Redecorating 6

It's been a while since I have posted anything, but work has been proceeding, albeit at a slower pace as things have got busier at the farm. We have now tiled the kitchen and dining room floors, and I painted the switch and outlet plates, air conditioning registers, and baseboard heater to match the kitchen cabinets. We are really happy with the result!

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 :)

Classroom Studio

I set up today for tomorrow's two studio family portrait sessions, in the Prairieland Herbs classroom. This is a converted barn extension that is used as a storeroom, chandlery, classroom (among others), and tomorrow it will be a photo studio. It's not really an ideal setup, being a bit (OK, a lot) on the small side, and the ceiling slopes down to just over five feet, so it will be an interesting challenge.

Here's my basic setup - a grey backdrop and my two White Lightning X1600 lights. I will also have my Nikon SB strobes at hand, and a selection of modifiers and reflectors.

First light test. In the absence of a better subject, muggins sat in. I hope tomorrow's pics look better :)

DIY Softbox Part 2.

Part 1 is here.

Now we get to the fabric diffuser. I'm using a small offcut of white ripstop nylon - because that's what I have. Any material that diffuses light could be used - tracing paper, Roscolux, Target shower curtain, etc, as long as it doesn't give it a colour cast. There are many ways in which the diffuser could be attached to the box (Velcro would be an elegant solution), but because of my sartorial ineptitude, I elected for a "no sew" process.

I cut four strips to fit inside the front edge of the box...

...and stuck them together with Gorilla tape to make the frame.

The frame should be a snug fit in the front rim of the box.

Ripstop nylon rips even less if you cut it with a soldering iron, and for other synthetic materials that do fray, this is by far the best way.

The fabric is cut a bit larger than the frame.

The corners are cut off, then the diffuser is stuck to the frame with spray adhesive.

The completed softbox ready for testing.

Test shot 1. Without the diffuser. Nikon SB-900 set to manual 1/64th power and zoomed out to 18 mm, and triggered by Pocket Wizard. Exposure 1/60 sec, f/14, ISO200, WB auto. The shadow in the top left corner is cast by the edge of the softbox.

Test shot 2. Diffuser in place. Strobe settings as above, exposure 1/60 at f/11. I'm very happy with this result :)

The setup the test shots. The strobe and box are just propped on bits of scrap wood for the test. The next part of this tutorial will deal with making a mount for the strobe and a means of fitting the assembly to a lightstand.

DIY Softbox Part 1.

I have been wanting for some time to make a small softbox for my product shots. Well, I finally got the project under way. There are lots of tutorials online already, but I thought I'd show you how I did it.

My plan is for a box about 16' x 12", made of black foamcore lined with aluminium foil, fitted with a wooden collar to which attachments can be fixed, and with provision for a grid.

The materials for the box are: 2" X 3/8" softwood offcut, black foamcore, aluminium foil, black duct tape. Other items required are: sharp knife (I used an X-Acto knife), pencil for marking out, straightedge, scissors, spray adhesive, masking tape, woodworking glue, a sheet of coarse sandpaper, and some old newspapers.

I made the collar first. The dimensions I used were purely arbitrary, I just wanted to create an opening large enough to accommodate the head of any speedlight I had, with a little to spare. Woodworking is not my forte - I simply glued the pieces together.

Cutting foamcore is easy, but I'd seriously recommend the use of a metal straightedge, rather than a wooden one. (Do as I say, not as I do). The use of a cutting mat reduces slippage, prevents damage to the work surface, and avoids trouble with the Significant Other.

The four sides of my softbox. The "thin ends" are sized to fit the wooden collar, and the "wide ends" are cut to give a 16" X 12" opening. It is important that the lengths of the tapered edges are the same on all pieces - this will ensure a good fit.

The panels are scored with the craft knife to allow the foamcore to be folded into position.

The softbox assembled with masking tape to check fit.

The tutorials that I have seen recommend crumpling the foil and then flattening it back out again to reduce specularity, but I find this method tedious and the foil always tears for me, so I just pressed the foil against a sheet of very coarse sandpaper (I'm using 40 grit here), and rubbed it down with a piece of soft cloth. This gives an even lustrous finish that should give nice diffuse reflections.

The panels are sprayed with adhesive (the masking tape is useful, the newspapers are essential), and the textured foil fitted in position and trimmed...

...the four panels lined with foil.

Inside view of the box during assembly. I'm very pleased with how the textured foil looks in the finished article.

The box taped up with black duct tape.

In the next part, I will make the front diffuser for the box, and do a couple of test shots.

Part 2 is here.

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!

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?

Tunnel Vision

Our Friends at Blue Gate Farm had their poly tunnel demolished by a tornado in May, and we went down yesterday to help them build their new one. Tons of photographs were taken, but I kinda like this one :)

Left to right: Sean, Maggie, Jill.

Getting Agait

One of my latest projects down on the farm - building a new gate for the horses' paddock:

Now all I have to do is hang it!