More Glass

And my Lemon Drop shot revisited. I used the same setup as in the previous post, and tilted the camera to give more movement to the image. I don't like the splash as much as the last one, but I have several ideas how to make it even better next time...

Glass

A little more experimenting with dark field lighting of glass. Greatly inspired by Light, Science and Magic - one of my favourite technical photography books.

I will post a setup shot for this image on my Flickr page.

Macrochip

Well, I got all the pics done that I needed to do, so I took a few minutes to play with macro, or close-up photography. The chip in this picture is less than 3mm (a good bit under 1/8") across.

If you're interested in how I got this shot, there's an annotated setup picture here on my Flickr.

And here's a shot at 1:1 magnification (on the sensor), with a U.S. quarter coin for scale:

Power Organization

There's a little bit of spring cleaning going on in the studio. One of the most annoying aspects of my Strobist activities is that there's always batteries needing to be charged for cameras, flash units, and everything else. I counted seven power adaptors on my desk, for computer, phone, hard drives, plus a load of battery chargers. This was taking up way too much valuable real estate in my already cramped quarters.

My solution to this problem was to commandeer one shelf of my equipment store and make it into a "charging station". I fixed a power strip, the Maha charger's adaptor, and all unnecessary lengths of wiring under the shelf, leaving the top free for the charging units and batteries. This is what the underside of the shelf looks like:

The power strip is mounted onto a board (to keep wires from projecting too far down into the lower shelf space), the excess lengths of wiring are tucked in the plastic conduit, and the Maha power adaptor is secured with a Velcro strap. The output leads are fed through holes drilled in the shelf.
And the top looks like this:

So it is all neat and tidy. This arrangement also has the advantage that if I go on a road trip, or off on a long day's shoot, I can bring the entire shelf - everything is strapped or Velcro-ed in place.
The plastic battery boxes keep the same sets together, and contain flags of card, green on one side and red on the other, which indicate whether the batteries are charged or not. The flags also go into the Nikon battery covers, and my CF card cases to let me know whether a card is blank or not.

Now, as to the rest of the spring cleaning... I'll leave that to another day :)

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Christmas...

...with Prairieland Herbs' December Soap of the Month, Celebration, from Biscuit's Boutique in Des Moines. This beautiful handmade soap is scented with spruce, fir and frankincense, and is only available while stocks last.

I had great fun making this picture - there's an annotated setup shot on my Flickr page.

Meet The Family

Here are my Nikon lenses:

• AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8
• AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8
• AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8
• AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 D
• Micro Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 D
• AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 DX

MJ's Pinup Shoot

Undoubtedly my favourite shoot (so far) was MJ's pinup session, which we had on 14th November at IKONIX Studio in Des Moines. We had a really amazing team including Maggie Howe, (Wardrobe coordinator and logistics manager), Michelle White of Beautiful People Organic Salon (hair and makeup), Aisling Gibney (the best photo assistant on the planet - and she's my daughter too!), and Kristine Jorgensen (props master).

This is my design for the image CD cover.

I had a fabulous time, and learned a great deal about posing, lighting, and pinup photography in general. I'm really looking forward to doing more of this!
There are some more images from this shoot on my Flickr page

Catuccino

I had an impromptu photoshoot last night for a campaign that Panora P.E.T.S. plan to run in the near future. The "models" were absolutely gorgeous, and we had good fun.

There are some more images from this set on my Flickr page.

Cemetery Shootout

Though not quite of the scale as last year's event arranged by Ikonix Studio, Maggie and I went shooting in Adel Cemetery this evening. Most of our shots are on film, but I did a few Strobist pics with the Nikon D700.

Strobist info: Key light, SB-26 at 1/4 power in shoot-through umbrella camera right, triggered by Pocket Wizard, fill light,SB-900 at 1/8 power camera left, triggered optically; accent light, SB-26 at 1/8 power with red gel aimed at gravestone, also triggered optically.
Exposure: 2.5 seconds at f/8, ISO200.

Soap Shoot

Doing some product shots for Prairieland Herbs. Here is this month's Soap of the Month (a little late, but better than never!) - Refreshing Rosemary from Biscuit's Boutique. This has a bright, fresh scent that's just the thing to get you up and going now that the mornings are getting darker.

This shot was lit with a single LED flashlight clamped in a retort stand camera right...

...and this was a more conventional lighting setup, using three Nikon SB Strobes.

More Pop

Playing with balloons again this evening - I only had six, but I'm reasonably satisfied with the results.  This time I was able to use two Nikon SB-26 strobes at 1/64th power to give better lighting. The flashes are triggered by sound - you can see the microphone clipped to the clamp that holds the balloons.

The mic is very sensitive indeed - in this one, the flashes were triggered by the sound of the pin making contact with the balloon, before it burst. You can see the depression where the point of the pin is about to enter the balloon.

