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Studio Lighting – Instant Lightsphere – The Emergency Diffuser

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So, I was trying to make a nice lighting for a still life picture I was taking. Sadly, I had none of my usual crap around. I was at lost. Suddenly, I heard a distant voice, telling me to to try something I’ve never done before and to try some new cheap way to take the picture, also to try and keep it innovative, and low cost (shuold be read “I have no money for gear, so I cant afford the stuff I really want).

This is the time to take a short break, and talk about that distant voice. It is not uncommon for me to hear voices in my head – nothing big, no one has ever told me to climb a water tower and go postal. yet… It’s just your usual voices – “you can snooze for 5 more minutes, the meeting will be delayed anyway“; “let Liry (my daughter) have another chocolate bar, mommy wont care“; you know, the usual things…. lately I’ve been hearing a new voice. In fact this voice is so load that it even dumps some of the older voices that tells me to buy more stuff to complete my poor photo gear collection.

The Complete Guide to Children Photography – Part II

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If you got here, you must have read the first part of the complete guide to children photography. By now you should know that the key element to your success is having fun – both by you and by the kid. In this part I will talk about some more tips and techniques for children photography, but this time from a more “technical” angle. Did I say technical? Nothing to worry, I am going to keep it simple.

The Complete Guide to Children Photography – Part I

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OK, to be honest I must start this “children photography” tutorial with two disclaimers:

Disclaimer #1: There is no “complete guide to children photography” there are only bits and pieces of information. When shooting my (or other’s) kids, I try to look at the session (or occasional snapshot session) as a new, and put most of what I know behind me. Here I will try to list some of the principles that I think always stay true, not necessarily in an order that makes any sense. However – remember – those are merely general guidelines. If I had to come up with a more appropriate title for this tutorial, it would be called “How To Photograph Your kids and Leave the Jelly of the Walls”, as this is the level of things that I am going to discuss.

Disclaimer #2: The author of this tutorial is also a proud Father (yes capital “F”), and as such, had to make some breaks during the writing of this tutorial to change diapers; fetch milk; kiss a scratch and hug. Also last night my daughter ran the test called “See if my father can stay up all night, and still be functional”. SO…. I do not take responsibility for random thoughts; loose connection and general “make no sense” advices I here by give. Ready? Here we go:

DIY – Create Your Own Bokeh

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Bokeh is an adaptation from a a Japanese word meaning blur. In photography this term is used to describe the quality of the areas in the picture which are not in focus.

When referring to Bokeh, we can distinguish some of it characteristics:

– Is the light/dark gradient smooth or sharp?

– What shape will a small dot of light take what it is in the Bokeh area? (mirror lenses for example, create a bagel like Bokeh)

We can play with those two variants to create a special Bokeh.

The Origami Studio (An Extrapolation to The $0.02 Macro Studio)

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This post on a 2 cents macro studio got me thinking. Firstly because it is a great idea, it employs the same technique as the super simple light tent and the flash diffuser. Secondly it is cheap. So cheap in fact, that it really does only cost two cents. The thing that I was thinking is – “I want a BLT Sub”, and right after “This is great for small objects, what if I want to shoot something bigger? For this I came up with an improvement – The Origami Macro Studio. It is not as cheap – approximately 20 times more expensive – but for 40 cents, it is still a heck f a deal. And as the macro studio, it is cheap, takes 2 minutes to prepare, and very simple.

DIY – Make a Free Light Stand Out of an Old Tripod

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If you need a better way to hold the light you use while taking pictures with the DIY backdrop you just made, or you need a better way to control where light goes for keying out backgrounds in Photoshop, read through this tutorial on how to make a quick and durable (and highly configurable) lightstand out of one of those old, sort-of broken cheap tripods you have sitting in your closet. Even if it’s your main tripod, you should be able to modify it so you can swap it for a lightstand or standard tripod pretty easily.

DIY – Studio Equipment: Greenscreens and Backdrop Stands

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This article will explain how to design and assemble bluescreens, greenscreens and backdrops for photos and video, as well as how to easily and inexpensively build a portable frame to support these backdrops out of PVC pipe or metal conduit. The ideas are similar to the ones that proposed by Brian Zimmerman, with a nice fresh view and clear explanations. (NOTE: Please be sure to read some of the extra notes at the bottom of this guide for optimal performance).

For amateur or hobbyist photographers and video producers, coming up with the money for a nice, $200 (and up!) backdrop and the expensive stands and hangers required to help support it isn’t very easy. Rather, they need a way to make a nice-looking background that is both good looking and easy to transport.

DIY – The Cheap Yet Shamefull Underwater Camera Housing

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It is reported that Navy SEALS commonly use two condoms to seal firing assemblies for their underwater explosives, having thus coined the term: “Dual Waterproof Firing Assemblies”. This article is a tribute to their ingenuity, and it expands on the concept of the waterproof condom, in order to make a waterproof housing for my digital camera (and other consumer electronics).

(OK, OK, the original title was “Dual Waterproof Consumer Electronics – the condom housing”)

DIY – The Spiderpod: a modification of Hunter Frerich’s wire tripod

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Rob Rohde-Szudy from duckworksmagazine has a great improvment for the Hunter Frerich’s super duper tripod. Yes! here is another creative way to save some $$$ on your photography equipment.

This is not my idea at all, it came from Hunter Frerich at DIY – Pocket Camera Tripod. It is basically a tripod with stiff wire legs that can wrap around almost anything.

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