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How I built a DIY GOBO projector for under $30

I wanted a device that can throw light patterns onto a wall or a model. There are some commercially available but they are quite expensive and I this was only for occasional use. I thought that this is something that can be 3D printed. I bought a Bowens mounting ring and some cheap macro extension tubes (For the Nikon F mount since I already have lenses for it) from eBay and designed an adapter between them.

The adapter that I made has slots for different kinds of gobos between the strobe and the lens

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I stayed so much at home, it got boring. I turned it into a studio

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I’m still shooting portraits and doing creative work on a very regular basis. I have experience in various genre, I ran a studio, I have taught both workshops and one-on-ones, and I’m quite a sociable chap. Despite all that,  you probably never heard of me; I’m ok with that. All that aside, it is now 2020 and I’m now in a 12-weeks lock-down in a small bungalow, looking after my mother and daughter.

I’m lucky in quite a few ways; I have some great local friends who are making sure we have what we need, and I have my daughter who as well as being beautiful, is also very keen on becoming an MUA.

So stick a gorgeous daughter/wannabe MUA/model and a photographer with a passion for throwing light in a bungalow. What are we supposed to do now?

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How TV show Stranger Things title sequence was done 95% in-camera

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It’s been a long, long time since title sequences were made in camera, by optically projecting the titles frame by frame on film. It’s all digitally made now. Stranger Things, Netflix’s 80’s themed series has taken a cue from the 80’s not only on the content of the show, but also on how its titles were made.

The logo in the opening is not CGIed at all, it is actually shot in camera and then manipulated in a computer.

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How They Made Matte Drawing On Glass Before The Days Of CGI

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Today’s digital effects are pretty amazing (or not) depending on your view. But both the good CGI and the bad CGI have one thing in common, they are computer generated.

Not so long ago, the concept of computerized massive scenes was not even conceived yet and effects studios used different methods to “create” sets bigger than can possibly fit in a studio. One way of doing it was hand painting a matte glass with a set and using it around the shot action. One of the most famous effects studio: Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) released a movie showing how they used Matte glass and hand painted sets to create Indiana Jones and the first chapters of Star Wars. The amount of work and planning to make one of those matte shot was laborious almost beyond possible.

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How To Build And Use A Light Blaster™ Projector For The Studio

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A Light Blaster is a device that projects slides or transparencies onto walls and models. There is a commercial Light Blaster version for small strobes out there and it does have a studio adapter. But I, as always, prefer to go the DIY route :)

Though this article will have a lot of build info, the reason I made this is because I had a photo in mind and wanted to create it. Of course that once the tool is built, it pushes me to use it in creative ways.

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How To Build A DIY device similar to the Light Blaster™

Having seen the Light Blaster image projector, I wanted to know if I could build myself. Kinda out of pure curiosity. I wanted to know, is building a Light Blaster would be a task I can handle.

The main idea was to mimic the Light Blaster functionality and create a slide projector that could project 35mm slides with strobe and an old lens.

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Spiffy Gear Announces Studio Strobe Add On To Its Light Blaster™ System

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We are big fans of Spiffy Gear’s Light Blaster and have seen quite a few creative uses of it over the time. From jewels photography & commercial work through light graffiti , and even a wedding proposal. But studio shooters were always complaining about the need to use hot shoe Strobes with the system.

Today, the Light Blaster gets a new add on – a Universal Studio Strobe Adapter:

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Photographer Projects A ‘Marry Me’ Slide During A Photoshoot. She Sees The LCD And Says Yes!

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Proposing is stressful, isn’t it. I mean, forget about the yes/no answer. Just making a decent proposal could be a killer project of its own. Photographer Marvin Lewis has been taking a photo a year for him and his girlfriend Amanda Marie friendship universities. Each year a different photo (you can check the below), but for the eighth, anniversary he decided to pop the big one, and so invited Amanda into the usual studio session.

Little did she know that Marvin placed a Light Blaster mounted with a Marry Me slide  that she could not see until the photo was actually taken. (The Light Blaster only projects a slide when the camera clicks, when the strobe inside of it goes off).

Imagine her surprise when she walked up to the LCD to chimp at the photo, while Marvin kneeling behind her holding a ring.

I asked Marvin about this special day and this is what he told me:

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