Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
What if I told you that i only used one light to create this image. It’s true. I used one of my favorite lighting modifiers— a DIY reflector. To make it I covered a sheet of cardboard with self-adhesive mirror tiles, first scoring it in two places for easy folding. It works well with both studio strobes and sunlight, with the ripple texture of the cardboard adding a dappled appearance to the light.
A reflector and a flag are useful pieces of kit you should have in your kit. In this video, photographer Alastair Bird shows you how to make your own 2-in-1 reflector and flag. The white side works as a reflector to give you a nice, soft fill light, and you can use the black side as a flag. It’s cheap, easy to build, and it fits in your car along with all the gear you carry to a shoot.
Foamcore are an incredible asset for work inside and outside the studio, but there is always the question of mounting them. One way is using a reflector arm and another is holding them with pony clamps, there is even a DIY holding solution.
Photographer Tony Roslund shares another low-budget option which I really like: Using a baby plate and some gaff tape.
Today I got an idea for a quick and simple DIY 2-in-1 reflector, and I’d like to share it with you and create my very first DIY article. It has a white and a silver side, it takes two ingredients to make, and it cost me about $20, along with the hot glue gun (this DIY project finally made me buy one). If you already have the hot glue gun, then you’ll make this for even less money. And it’s so unbelievably simple to make, it would be a pity not to try.
I am aiming this week at those of you first getting into photography and looking for a budget friendly way of improving your photos!
You see, this week I’m giving some love back to the age old concept of “The best camera is the one you have with you”. By that token, the best reflector is the one you have with you! So what’s small, reflective, portable and weighs less than a feather (A large one)?
If you are leaving in the US, you know that Home Depot is the photographer’s best friend. And if you are reading this blog, you know that we are big fans of foamboard reflectors. Joe Edelman made quite a clever holder for those using $3 of Home Depot PVC piping stuff.
I know that there are other ways to mount a foam board reflector, but this is just too light and cheap to be ignored as an option.
If you are reading the blog for a while, you know that we are big fans of using reflectors. They are easy to use, provide great light on location and do not require any electricity (they are not very wind resistant, but that is another story.
JP Morgan and The Slanted Lens discovered a great source for creating those modifiers as good as they get – Big, Sturdy and Cheap.
I’ve never been a fan of watches, normally I just use my cellphone if I need to check the time. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is a fan of G-Shocks so I went ahead and bought my first watch last January, and bought another watch – a G Shock – just recently. As I always practice my photography with everyday items I thought about using my new watch as my subject.
I’m going to share you how I shot this using one main light and all the DIY equipment in the world.
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