Here, it looks like I'm about to be devoured by a purple Pacman, but I actually won this round :)

Day 14

I had a photoshoot this afternoon, with Melody Rose. We had a really great time. I'll post some pictures from the session in a while, but in the meantime, here's the "studio" - again in the Prairieland Herbs classroom.

On the Ball

Messing about in the studio on a Sunday morning, with an old 28mm lens ($10 from the bitza bin in the local camera shop), some strobes, and a pen. I need to practise more with this type of shot, but here's this morning's effort:

Spicy Spray

Another product shot for the Prairieland Herbs website, this time a seasonal special, Spicy Spray. I had lots of fun making this shot, and did loads of experiments with lighting. There is a setup shot on my Flickr page.

It's Back!!!

The Good Stuff has returned! Now I can treat my cold properly!

(It's really really hard to photograph this, you just want to take the bottle and drink it!)

Soap Portrait

My latest job is to photograph a bar of soap for the Prairieland Herbs website. Without the box and label, it's a bit more challenging to make a bar of soap look interesting. Here's what I did:

And here's how I did it:

There are detailed notes on this picture on my Flickr page.

Yogpot Gels

I have been doing a lot of pictures of Maggie's hand-dyed scarves and hankies for her Etsy store, and needed to be able to have a variety of background colours to (a), relieve monotony, and (b), to best show the colour of the subject. I have two backdrops, one Chromakey Blue, and one grey. These aren't really expensive - a 9x12 backdrop and support set can be got for $73 here on eBay. However, I have neither the money nor space for lots of different backgrounds, so I have been playing with lighting my grey drop with different coloured gels on a strobe, and have been quite pleased with the results.

For my gels, I used the plastic tops of yogurt pots - these are available in a large variety of flavours (I mean colours), are cheap and readily available, and they are considerably more durable than regular gels. They also clip very nicely to the front of my SB-26's (if I have a loose one, or if I need to have a strobe facing downwards, a small bit of Blu-Tac will hold it in place).

The only downside to these is that they don't transmit light as well as gels, so you need more power, but for my purposes, this was never a problem (as you see, I didn't even bother scraping the writing off the lids)

Here are the results - one backdrop, various lighting. And this is before I even start playing with cookies, more than one colour, shooting the strobe through glasses (with or without water), etc, etc, etc. Who needs loads of backdrops?

(If you think that's good, have a look at this!)

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Riedel Deal!

We went to a garage sale the other day and picked up eight of these lovely Riedel wineglasses for 25 cents each! A nice subject to practise photographing glassware with!

I have posted the setup for this shot on my Flickr page.

DIY Reflector

I have long liked the idea of the California Sunbounce, but it's very expensive, so I decided to have a go at making my own. the frame was to be constructed from PVC tube, and fitted with a two-sided cloth cover, black on one side, and silver on the other.
Here is a brief description of the project:


First, as I wasn't too concerned with the overall dimensions of the finished product, the lengths to which I cut my tubes were purely arbitrary. The only measurement that mattered at this stage is the length of the handle piece, as it had to fit the frame. The lengths I cut were:

(A) 4 side pieces @ 19 3/4"
(B) 2 end pieces @ 24 3/4"
(C) 2 handle standoffs @ 3"
(D) 1 handle @ 19 1/4"

The fittings required are:
4 90 degree elbows
2 45 degree elbows
2 tees
(All the tubes and fittings are 3/4" Schedule 40)

The only tools needed for the job are a hacksaw, a measuring tape, and a marker or a pencil.

The completed frame.

I wanted to be able either to put the reflector on a lightstand, or to be able to attach an arm with a strobe on it. To do this I got a 1/4" x 20 coupling nut. Used for joining lengths of threaded rod, this is just like an ordinary nut but much longer. The one I got is two inches long.

I then drilled a hole on one of the tees, at a 45 degree angle to the plane of the tee, and bonded the coupling nut in place with epoxy resin adhesive. The portion of the nut sticking out from the joint will allow me to hold it with a wrench or adjustable spanner to avoid strain when affixing fittings.

Lightstand/tripod fitting with 5/8" stud attached.

The next thing to do it make the fabric covering. I used a remnant piece of black cotton. This was cut to size, hemmed and fitted with Velcro tabs.

Then we* stitched a piece of silver lame to one side, giving a reversible reflector/flag. (*"We" being Maggie. Thank you for your patience and help with the sewing)

Et voila! The finished reflector! And the cost? A bit under $25 - not too bad, eh?

Garage Studio

I have recently been using the garage as a studio for some of my projects. This is mainly because my new Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8VR lens has a minimum focus distance of 1.5m (5ft.), and I need the extra space. It's nice to have a bit of room to move about without having to climb over stuff.

This is the setup I used for the latest series of scarf shots I took for Maggie's Etsy store:

And this is the setup for my "portrait" of one of Maggie's spinning wheels:


Both of these (and lots of other setup shots) are on my Flickr page, with detailed descriptions and technical notes. I'm always surprised by the number of views these setup shots get, usually more than the "final result" photos.