Super-Cheap, DIY Ring Flash

UPDATE: Since this post was written, we have also featured a Ring Flash Week, with everything from a resources page to a tutorial on how to make a high-output, DIY ring flash adapter that can overpower sunlight. Ring Flash Week begins here.
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If you are like me, you want to experiment with specialized lighting techniques. But those "looks" sometimes remain specialized because of the cost associated with the gear.

Ring flash is a good example. The 3-d, shadow-wrapped look is unmistakable. And darn near impossible to duplicate without liberating a few hundred bucks from your wallet for a ring flash.

I'll be danged if Strobist reader Jedrek hasn't circumvented the photo gear mafia industry completely with some plastic bowls, scissors, foil and glue.

So, for just a hour's work (and some mysteriously missing spousal tupperware) you can be getting those edgy photos that look like they came right out of a fashion mag.

There's not much to it, technique-wise. Just stick someone up against a colored wall and nuke away.

The kissy lips are not included in the kit. (And your subject probably will not have a set like these.)

Fire a test shot, adjust your exposure - use the flash on manual for repeatable results - and you are good to go, my friend.

Or, you can always go TTL if you are a noob. (Better yet, click here and learn how to light light a real photographer... )

Click here for a more readable version of these instructions, and you'll be on your way to building one for yourself.

There is also a full discussion on the project on the Strobist Flickr group. (You are a member, right? It's free, you know.)

So make it a weekend project and stick your stuff up in the thread.

Here's a quick lighting hint: While this light looks great with someone plastered up against a wall, you can really amp it up with some added rim light to create three-dimensional lighting tension.

Or an easier tweak: Position the bowl where the strobe is entering from the top. The light is hotter at the entry point, so the vertical portion of the shadow would be more pleasing.

You could also work it against a sunset. Heck, go nuts with it. We are only talking some bowls, foil and glue here, people.

Thanks much to Jedrek for the tutorial!

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Lighting Boot Camp Finale: Assignment #6 Discussion

Before I get into the discussion on Lighting Boot Camp Assignment #6, I want to give a heartfelt thank you for everyone who participated in this first-of-its-kind event.

You all have done some amazing things as a group in the past three months. If you do not believe me, take a look at the Headshot Assignment results and scroll right through to the takes from the subsequent assignments.

I spent far more time choosing the photos to bump up to the main site on this final effort. Both because the stakes were a little higher and because the work had much more quality and depth.

I hope the CD covers showcased here speak for themselves. But I will also post my thoughts on why they stood out at me and how I reacted to them.

As for the final selection, suffice to say that the choice was very, very difficult.

I had it down to three or four for a long time, and finally chose the one that I would have been happiest to turn in to a creative director had I been given the assignment.

Before I get to the final choices, I would like to acknowledge Chris Garrett, of DSLRBlog.com, for being such a good sport about accepting my challenge and going through his shooting process in such an open way.

That's not an easy thing to do when you are just learning new skills. Chris is to be commended for his tenacity and creativity.

So, without further ado:



The Finalists


This is one of the more interesting photos I have seen in a long time.

In reading the comments, it is clear that the photographer had zero idea that flash capacitors are routinely step-up charged to 300 volts DC. Neat photo, but it also could have been a grisly scene for the paramedics to come upon.

I could not really equate it to a music CD in my mind, but it certainly commanded my attention.

This was an absolutely wonderful photograph with which to launch a career.

It is beautiful in its simplicity and makes me want to hear her perform.

I was not judging typography, but I would like to see the wording done in a way that did not blend in with the hair so much.

But that is a minor and correctable issue on a such a stunning photo.

At the other end of the tonal scale is this effort, in which the photographer had the courage to compress the entire tonal range downward. Lighting control gives you the ability to make a choice like this without it looking like a mistake.

Celebrity portraitist Annie Leibovitz uses the technique to great effect. Very nice.

Similarly, this photo gives me the feeling that the photographer had command of the rules (with respect to tonality) but chose to break them.

Simple, understated, and with a "look." The lighting, expression and body attitude combine for a strong package.

The photographer produced this photo almost immediately after the assignment was given. It was as if he read it, and walked over to a corner to set up and shoot.

It is a testament to the overall look that I first actually thought he cheated and snapped a copy shot of a CD. I even googled the band name to check him out.

His outtakes proved without a doubt that it was his hasty - yet high quality - work.

I could so see this in a record store.

Technique. Tonal scale. Simplicity. Attitude - this one has it all. A slight rim light coming from far back camera left would have made it even better, with a controllable three-dimensionality to the image.

Ditto this low-key effort, which combines clean with depth - not an easy thing to do.

