiber optics based ring light (just saying fiber optics flash makes me feel sophisticated and cool). I say – stay tuned for this one – as my friends’ say this is something completely different. You know what; check em all out here.

If you have a Technorati account and a spear minute, I’d love it if you add DIYP as a fav. You can use this link.

Related Links:
– Joris van den Heuvel Ring Light Portal – Get your good stuff here
– Strobist Flash Ring Challenge
– DIYP Flash Ring 1
– DIYP Flash Ring 2

Lighting – Light Like a Butterfly

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After Just Fab introduced her fabulous Ghetto Studio, which was a ghetto setup for the butterfly lighting (AKA Glamour Lighting; AKA Paramount Lighting) I felt like taking a shot with this kind of setup. (Pan intended).

It was my bad luck that the PVC store next door has ran out off all the PVC piping they usually hold (Yea, right! try – my wife will kill me if I build another PVC monster in the living room). I had no alternative but to go with another butterfly lighting solution. (The final deal, by the way, was “OK, OK, I will not build it, will you model for me? pleeeeease?”).

Home Studio – Third Hand Lighting Pole

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Reader Mike Coutinho saw the post about the studio compression pole, and this triggered something in his mind.

Mike told me about the Third Hand system (via toolmonger) which provides a very similar functionality.

Same as with the DIY system, you can create a vertical pole from floor to ceiling and hang stuff on it (Flash, backdrop, diffuser panel).

The extra value of this solution is that it does not have to go vertical; the top pad can support various angles, so you can go diagonally wild. Another “feature” is that the Third Hand comes ready and there is not much DIY you need to assemble the pole.

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