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iPhone Apps for Photographers: Strobox

by Learn More Photo 1 Comment

Sometimes browsing in the iTunes music store for good apps is hit or miss. Actually let me rephrase that – I find it’s always hit or miss. there’s a lot of apps listed in the category ‘photography’ that may not belong there.

There’s apps with pictures of sexy girls (not photography IMHO) and apps for editing and post processing photos on or taken by the iPhone and then there’s some great photographer tool style apps.
That latter group is my favorite and also where the Strobox app fits in. An app for photographers.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Flashes, Strobes & Lighting, Tips For Photographers Tagged With: app, download, ipod touch, ipohone, light setup, lighting diagram, setup, strobox

How does a Bounce Umbrella Work?

by Learn More Photo 2 Comments

A bounce umbrella works very simply by taking the light from a light source and expanding it’s spread.

A bounce umbrella is typically lined on the interior with a silver, gold or white reflective surface and on the outside with black to reduce light from escaping.

To show you exactly I’ve put together some diagrams that show where the light goes. For this example we’ll assume that an umbrella is a cut of a perfect sphere. The focal point, through which all the reflected light passes, is 1/2 * radius of the circle, or half way between the sphere’s center point and the edge of the umbrella.

Bounce Umbrella Light Diagram 1 of 3

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Flashes, Strobes & Lighting Tagged With: beauty lighting, diagram, diffuse, gold, how it works, lighting, setup, silver, umbrella, white

How does a Shoot-Through Umbrella Work?

by Learn More Photo 1 Comment

A shoot-through umbrella works very simply by taking the light from a light source and expanding it’s spread.

A shoot-through umbrella is typically white and a fairly thin or translucent white at that. The light is intended to travel through the umbrella to reach it’s subject.

To show you exactly I’ve put together some diagrams that show where the light goes. For this example we’ll assume that an umbrella is a cut of a perfect sphere. The focal point, through which all the reflected light passes, is 1/2 * radius of the circle, or half way between the sphere’s center point and the edge of the umbrella.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Flashes, Strobes & Lighting Tagged With: diagram, how it works, light, lighting, lighting setup, setup, shoot through, umbrella, white

Setting up a Background Stand and Muslin Backdrop

by Learn More Photo 5 Comments

My first video blog entry: setting up the background stand I purchased from Amvona.

Only took me 5 minutes to set up the system. I had no idea it would be this easy to use!

Song “All You Said” by Everyday Jones via Pod Safe Audio

Equipment Shown

  • AS-V306 Background Stand – $79* usd No Longer Available
  • Elite Solid Muslin (Thunder Gray) – $67* usd

Both purchased from Amvona.com. Check out my Amvona Profile.

* Prices notes are the price I paid at the date of purchase.

Similar Products from B&H

  • Impact Background Support System Including Stands, 12′ 4-Section Crossbar, Bag – $99.00
  • Botero MUSLIN BACKGROUND 10×12′ – Grey – $82

Photos Using Equipment

Here are some photographs I have taken using this equipment.

Transcript of Video

Terri:
Hi everyone I’m Terri this is my first video, so it’s the first time you’re ever going to see me fumbling with my words, just kidding, um it’s the first time you’ve seen men and heard me all at once. And today I just kinda wanted to show you how to set up this new background stand that I bought from Amvona.com.

Um, snap to set up, I just got it today, I got the background last week but the stand was on backorder. And it’s so easy to setup, this is actually the first time I’m going to be setting it up with the background attached too. Um, and I just think it’s really neat to watch how easy some of this photography stuff is, and think “Why am I setting up this jerry-rigged system behind me and throwin’ sheets over it and propping it up with things” when it’s not that expensive to buy a quick little stand.

No horse playing around it because it will break it’s not an expensive stand but if I’ve got people standing in front of a background, taking pictures, acting like adults this will last me plenty. So Let’s get to the time lapse video of em setting this thing up and I’ll talk to you a little bit later. Bye.

[Time Lapse Video of Setup]
[Still Frame: 5 Minutes to Setup]
[Still Frame: And Now the Tear Down]
[Time Lapse Video of Tear Down]

Terri:
So that’s it. Took me five minutes to setup, a little bit longer to tear down because folding a 10×20 background: not fun, in any ways shape or form. Um, Usually if I was really going to be shooting in a space this small all the time I would never have bought a background that big, but that’s actually a background I’m planning on using for different things.

Um, so yea. Leave me a message on the comments and let me know what you thought: good, bad, ehh… don’t ever get in front of a camera ever again, nobody likes your voice, you look like a tramp. By the way, beauty counter at Macy’s, okay, I don’t usually look like this so I apologize. Um and I guess that’s about it so thanks for reading and I hope this helps somebody somewhere! Bye!