This looked like an album cover from the 70's, and offered the viewer a great connection with the musician. The lighting was elegant, too, with the glasses' reflection having been totally controlled without forcing the lighting angles.

Not quite sure how he did it. But nice.

And finally, the two I agonized over for the final selection.

Runner-up by only the slightest of margins was this warm-toned rocker cover shot.

It had composition, light, energetic stray light and the feeling that the artist was transcending the shooting session and lost in his music.

I would be very happy to have my name on this album as a photo credit. It is edgy in a controlled way - a hard target to hit.


And finally:


This is the one that would not leave me.

I could remember in my mind it a week after I saw it.

It's a one-of-a-kind photo that both reveals and conceals. It is at once literal and conceptual.

The lighting is simple - a speedlight fired into a ceiling and wall. This gave both the shadowed, textured lighting on the face and the smooth gradient on the background. Nice double duty.

A self-portrait that is not camera conscious - the subject is at once intimate and yet unapproachable.

This photo strikes a balance in so many ways, and yet there is very little there in the way of actual subject matter.

So, as I closed the photo windows from the Flickr finalists one-by-one, this is the last picture that remained.

Kim, if you would please send me your full mailing address via your Flickr account, I will be happy to send the Collins DVD's to you.

Congrats.

Again, thanks to all who participated for such a strong effort. I hope you found the process as enjoyable and as much of a learning experience as I did.

Finally, I would like to thank Midwest Photo Exchange for sponsoring the Lighting Boot Camp.

It was a real hoot.

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Double-Fold Umbrella Winners Announced

Congratulations to Flickr user Flashyfeliz for winning the double-fold Westcott umbrella in the amateur division for this wonderfully evocative photo in the "room" assignment.



And in the professional division, the winner is LGZ, for this photo from the "water" assignment.

Both appear very simple at first glance, but were quite sophisticated in their use of light.

The room photo uses a snooted, gelled speedlight to evoke a sunbeam on a lamp in an otherwise underexposed room. The control of the ambient allowed the photographer to both retain the mood and enhance the texture of the lived-in scene.

And in the water shot, the photographer actually lit the inside of the bottle, to great effect, by placing the it directly on top of a diffused speedlight.

Everyone who has participated has much to be proud of. You have improved greatly as a group since the first headshot assignment.

And I hope you will join me in congratulating the winners.

(Besides, there are still those DVDs to be awarded...)

If the winners would send me a Flickr mail from their account with full name, address and contact info, I will pass it along to Midwest Photo Exchange, so you can get your goodies.

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Holy Smokes! Pocket Wizards: $245 a Set.

FINAL UPDATE - SOLD OUT: Please note that these are gone. They went fast, as they were a screaming deal. In the event MPEX gets more in like this, you will absolutely know first on Strobist, so check in periodically if you are looking to scam some mark-down PW's.

Thanks,
DH

SECOND UPDATE: As per US Customs, this is US addresses only. When radio freq's are involved, people are paying attention these days.

UPDATE: Due to a heads-up from a Strobist reader, Moishe looked into the various country/frequency models of Pocket Wizards, with respect to shipping overseas. Here's the deal:

The PW's sold in Europe do, in fact have different frequencies. Yes, they will work fine. But for a 500th of a second, you might be naughtily tresspassing on someone else's spectrum. So Moishe, being a straight-up guy, if going to have to limit these to being shipped to USA addresses. (Not sure about Mexico/Canada - give him a phone or e-mail if you want to check.)

He stresses that this is not a shipping issue - he ships internationally at the drop of a hat - but one of RF spectrum protocol.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for you international types, but rules is rules.

ORIGINAL POST:

I just got back from the multimedia conference in Allentown to see a three-day-old e-mail sitting in my bulk e-mail box from Moishe at Midwest Photo Exchange. Idiot me forgot to add him to my address book. No wonder he keeps landing in my bulk mail folder.

Haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, but my guess is some company converted to the new models and swapped out.

Update: Just talked to him. These are straight from MAC (who owns Pocket Wizard) and are marked "student." So if you call or e-mail him, tell him you want the "student" version. (Wink, wink.)

Anyway, he's selling them for $245, with a 3 mo warranty. This is a steal. If you are on the bubble about PW's your train just came in. New, these went for $350 a set before they were upgraded to the (autosensing) Plus II's, which go for closer to $400 a set.

I have three transmitters and seven receivers, and I am still tempted.

And to think I kid the missus about shoes...

He said he has a few dozen sets left. I would think they will not last too long. They may or may not be on the website (these are kind of a special deal) so I would suggest phoning him at 614-261-1264, or e-mailing him at moishe@mpex.com.

