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One Light Portrait Setup #1 – Butterfly Lighting (+ Optional Strobe)

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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).[Read More…]

A4 Sheet Fold Me Lumiquest

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Lumiquest has a pretty nice solution for diffusing on (or off) camera strobes by dressing them with a small and light weight softbox.

Reader Julian Schüngel came up with a similar device that can be constructed from one A4 sheet of paper (and kicks the crap out of my similar design that needs 6 sheets). Oh yea, it has build in barn doors too.[Read More…]

On Assignment: Dance Class Manager

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A while back when I made a huge career move and quite on the high-tech job, I set a goal of developing a photography business. I did warn you about the occasional “on assignment post” and this is just one of those posts.

At the place where I live there is a dance class for kids 4-16 years old. The manager of that class wanted some pictures to provide the local newspaper for an upcoming article. We talked and decide to take the pictures at her house where there is a nice decorative brick wall. This should eliminate the need to battle the harsh sun on one hand and provide both indoor and outdoor locations on the other.[Read More…]

Pimping A Compete Strobist Studio

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UPDATE: Looks like Kurbster droped out of flickr taking the very excellent set of strobist studio with him. I am going to leave the post here as the text still has value, although the images were soooooo much better to understand the concept from.

Just spent some good amount of time over at Kurbster photo stream. Seems like he completely nailed the whole, turn-a-room-into-a-strobist-studio thing.

Kurbster challenged Home Depot classic departments and generously turned some cheap and ordinary items into studio elements.

I’m gonna go over some of the challenges that Kurbster so elegantly solved.

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Lighting Modifiers Cheat Sheet Card

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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.

Lighting Modifiers Cheat Sheet (by udijw)
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. [Read More…]

Photography: Real Fire Rocks / Photoshop Fire Sucks

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How did I manage not to burn the house down??

Well, first, my wife was not at home, LOL… and second, with the remote trigger in one hand, and an extinguisher in the other… just in case!! ;O))

This is what Filipe Batista had to say when I wondered how he took that shot. The extinguisher bit is enough to hint that no Photoshop was used to create the fire and as they say it the magic industry. Don’t worry, that fire is harmless. Unless you touch it.

Filipe was kind enough to share the secretes behind this fire spectacle with DIYP readers:

[Read More…]

Five Poorman’s Lighting Mods When Pro Lighting Gear Is Just Too Expensive

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In this post you will find a collection of really (and I mean really) cheap alternatives to pro lighting.

Will you get the same crisp results that you get with pro gear? Probably just an approximation. On the other hand none of those mods cost more than a nickel and a dime, so it is well worth the try.

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Create Wonderful Worlds Using Soap Bubbles

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Mrs. H. should have known better than to push Steve Hermitage (Flickr) into doing the dishes.

What started out as an innocent dish washing exercise ended as a lab for shooting tiny worlds of soap, and revenge taken against a Tia Maria glass.

This is just too good of a project not to share. It is a ton of fun and the setup is very simple as Steve explains in his setup shot (after the jump).

[Read More…]

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