Filed Under: Equipment Tagged With: Amvona, background, blog, kit, muslin, setup, stand, transcript, under$200, Video

Photographing Flowers; The Strobeless Approach

by Learn More Photo 1 Comment

I am big fan of the strobist home photographer revolution but sometimes I don’t think you need to use fancy flashes and strobes or bright lights with umbrellas, sometimes you can make a beautiful photograph with just a subject, the light attached to your ceiling and some white packing foam.

The Final Product

Let’s Tarantino this and show you my final outcome first

Without using an external flash, my on camera flash or any other strobes of flood lights I took these lovely photographs. Just my overhead room light (with two 60 watt bulbs) and some white Styrofoam as reflectors.

The Lighting Setup

Here’s a quick lighting diagram of what I was doing, though really, there’s not a lot of stuff going on.

Strobeless Setup for Flower Photography

The Props

Though I did not use any off camera lighting I did use a lot of things I had around to really assist in making the best I could out of the light I had to work with.

  1. Styrofoam packing sheets
    At work last months we got seven new filing cabinets (pre-assembled) that were all packed with four sheets of crisp white Styrofoam. I know that since Styrofoam has a matte finish it will reflect light very evenly, and since they are 1.5 – 2″ thick they’re fairly sturdy. Not to mention free!
    I took about eight of these 24x18x2″ blocks home; only eight cause that’s all that I could fit in my trunk.
  2. Bed side table
    I use the same one that holds my alarm clock, just to put the subject on to elevate it to a comfortable tripod height.
  3. Glass
    I used the glass from a frame I picked up on sale at Homegoods for $15 cause the frame was damaged. I had plans to put a new picture in the frame and clean it up but I broke the glass. Read on for that…
  4. Mirror
    …I’ll tell you another day how I came into a mirror that is approximately 1/2 the size of the one that may and or may not have fallen off my bathroom door.
  5. Shoji screen / privacy screen
    I’ll use this to hold up my background. In the off season (when I’m not taking pictures) it serves to hide the mess in the corner of my room.
  6. Black bedsheets set
    The pillow case will be used to cover the table to protect it from the glass or mirror and the flat sheet will be used as the background.

I can almost guarantee you have 1/2 of those things around the house and with you don’t have you can pickup at a discount store for a great price and probably still be able to put it to good use.

How big does the mirror or glass have to be?

I really only needed the glass and mirror to be maybe 2ft square. Bigger is great but only necessary if you need that much reflection, which on a small subject like a flower and vase is adequate.

Setting the Scene

Glass Topping the Table for Subtle Subject Reflections

Strobeless Single Flower on Glass Setup
In the first photo you see I put the pillow case over the table and the glass atop that. Then came the subject, the vase w/ flower.
In the last photo you see how I then used the Styrofoam reflectors to bounce light into parts of the subject that needed more light.

Strobeless Single Flower on Glass BounceI put the black flat sheet over the Shoji screen, and put my bedside table about 3′ in front of the screen so I could ensure that the background would be beyond the focal point and blur out any texture attributed to the bed sheet.

Excuse the quality of these setup shots, this is about behind the scenes remember: the quality is in the product.

Here are the photographs this setup produced

Happy Outside, Sad Inside Profile

White Background

With my white backgrounds, I will admit most of it really becomes “white” in post-production (Lightroom).

Strobeless Single Flower White BackgroundMoving from the previous setup I propped Styrofoam against the screen so it was high enough to serve as a background. Since I decided I was no longer going to do a full length shot I replaced the glass atop the table with another piece of Styrofoam to help bounce from below (remember the light is directly overhead of my subject.)

I still used other pieces of Styrofoam to bounce in at an angle, especially the face of the flowers. Don’t bounce your light directly into the flowers though, you want it to angle and cascade to give the flowers depth. a flat bounce to the face will make your flowers look just that…flat.

Photos from my Styrofoam White Setup

Are They Fighting? Together, Like Family

Mirror Reflection

First I removed the Styrofoam from the background and replaced the Styrofoam table top with the mirror (pillow case used to protect the table.)

Strobeless Single Flower Dark Mirror TentIn order to get the black background and ensure there were no wonky reflections besides the subject in the mirror I needed to move the background closer. I needed to get the camera at a high angle to get a healthy amount of reflection so I really brought that background in close by leaning the screen till it was touching the back of the table. I pushed the table so it was about 1′ behind being below the over head light so that when the background was leaning over the table I could still easily bounce light into the ‘dark mirror tent’ easily.

I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out how to actually make this happen without breaking things.

Here are the photos from the mirror setup

Reflective Coupled

Word of Caution

I may have gotten overly excited and careless with my props while shooting this, and well I stepped on my glass top. So keep a paper bag and broom/vacuum around when working with glass. Trust me!


For more talk about using reflectors check out one of the installments at Strobist – Lighting 102 – 5.1 Refract and Reflect! Think foil, mirror, and use a strobe or flash or like we did here just your run-of-the-mill home tungsten lighting.

Filed Under: Flashes, Strobes & Lighting Tagged With: behind the scenes, glass, mirror, photoshoot, setup, strobeless, tungsten

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