If you are not sure if you will be happy with them, try to find someone who uses them who is not happy with them.


-DH

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Waiting for You: Photojournalism's New Frontier

I know you are all working on getting those Boot Camp lighting assignments in tonight. So we are going to take a few minutes to diverge from talking about lighting to introduce you to a journalistic universe that is still in the midst of its own Big Bang.

I have spent the last two days at the Allentown Morning Call with about three dozen other photojournalists and visual managers from the Tribune Company's various newspapers.

We are learning about the seemingly endless range of possibilities that await us as visual storytellers in the world of multimedia publishing.

I have not seen this much genuine excitement from a group of news photographers in years.

For my part, the drive up found me a little anxious about the idea of trying to learn the particulars of online publishing using a variety of techniques and software packages.

But seminar leader Brian Storm, of MediaStorm.org, has pretty much convinced all of us that the opportunities offered by the new medium far outweigh the effort required to learn to work there.

Storm has an impressive resumé. He has been thinking this way for more than a decade at the University of Missouri grad school, MSNBC, Corbis and, most recently, MediaStorm. He has a solid grasp on multimedia visual journalism and what possibilities the new genre offers to still photographers.

I cannot begin to tell you everything I have learned, but here are some broad strokes:

• The online medium allows for far richer storytelling than does any form of print journalism.

• Still photographers are better positioned than journalists from any other genre to exploit the new medium.

• Our finished stories can be formatted in such as way as to be transportable to a variety of other media.

• For the first time in many years I feel like my imagination, energy and level of commitment are the only limitations to what I can accomplish in my working space.

Turn off the Boob Tube for a little while and experience some of the samples that Storm has made available on his company's site.

You'll see traditional photojournalism coexisting with bold new storytelling techniques.

You'll begin to understand how sound can give a voice to a story's subjects and amplify the emotional content of the still photography.

You'll learn how video and animated graphics can complement traditional still photojournalism to take you to new levels of storytelling.

And you'll see how the sheer luxury of time and space in the digital realm makes it possible to use motion and pacing to add nuance and emphasis to a story's various elements far better than white space and relative size allowed in the print medium.


What does this mean for you?

If you are a professional photojournalist, you need to start learning about this stuff yesterday. It's not coming. It's here. You can either ride the wave, or miss it. It is exploding - with or without you.

If you are an amateur, you have just been handed a level playing field. If you can shoot and tell a story well, you can leap past the vast majority of professional journalists working today by embracing the new medium and learning this stuff.

There has never, ever been more opportunity for a talented, passionate amateur who is willing to learn and work hard than there is right now.

Storm's site is a wealth of information and examples.

As a photojournalist, if you are not excited by the medium's possibilities after seeing compelling pieces like "Kingsley's Crossing," or "Never Coming Home," you need to consider pursuing a different line of work.

And the innovative and quirky "1976" will change the way you think of still photography.

If you do start to get the bug, he has laid out a wonderful, free primer on gathering audio that I would grab before he comes to his senses and starts to charge for it.

Lighting is merely a technique. This is a new world. It's a leveled playing field, open to anyone with the desire to tell stories and the willingness to work.

This is not the last you will hear from Strobist about MediaStorm. I will be linking to their future pieces in a box on the sidebar.

I hope you'll get on board the train. It's headed for some wonderful places.

If you are a shooter, spread the word to someone you know.

It's Christmas in July - and every other month - and we have presents to open.

Are you doing any of this? Do you want to know more? Do you find it boring? Exciting? Let me know what you think in the comments section.

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Tag Your CD Photos Correctly, Please

Make sure you only have one CD entry with the appropriate tags ASAP. If you have several in there, I will not know which is the right one.

Thanks,
D

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First Come, First Served: Digital Life VIP Tix

UPDATE: The tix are all spoken for. Thanks much.

The folks at the Digital Life expo next month at Javits Center in NYC have offered to extend to a few Strobist readers some VIP tickets.

These are for a special VIP day, which is on the morning of October 12th. You'll be able to hit to the show floor before the general public, and have access to two keynote addresses:

10:00 AM - Microsoft's Mike Sievert will provide an in-depth look at Vista, the new Windows operating system and the impact it will have on consumers.

11:30 AM - Stan Glasgow, President and COO of Sony Electronics Inc., will demonstrate how high-definition audio and video technologies are continuing to "transform our entertainment experience."

The first three people to message my Flickr account with their e-mail addresses will get them.

Please put "Digital Life Tickets" as the header, send it via Flickr mail, and include your regular e-mail address in the brief message.

