Review: The Best of Dean Collins on Lighting

To appreciate what a Lighting Rock Star Dean Collins was in the late 80's, you really had to be at one of his seminars.Imagine yourself and a couple hundred other photographers sitting, mesmerized, in a hotel ballroom as a half dozen synchronized Hasselblad slide projectors took turns unlocking secrets and opening doors in their brains.And talking...

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Making a Good Idea Even Better

One of the coolest things about starting up a website has been getting a peek behind the curtain at how some of the normally hidden stuff on the web happens.One of my strongest impressions has been that Google will someday own the world. They are an amazing machine.They make available - for free - a set of statistics on the daily site traffic that...

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Starving Student Gear Too Rich for Your Blood?

You might want to take a look at Jesse Crouch's website, IFakedIt.com - especially his article on small-budget photography.In it, you'll find tips on how to score a very cheap-but-good digital camera, using (continuous) work lights as a cheap sub for strobes and a cool, free alternative to Photoshop.Thanks to PotownAl for the heads up.By David...

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On Assignment: Shoot Your Shiny New Gizmo Like a Pro

About six weeks ago, I posted an article about how to make a darn-near free macro studio. I included photos of a flower/phone/radio/etc on white poster board.What I saw afterwards was (mostly) a lot of small things on a white infinity sweep. But the point of the little el cheapo contraption was that it could be used to create many different lighting...

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Hey, THAT Ought to be in Strobist...

We are 200 posts into this strange trip, with well over a milllion page views to date. Up until now most of the posts have come from yours truly, save a couple of outstanding On Assignments where the photos were reader-supplied. And many reader-supplied tips via e-mail. And I have darn-near worn the keys off of my Powerbook in the last six months.Here's something you probably never expected to hear from a control freak particular person such as myself:It's time for a little diversity of thought.Starting soon, the sharp-eyed among you will start...

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Now THIS is Cool, Off-Camera Light

OK, it ain't flash. And it is already making the rounds.But I am big into any creative use of off-camera light. And leave it to some Japanese performance artists to come up with this.What is it? An animated series of light-painted time exposures, of course. This has to be difficult. If I had some free time, I would try it.Scratch that. If I had free...

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Bits and Pieces, August 26, 2006

• Got an e-mail from a reader pointing me to "What the Duck," a rather funny serial cartoon about photographers. The one he sent was about, of course, off-camera flash. Which definitely earns WTD a "check it out" from Strobist.I should have been offended at many of them. But I was too busy laughing.Check out Aaron's other work on www.sweetjelly.com/blog.(Thanks...

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Tupperware and Trash Bags, Pt. 3 of 3

Wrapping up the series from the "cold food" assignment I shot for The Sun from a couple of weeks ago, I saved the toughest subject for last.By this, I do not mean that I saved the toughest of the three articles for last. I mean I saved this shot of "tuna tartare" (yum... NOT!) as the last shot I would produce during the afternoon's shoot.I did this...

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Well, Great. There's ANOTHER Night's Sleep Gone:

The PVC pipes pdf post (heh) has prompted a flurry of responses pointing to other DIY lighting/photo stuff.Most of it resides at www.diyphotography.net.At this point I would like to issue a sincere apology to the spouses of Strobist's readers. Especially those people who thought they had an actual garage in which they could park their cars. Right up to a couple of days from now, that is.Thanks, Rob. No, really. Thanks...

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Home Depot, Your Lighting Improvement Store

A Strobist reader who has already received and watched the new Dean Collins DVD's has done some Googling around and come across an old gem that sure brings back some memories.Collins designed a series of light control panels which were ultimately produced by Bogen and showed up in studios all over the world. But before they were commercially produced,...

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Nice LIttle Portrait Lighting Tutorial

While Googling around for some info on Dean Collins, I ran across this web page from Canadian photographer Dave Montizambert who had benefitted from Collins' teaching.He has a cool lighting tutorial from a one-light portrait session that gets into some lighting theory. This is especially relevant to Collins, because Collins studied in Europe at one...

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Stop Reading This Site

And go get this DVD series instead.The Dean Collins compilation DVD's are out and shipping. I got a heads up from some of the site's readers who have pre-ordered and are already getting their copies in. I have not seen them yet, but I pretty much wore my old Collins VHS tapes out. I recognize every shoot blurbed on the order page, so I am very excited...

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Lose an Entire Night's Sleep on dg28.com

That's pretty much what happened to me when I first discovered British photographer Neil Turner's excellent site, www.dg28.com.I am bringing this to the front from the links section because I know many of you never bother to wander off of the front page. (Why do I archive this stuff, anyway?)Anyhoo, Neil is a staffer for a periodical that covers education...

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Great Used Nikon Flash Source: K.E.H.

Way back when I was a photography-bitten college puke, I used to love to go up to Atlanta to visit my Aunt June and Uncle Percy, who still live in nearby Douglasville.Uncle Percy, in particular, was The Man, as far as I was concerned. Why? Because back when I was 7, he let me borrow his real, 35mm camera to take an actual picture. And I was hooked...

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Nifty Little Flash/Umbrella Mount

This small little shoe-mount flash bracket is getting some notice in the Flickr Strobist discussion group, and I thought it merited a bump up to the main site.Under $20, seemingly well-built and very compact.Source: Alzo Digit...

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Boot Camp Assignment #5: View with a Room

As summer (or winter, for you southern hemisphere folks) draws to a close, we find ourselves at the next-to-last Boot Camp assignment.And you'll be pleased to know that this one will not require you to scrounge another model. You'll be shooting a room.First reaction: Why?Second reaction: How in the Sam Hill do I shoot a room with one or two small flashes?Well,...

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Westcott Double-Fold Heaven

Well, what do you know. At least someone knows how to get these things in stock.Moishe at Midwest Photo Exchange just e-mailed me to say that he got in two hundred Westcott Double-fold umbrellas. They are not up on the website yet, but you can e-mail him at moishe@mpex.com or call at (614) 261-1264, and he will hook you up.This is pretty much like...

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Killer Pod People Band Together to Conquer Earth!

Okay, so maybe the headline is a tad alarmist. But hey, we gotta sell papers, right?The more pedestrian take on this breaking news is that Chris Marquardt, of the wonderfully effervescent "Tips from the Top Floor," and John Arnold, of "PhotoWalkthrough" have launched an association of photo podcasters, called Photocast Network. This means one-stop...

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Another Kind of Flash

There is nothing more dangerous than a photographer with a new sandbox to play in creative outlet. Witness you guys and off-camera flash.Well, I have been bitten by a bit of a bug, too. And I though I would take a moment to share some info.We are being encouraged to produce Flash gallery slideshows to go with our stories. It gives us a wonderful amount...

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Liquid Gold

I am going to take a small departure from the usual after-assignment discussion for the water shot.What follows is a group of ten photos from the assignments. Your job is to decide whether the photo was taken by a pro or an amateur.And this is not a knock on the professionals' pictures, either. All of these photos could easily have graced the pages...

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