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 for the tip, John!)


• Yesterday, I discovered the Amazon Outlet, which is browseworthy enough to earn a direct link on the sidebar.

Not everything in there is a screaming bahgain. But the top seller today happens to be a Kingston 512mg SD card for $5.99. Schwing.

Think Woot, with a search function.

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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 because I had no idea in the world how I was going to escape being reflected in these spoons:


I mean, Geez Louise. Why not just give me a chrome gazing sphere to photograph while having to hide my reflection and be done with it?

Look at the reflections from a single umbrella above. Yeah, it has a kind of neat "melting-Terminator-bad-guy" look to it. But nothing appropriate for the food page.

I prided myself on not cursing (out loud) as I studied the spoons the designer had chosen for tuna props.

They're pretty, I guess. But the fact that they are both concave and convex means that they threw back the light's reflections on opposite sides of the spoon at the same time. I could hide the flash's reflection on the bottom of the convex part, but there is was on the top of the concave part.

Or vice versa.

And it wasn't as if I had a stack of white foamcore cards to use as a reflector tent, either. We were shooting in a small kitchen with a couple of SB's, making it up as we went.

I tried bouncing off of the ceiling. Nope.


I tried another Hail Mary lighting scheme - bare flash nuking - and that looked even worse. But those ball-bungee stand-ins sure do look delish, huh? (I like 'em braised...)

So, internal cursing mostly completed, I did what I always do when faced with a tough problem. I procrastinated let it settle in my mind a bit while I did the other two shots.

But in the process of shooting, I also used up the idea of backlit tupperware as a base on the soup shot seen in part one.

(Nice work, Dave.)

In short, the spoons would see everything. So what I needed was a clean, white background. And a soft, white light source - that came from everywhere.

If it had been cloudy outside, there would have been no problem. I could have shot the spoons with a long tele, far enough away to make the reflection a tiny speck.

Alas, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. But you see how I was thinking.

What I needed was a small, backlit, indoor, cloudy sky.

For the background, I settled on the top of the designer's stove, between the burners. It was also waterproof for the ice that she wanted to use as a theme in all three shots. One problem solved.

Here is a quick stand-in: A roll of half-width black gaffer's tape. The background was big enough to hold the subject and a nice, sweep horizon.

To say that I was glad when I decided how to light the spoons would stretch the limits of my already atrocious pun judgment. So I was merely happy to realize that I could make a light tent out of a kitchen trash bag.

Using a little of the gaffer's tape, we made a makeshift tent out of a torn-apart bag. After that, it was easy to just stick an umbrella'd flash over it.

And presto: Double-diffused light.

Soft, nice, easy transitions. And all-encompassing.

And cheap.

At that point, it was simply a matter of shooting low enough to disguise my reflection in the bottom edge of the spoon. You can still make it out in the top photo on the far left, but it is not obvious.

(I had the designer hold up my side of the trash-bag tent and I peeked the 55 macro lens through to shoot.)

In the vertical, my reflection is totally hidden by the bait delicious, raw tuna. (That's why I was playing with the ball-bungee stand-ins earlier.)

At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I would wager that this is possibly the first time in world history that a ball bungee has been used as a visual stand-in for tuna tartare.

(If anyone can find a link proving otherwise, I'll take it back.)

Again, this picture ain't the end-all. But it is a good example of understanding your lighting theory well enough to bootstrap some found objects into a solution for a vexing little problem.

And that is a very satisfying experience in itself.

Next: Soup Up Your $10 DIY Macro Studio

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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, many people were rolling their own out of PVC, bedsheets, Tuff Frost and bungee cord.

At the time, they were called "Tinker Tubes." It's really amazing what you can do with some PVC piping and about 174 points of IQ.

Fortunately, the .pdf plans show the rest of us dummies how to do it. The DVD's, of course, show you about a gazillion things you can do with this stuff.

I have to say, it's gonna be fun watching the knowledge from these DVD's ripple through you guys as a group.

(Thanks, Debbie!)

Download the plans.

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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 of those "old school" schools where they only let him play with one light until he could do darn-near anything with it.

There are many, many shooters around the world who are consciously (or subconsciously) using techniques Collins taught them many years ago.

Styles change, but a good foundation in lighting theory lets you easily adapt to the new looks.

Click on either pic for a 10-minute diversion from a photographer who has a good grasp of the lighting basics.

(Thanks to reader Dominique for the tip on the photog's complete name!)

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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 to get my hands on this stuff again.

I am so glad they are finally out in DVD form.

This guy was far and away the biggest influence on me as a lighting photographer. His stuff is done on a larger scale and with more powerful gear than most of our projects. But the theory is sound and very applicable.

In the videos, he creates some really cool stuff right in front of your eyes. And he leaves you realizing that you can be working on that level, too.

He will teach you to think about light in a systematic way that will enable you apply your knowledge to just about any lighting situation, using any gear.

Look past the 80's clothing styles (and haircuts) and see this stuff for what it is: The legacy of a genius who also happened to be an outstanding teacher.

As far as lighting instructors go, there are none better. If you are serious about learning this stuff, you want to learn as much as you can from Collins.

As far as I am concerned, this is the best thing to hit the lighting scene in recent memory. And if I am gushing, well, sorry. But this is where it all began for me, and I am excited to be able to spread the word for the next generation of shooters.

The six-hour, 4 DVD set is priced at $179, but they have an early-purchase special running until August 31 in which it is selling for $125.

If you have already received yours, please post your impressions here, on the Flickr group board.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am gonna go get my copy.

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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 in Great Britian. As such, pretty much every assignment he shoots is at a school, or related to education.

I know what you're thinking:

I'd end up eating a gun...

Well, Neil's site just goes to show you what you can do with a little batt-powered light.

And "goes to show you," it does. He has loads of techniques, examples and how-to's. The guy even puts up a fresh portfolio every month. Howzat for bravery?

If you already know about it, it's always worth a refresher visit. If you are a noob, you are in for a treat.

Let me know what you think, in the comments section.

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