I will message back the three winners tomorrow.

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CD Assignments Due Soon

Quick note to you boot campers, the final assignment is due on 9/27/2006 (tomorrow night) 11:49pm local time.

The plan is to post the results on Friday, which is the first day I have with some air in the schedule.

I am still on the road, this time for a seminar on multimedia web publishing for The Sun.

It is being led by Brian Storm, of MediaStorm.org. I have learned a tremendous amount on the first day. Hope there is room left in my brain for the next two sessions.

Check out his site if you have a minute. Neat stuff.

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HTML Code to Link to Strobist.com

UPDATE: For some reason, Blogger is denying some domains permission to load the images. If this is the case for your site, feel free to click the image to grab its URL. Then you can drag it to your computer and upload it as you would any other photo. Replace the Source URL (it is surrounded by the quotes after SRC=) with the new location, and you are good to go.

If you like what you read, and want to help to spread the word, you can link to Strobist from your site or blog by using the HTML code on this page.

All you have to do is choose a format and grab the code underneath the photo. The image will automatically be served from my site.

The last two images are actually 728-pixel-wide "leaderboards," (which are commonly run on the top or bottom of a page) but I am only displaying them at 400 pixels so that they will fit into my interior column format. To see them at actual size, click on them.

The image will display on your site as it does here, and the link will go to my welcome page.

If you link to here from your site, please throw your URL into the comments section, so I can see your stuff!

Oh, and dude: Thanks!


Image Links:









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(Please note that this ad is a 728x90 "leaderboard" image. It will run 728 pixels wide, but is shown here at 400 pixels wide, to fit my interior layout. To see the actual size of the image in a new window, please click on it.)



HTML CODE:

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Strobist Archives Get a Fall Cleaning

Spurred by a gentle kick-in-the-butt from reader Khalid S., I took a look at the Gear/Reviews/DIY page.

Bearing in mind that this site is basically a blog template with a generous amount of duct-tape-and-clothes-hanger-wire enhancements, there is not a lot of coding a CSS luddite like myself can do to make drastic changes.

But I did go in and clean up the list. At the same time, I categorized everything so it makes more sense.

This page is where the archive-worthy stuff lands if it isn't a Lighting 101 or On Assignment post. The reorg should help those of you who are trying to find a past post (or just exploring) and do not have a lot of info to go on.

Check it out, and let me know if this helps.

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Bits and Pieces, Sept 23, 2006

• What Can 'Brown' Do for Baltimore?

I'll be out of pocket for a couple of days as I travel to Cleveland for Week 3 of the NFL season to see if the Browns can be the first team to score a touchdown on the Ravens' defense.

Posting and moderating of comments will be dependent on my having 'net access on the road.

(In fact, I may have to log on from a Starbucks, just so I can doodle on my cup a little.)

Please be patient.


• Hip 2 B Square:

A friendly reminder that the CD photos are due tomorrow night... (kidding, kidding...) Actually, they are due on Wednesday, 9/27 at 11:59pm local time.

You know you want those DVDs...

The winners of the double-fold umbrellas, sonsored by Midwest Photo Exchange will be announced before the CD after-assignment post is put up next week. Stay tuned.

(This nifty CD cover is by Strobist Boot Camper Kim Long.)


• There's Packing. Then, There's Packin':

Picked up a great, counter-intuitive tip from Rob, on the Flickr Strobist group discussion threads on how to transport your photo gear in a way to ensure it gets extra care and attention in the baggage-handling process:

Simply pack a gun along with your cameras in your gear bags.

Only slightly less ingenious was the old insider trick that many professionals used back in the day to disguise (and disgust) their Halliburton gear cases in an effort to thwart thieves:

Put them in styrofoam outer shells covered with "Live Human Tissue" stickers. (Love it.)

Luckily, friendly and frugal Southwest Airlines allows us Photo Gear Donkey media types to pre-board with gear along with the little old ladies from Pasadena and families with young curtain climbers in tow.

Love that front-seat leg room, too.

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On Assignment: Working With the DIY Softbox Grid Spot

Here is the photo that I built the DIY softbox grid spot to create. The key to this photo is total control on the "white" background.

The photo was done to illustrate a story about two sisters. One had written a play about the surviving Cone sister (major historical benefactors of the Baltimore Museum of Art) and the other was playing the lead role. I wanted to connect them to the actual sisters by joining them with a historical photo.

The light setup is pretty straightforward, with a couple of curveballs.

The softbox was from camera right - and far enough away so that it was out of the frame. I needed compositional area to the right to include the background photo.

The (camera left) back/rim light was a in a normal reflector through a grid spot. I was in the studio with a softbox, so I gave my White lightning Ultra 600's their semi-annual airing out.

The digital projector for the historical photo was behind the softbox, projecting towards the center of the background.

I could have done this with SB speedlights, but I would have needed a flash bracket for the softbox, which I did not have.

Remember, I am using continuous light on the (DLP-projected) historical photo on the background, so that was the only continuous light in the darkened room. No modeling lights allowed on the flash.

The thought process is like this:

1) You have to get your main light(s) positioned and controlled such that no light will spill onto the white background. You want that tone to be absolutely black before the continuous light source adds the background photo to it. (The starting tone, if not black, will be the darkest possible tone in the background.)

2.) Check your strobe light (only) to ensure that you have no background contamination. Dial in your flash's power to give you just enough aperture to hold the background to the focus level that you need. Overdoing this will unnecessarily lengthen the exposure needed to "burn in" the continuous portion of your exposure, leading to motion-ghosting problems with your subject.

3) Now, set your camera to that aperture, and turn on the projector. Adjust your shutter speed for best background exposure.

4) Bring in your subject and turn on the modeling lights for focus. With everything adjusted and locked down on a tripod, kill the modeling lights.

5) Shoot away, and monitor your pix on the back to fix any problems.

Can this be done in Photoshop? Sure.

But I always default to doing something "in-camera" if I can. I think it is better craft.

As for the DIY softbox grid spot, cardboard and tape once again defeats the photo gear mafia. And I save a few hard-earned clams.

Next: Medical Illustrator

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DIY Softbox Grid for Under $10.00

Long-time readers of Strobist will know that I am not a big fan of softboxes.

Maybe it is because of all of the light they suck out of my small flashes. (Umbrellas are more efficient.)

Maybe it is their cost, by the time you get them hooked up to a stand and an SB speedlight. (You have to get the box and then go doohickey shopping to connect it to a shoe unit.)

Or maybe it is just that I pretty much used them to death in the 80's and 90's.

But a softbox does offer a good balance of diffusion and control. And I will admit to still owning one.

About two weeks ago, I got an assignment that required reasonably soft light and total spill light control. I was going to photograph two elderly ladies in front of a (DLP) projected historical photo for a play they were doing about Baltimore's famous Cone sisters.

For this, I would need a source that could light them, yet completely avoid light spilling on a white background that was 10-12 feet away. (That wall would be for my continuous light projection surface.)

Sure, I could have used a hard light with a gridspot. But using that hard quality of light is not a real cool thing do to someone of that age.

So I dug into my closet and (literally) dusted off my old softbox I used to use ad nauseum with my trusty old White Lightning 600 monobloc. It is a Photoflex model from the '80's, and is about 24 x 30 inches - with some tweaks.

First, it has velcro on the front corners to take either of two, full-sized gels - a window green and a warming gel.

Second, it has black gaffer's tape dividing the front panel into six sections, like the panes of a window. (That makes for much nicer, more natural eye reflections.)

But the softbox needed more spill control, so I went shopping for one of those neat, fabric grid spots.

I am reminded at this point of the old joke wherein a guy gets revenge from a girl by having someone sit next to her for a few minutes at a bar. Then, without warning, they stand up and loudly say, "A hundred a fifty DOLLARS???" Then, they get up and walk away from her.

The implication, of course, being that (a) she is "for sale," and (b) she is quite overpriced at $150.

Well, that's pretty much how I felt about the (very nice looking) fabric grid spots.

So I decided to take some inspiration from my scissors-happy five-year-old and make one myself.

Now, before I go on, I will say that the two items are not exactly equal. Mine is heavier, and designed for not-too-frequent usage. And it is made out of cardboard and tape.

But it cost about 5% of the price of the spiffy store-bought one, and for an infrequent softboxer like myself, it fit the bill.

Put differently, I could almost get another off-camera light, stand, umbrella, etc., for what I saved. No brainer.


How to Make a DIY Softbox Gridspot

What you'll need:

• For a medium-sized softbox, five or six pieces of thin, black poster board. I barely did it in 5. Get 6 to be safe. Mine were $0.89 each. The board should be at about the size of your softbox.

• Black duct tape. (You won't be removing this, so no need to use more costly gaffer's tape. You can get it for about $3.00 at a craft store, along with the poster board.)

• Silver sharpie (or a white crayon) to mark on the poster. Likely hanging around the house already.

• A straight edge, like a yard (or meter) stick. Will also be used for measuring.

• Scissors (or a razor knife and safe cutting surface.)

• Some 4th-grade math skills.


First, find a common factor for the dimensions of your softbox grid. Aim for something in the area of 4-6 inches.

You will want to make the grid a little smaller than the box, to use a friction mounting system. My box was 24 x 30, so my grid was 22 x 28. I went with a common factor of 5.5 inches. (5.5 x 4 is 22, and 5.5 x 5 is 27.5) I cut my poster board to be this size. (I had to trim 1/2 inch off of one side.)

Next, draw a 5.5 x 5.5 (my chosen common factor) grid on each sheet as shown, using solid lines. Then bisect that grid with a 2.25 x 2.25 (half the common factor) set of dashed lines, as shown.

Split the boards into two groups of three sheets each.

Cut one group on the vertical (5.5") lines and one group on the horizontal (5.5"). These will be your strips.

Tape two vertical and two horizontal strips together on edge - with the drawn lines on the inside - to make the perimeter of the gridspot.



Now, cut notches along the 2.25 lines (all of them, including the 5.5 multiples) on one long side of all of the rest of the strips. You will cut to the half-way line on each, that line having been provided by your (dashed) grid drawings, as shown.

Do not just cut a slice. Cut a shallow "V", to allow the grid to go together much more easily. This is important.

Once you have your vertical and horizontal strips notched, tape your center (or close to center if using an even number) vertical strip into the frame, notches up.

Working on alternate sides, tape the other horizontal strips in, notches up. Your drawn lines will tell you where to tape them for perfect spacing. You do not have to go nuts on the tape, either, You'll be using a lot in total.

Now, work your way through the verticals in the same way - but notches down. If you did not take the time to cut "V notches" your joints will be all squishy and bendy. Go back and cut "V" notches like I suggested.

If you made little "V's," your grid spot will quickly and easily start to come together, causing an almost uncontrollable urge to hit the "make a donation" button on the sidebar of this site.

(Hey, I'm just saying. It happened to me.)

Using small pieces of tape, fasten the edges of the strips to the insides of the frame. You do not have to tape each intersection - just the border areas. You'll finish up pretty quickly from here. I did mine in about 90 minutes total, but I was figuring out how to do it as I went.

Reinforce the corner edges with tape. Reserve any extra poster board to make a light-sealing "skirt" around the edges if you like. You will want it on at least one edge.

The grid will be heavier than you expected. But it should still hold OK by bending the softbox ribs and wedging them into the four (tape reinforced) corners of the grid spot. It will weigh your box down a little, so adjust the tilt angle of the strobe to compensate.


So, How Does it Work?

Pretty darn good, actually.

As you can see from this photo, compared to the top one, the light falloff is absolute as you move a little bit away from the front of the box.

This is not a tiny gadget, and not the kind of thing you would travel all of the time with. But it works great to come out of the closet for that infrequent time you might need some serious light spill control. It will collapse on the diagonal an then you can loosely fold it in half.

Next: An On Assignment post detailing the photo that the grid was designed for.

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Off Camera Light from On Camera Flash

Is it a snoot, or the worlds smallest softbox?

I don't know either. Thanks to graemo for this cool idea for lighting macro shots.


By Mike H.

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Too Good For a $10 Macro Studio? $15 Gets You PVC and Bed Linens

Strobist reader Craig has turned us onto an upscale version of the $10 Macro Studio, built and detailed by Bill Huber over at this page on PBase.com.

Bill uses desk lamps as light sources (why not) and gets some good results.

There are lots of detail shots and instructions, to boot. (Way more than my lazy butt supplied for you.)

Looking at the dates on the long Q&A thread, this thing dates back to 2003, which long predates my cardboard-box-and-Kleenex version. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, depending on how you want to control the light, and what you have sitting around the house to build it with. If you see other versions - and there certainly must be - stick some links in the comments!

Nice find, Craig.

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Free "Digital Life" Tix for "Strobist Readers"

Got an e-mail today from someone affiliated with the Digital Life expo next month at Javits Center in NYC. She is extending a free ticket offer to all Strobist readers.

[sarcasm]I am sure this is a very exclusive offer, and will not be repeated anywhere else on the internet.[/sarcasm]

So don't go spreading this one around, okay?

To get your free tix, go here and type in the following ultra-secret "source code" password:

"INSIDER"

That's how you know it's an exclusive offer. No one could ever randomly guess a password like that...

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Add a Synch Connection to Any Hot Shoe Flash

Here's a nice find, from the Flickr Strobist discussion threads: A Wein "HSH Adapter" which will convert any hot shoe flash to a "household" synch.

This is cool for several reasons.

First, you do not have to buy a new flash if you are already equipped with a decent, variable-manual model that does not have a PC jack on it.

Second, it provides you with a standardized, professional synch - the common (US) household plug. Which means you can take care of your synch cord needs with only one small PC-to-HH cord and a cheap trip down Home Depot's household electrical aisle.

(You might want to pick up the actual PC cord at the same time as the adapter, to save on shipping.)

Because these remove the need for a PC cord at each flash, you could run two or three flashes, hardwired, from one camera with just one small PC adapter cord and about $20 worth of cheap, eletrical hardware.

Here's a pic of the back, courtesy Rob_from_CA on Flickr. He has a post mounted on his (I do not think that is included) but it also shows that the Wein unit gives you a 1/4 x 20 mounting thread on the bottom of the converter, too.

Not a bad package for $29.95.

Check the comments section for everal readers who have already posted their experiences with the HSH adapters.

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AmericanPhotojournalist.com's Analyzed

Flickr user LeeLove tipped us off on the Flickr discussion group to a section of AmericanPhotojournalist.com called "Analyzed" where shots are dissected and the setup, well, analyzed.

More in the Analyzed Archive.

By Mike H.

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Channel Your Historical Mentors

About thirty years ago I was 11 years old and sitting at the electric piano at the (Umatilla, Florida) home of my way cool, just-out-of-college piano teacher, Jane Trosper.

Ms. Trosper was no knuckle-wrapping, wrist-posturing, scale-demanding piano teacher. She was different. She was a child of the 60's. She was laid back, happy-go-lucky and seemingly locked in a perpetual groove. She was the kind of teacher who would just subtly nudge you in different directions and let you think you were discovering wonderful things all by yourself.

She was about feeling the music. She even played in a "combo" in the evenings. She was groovy.

And it was at one of those after-school piano lessons that she delivered what may be the earliest Moment of Clarity that I can still remember as a middle-aged adult.

I was having trouble working out a difficult passage when she casually leaned over to me and said something to the effect of, "You can do this. You are a great, great, great, great, great, great grand-student of Franz Liszt, you know."

What?

That's right, she explained. She could trace her piano teacher lineage back to the great Hungarian pianist and composer, through a series of piano teachers through the ages.

Which meant that, now, so could I.

I never became a great pianist. But the instrument brought me countless of hours of happiness and creativity. I suspect it also made me better in math. (There's a lot of correlation between the two.)

And I always took extreme, if undeserved, pride that I could trace my piano roots back to good ol' Franz. (That's him at top on the left, by the way.) I suspect that he looks down at me with a tad more indifference. But that's beside the point for the time being.

My connection to Liszt was the first time I had ever considered the idea of a historical mentor - even if a far-removed one.

I have kept the concept in mind throughout my life, in a variety of areas. And I have applied it to some wildly disparate subjects.

Having someone for an historical mentor may not be as good as being that person's actual first-hand student. But you can be pretty picky about who you choose as a mentor as you delve into a new area of knowledge.

For example, I have been an investor for about 25 years. I started very young, on an informal basis, with help from my dad.

As I became an adult and really started getting into the idea of analyzing stocks for investment purposes, I discovered Peter Lynch. He was a stock picker who rode the great Franchising of America wave in the '80's to create billions upon billions of wealth for his shareholders in the famed Fidelity Magellan mutual fund.

He was generous enough to write a few great books, too. I happily devoured them. But I also looked back to see who his mentor was. Turns out it was none other than the richest man in the world -- and self-made, at that -- Warren Buffett. So I read everything I could about Buffett, who thankfully for his shareholders spends his time managing money and not writing books.

And I kept digging.

Turns out, Buffett was an actual student of a man named Benjamin Graham, who is widely considered to be the father of financial analysis. He was the first - and probably the best ever - value investor.

Boring? Yup. But as close as you'll ever get to having a money tree growing in your yard.

Ben Graham was an amazing man. When he graduated (undergrad) from Columbia U., they immediately offered him teaching positions in no less than five different subjects.

But more than that, he had the courage of his convictions when the excesses of the markets kept saying he was wrong.

He was right, and he compiled a lifelong investing record that may never see an equal.

Graham did write a book. It's about 70 years old. It's considered the Bible of securities analysis, and is appropriately titled Security Analysis. It's an essential read, if you are truly a fanatic like me.

Fortunately, he also wrote a layperson's version, called The Intelligent Investor. For my dollar, it is far and away the best book on investing ever written. Buffett thinks so, too.

How seriously do I take historical mentorships?

Just ask my son, Ben, who is named after Graham. Whatever he does, I hope he will get some of the intellect, strength and courage of his namesake.

(That's Graham in the middle of the top photo, by the way.)

How is this useful?

When I am at an investing crossroads on a particular stock, wondering if I should buy more, bail or just do nothing, one of the things I ask myself is "What would Ben Graham do?"

I don't always take his advice. And on many of those occasions I have been taken out behind the woodshed and shot, financially speaking.

But having the luxury of an imaginary Ben Graham around to give me advice helps me to gain much-needed perspective when making a tough call.

So, what does this have to do with lighting?

Well, like it or not, if you are a regular reader of this site you are using me as an ersatz lighting mentor.

Putting aside for a moment your questionable taste in compass points, I have tried to point you in the same direction as my original inspiration. It's my way of paying respect to the person that gave me my foundations. It also happens to be the best thing I can do for you as a person who wants to learn about light.

For an investing equivalent, it is rather like Peter Lynch saying, "If you liked 'One Up on Wall Street,' you should read some about Warren Buffett.

And then Buffett saying to you, in turn, "Forget me. I'm a hack. Read some Ben Graham and get the good stuff from the source."

Which is why I will regularly suggest to you that look past this website and consider discovering the source for a lot of my knowledge.

I'm a hack. Dean Collins (that's him on the right) was a visionary. He influenced me in a huge way. And for better or worse, I am influencing you.

If you are reading me and passing on him you are doing yourself a great disservice.

And while I'm at it, don't limit yourself to one mentor, either. For both lighting and portraiture, another mentor of mine is Gregory Heisler. And his was Arnold Newman. Heisler was better at this than I am. He did whatever it took to become Newman's assistant.

Smart guy.

Look at it this way. If you were a writer and had the choice between reading some ten-generations-removed critic of William Shakespeare or having Willy Himself spoon-feeding you the real stuff on a set of DVD's, you might be wise to consider the latter.

But that is one but specific within the broader picture of gaining breadth and depth in your knowledge on just about any subject by doing a little digging and following the trail back to the original source.

Find yourself a true, historical mentor. Heck, find several. Dig back until you get to the source. Then branch out and discover his/her followers. And not just the one who led you there, either. There'll be others.

Then, use their inspiration as you stand on their shoulders to achieve your own goals.

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Strobist Reader Spotlight: Cassander1963

Used SB speedlight: As little as $50.00.

Used, off-camera flash cord: About $30.00.

Controlling light well enough so that pictures of your curtain climbers look like Nike ads: Priceless.


Props to Strobist reader Cassander1963, a man on a mission when it come to making cool shots of his kids.

Time to beat the dead horse again:

Don't just read Strobist. Join the Flickr Strobist group and show us your stuff!

And here's another good reason to sign up. You get access to a great Q&A resource.

Every day, I see questions buried in the comments section on months-old posts in Lighting 101.

Most of the people in the group are long past that stuff. And who do you think is reading those comments after you?

People who are learning this stuff after you have.

Far better idea: Ask your questions in the Strobist Flickr discussion thread. There, you'll find almost two thousand photographers who share your new lighting curiosity - but have a little more experience.

And let me tell you, there is no shortage of opinion to be had.

In fact, if you are the shy, wallflower type, just search the hundreds of thread topics. Your question has probably been asked before.

But, most important, you do not learn this lighting stuff by just reading about it. You do not know it until you do it.

So, go and sign up. It's free. It takes about a minute. I'd do it for you, but I'd forget your password within a week...

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January Workshoppers: Please Let Me Know Your Synching Method

If you are signed up for January workshop, please let me know how you will be synching during the shooting part of the seminar.

I am setting up a thread on Flickr, here, if you would take a moment to post some info.

Please be specific, as in Pocket Wizards, eBay remotes, synch cords, Nikon CLS, Canon's equivalent, Quantums, etc. Let me know if you are using multiple methods - i.e. one flash corded and the other slaved.

This way we will be able to anticipate (and solve) many of our flash crosstalk issues before the fact. We may have a little "extra flash popping" going on. But it should not be a problem. I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Thanks.

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Strobist Reader Spotlight: Michael Sexton

I am so glad we set up this Flickr group. I love seeing the cool, off-camera-lit stuff that flows back upstream from you guys.

To that end, I want to start occasionally pulling stuff out of the Strobist pool to showcase to all of the site's readers who do not use the Flickr site.

(And to those very same people: Please join the group and show us your stuff!)

This gorgeous image is shot with a variation of the $10 DIY Macro Studio, by Michael Sexton.

He was nice enough to include a shot of the lighting setup, too.

Click through on the flower pic to the Flickr page and give him props in the comment section.

And to everyone else - keep it coming!

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