DAILY PHOTO – Wow, I am just having waaaay too much fun with Frankie. This is a portrait of Carole from this afternoon. Shot this with the Frankendish and off-camera flash mounted to a flash bracket slightly above the subject.
Camera settings were:
Exposure – 1/80 sec.
ISO – 200
Aperture – f/6.3
I have previously shared the original tutorial by Brannon Estis for the DIY foam beauty dish as well as my own results. And, upon further testing, I am completely amazed by what “Frankie,” my own foam Frankendish is able to accomplish.
Today I had the opportunity do a brief photo shoot with Lauren, and I figured it would be great to give Frankie the chance to prove himself professionally. Since we were on a very limited time frame we just started shooting in a shaded industrial loading dock, but I wasn’t really impressed with the results…not that it was Frankie’s fault at all. So I decided that the two of us should take a walk to not only get some different scenery in the photos but to also switch up the mood and the lighting a bit. We ended up under a large shade tree, and this is where Frankie worked his magic!
The two photos above are my favorites from the shoot. Both were taken with my Frankendish strapped to a single hand-held Vivitar 283 flash unit which was tethered to my camera’s hot shoe via a sync cable. There was a gentle breeze blowing which whipped up her hair a little bit and helped create the amazing shot on the left. The shade from the tree provided a good, controlled lighting situation, and the bright sunlight behind the subject offered a great separation between the background and foreground. In addition, the light reflecting off the graying pavement worked as a nice reflector and added a great defined edge to Lauren’s face.
Needless to say, I love my little Frankie the Frankendish, and I couldn’t really be more pleased with the results. Once I make a few more modifications, I will be sure to post it here for all of you to get a glimpse.
Yesterday I shared a tutorial (of sorts) for a DIY foam beauty dish, but at the time I had yet to try it myself. Well, today I have been playing around with "Frankie," my Frankensteinesque take on the original foam beauty dish. And, honestly, I’ve been pretty impressed with the results when used off-camera.
This is a photo I took of my wife using Frankie to his fullest potential. (It took great effort to secure permission to post it online, so please admire it…) I strapped his butt to a Vivitar strobe (think 35mm era), and wired it to my camera via a hot shoe sync cable. I actually hand-held this one with Frankie and the strobe being in front of her face and slightly to the right.
All in all, I didn’t think he (Frankie) did too badly for being a cheap concoction of foam, rubber cement, Velcro, emergency blanket, and the ever-popular Duck Tape. The dish provides nice edges, great shadows, and beautiful contrast.
Probably one of the biggest expenses in a photographer’s outfit is his lens collection, and I must admit, I have some work to do (and money to spend) to fully develop mine into what it should be. The cost of digital lenses varies about as much as the reliability of electricity out in the country, with low-end models coming in at around $50 and better to excellent quality lenses costing several hundred to several thousand. For many photographers, the cost alone prevents them from expanding their gear and fully realizing their creative and quality potential.
However, there are ways to save money and still have a great lens collection. Granted, you could always make your own lenses, but I’m not sure how much I would recommend that beyond simple experimentation. My preferred answer is to go with old 35mm lenses. Yes, the ones that you have to manually focus and adjust the f-stops yourself. I know, it’s not as cool as having your camera do it all for you, but do you really expect to be able to have your gold-encrusted palace and live in it too? Actually, it was these types of lenses exactly that helped me initially learn photography as an adolescent. A lot of the old lenses were made with high-quality glass, and as long as you don’t mind (or know how to do) a little manual adjusting, it’s a great trade-off for the cost savings.
Sidenote: I have been very impressed with the image quality that I have seen come from old (think: vintage) cameras. My very first camera was a loaner Argus rangefinder from my dad, and it took absolutely amazing outdoor photos. My next camera, another parental loaner, was a Fujica SLR (circa 1970s…maybe earlier), and to this day I miss that thing. It was completely manual, bloody reliable, and captured great images. So, just because a piece of equipment went out of production 20, 30, even 40 years ago does not mean it’s of no value today.
Where to Get Them
Oftentimes you can find great deals on used 35mm lenses on such places as Craigslist and eBay, and many times you can find sellers that are liquidating them in sets. But you will obviously want to be cautious when purchasing lenses in such fashion. Sites like eBay have certain safeguards to protect buyers from fraudulent or inaccurately-described purchases, but places like Craigslist do not. So it is up to you to verify that the glass if free of scratches, mold, and hazing.
You can also find them in pawn shops, yard sales, relatives’ attics, or, of course, you simply bring your old lenses along for the ride as I have done. If you already have them, you might as well use them.
Getting Analog & Digital to Play Nicely
Yeah, so you had no clue that most 35mm lenses could be used on your digital camera? Well, they can. Some manufacturers, like Pentax, actually develop their new cameras to work with old lenses (K-mount) natively while others require a little tweaking. But how do you get, for instance, a Pentax lens to play well with a new Canon body (as I have done)? Pick up an adapter ring (ex: pictured left) for a couple bucks from eBay or any other number of online retailers. The price may fluctuate depending on the lens and body you are trying to pair together, but a simple, manual adapter ring should cost anywhere from $5-25. (You can also purchase adapter rings that allow for auto focus, if your lens is so enabled.) And at that rate, you can buy one for each lens and have your complete set fully compatible at a very low cost.
Possible Drawbacks
- Manual Focus – While this is what allows you to save money on the lenses, it can also be a tedious part of operating them. My first SLR had a split prism focus screen which was amazing for making sure that my images were in focus. But today’s cameras, being focused (again, no pun intended) around auto-focusing capabilities, do not have this as a standard feature. So trying to eye up a good focus, especially in low light situations, is something that I have found to be somewhat cumbersome at times. However, you can purchase after-market split prism focus screens (such as those seen here) that would give you the same precision as the old 35mm cameras. Just be careful, because it might void the warranty on your camera should you choose to install it yourself.
- [Possible] Need to Remove Aperture Lever – I’m not sure what all cameras have a problem with the aperture lever on the manual lenses, but I know that certain Canon models require you to remove the lever to avoid damaging the mirror during picture-taking. Fortunately, my particular camera (Canon 1000D) does not have this problem, so I was able to leave my manual lenses intact.
If you are already using manual lenses with your digital camera, I would love to hear what you think of them. If not, why not give it a try?
I recently came across Brannon Estis’ tutorial for this ingenious DIY beauty dish made largely from foam.
Cost:
- $3.50, or $10 if you pimp it out with Velcro
Materials:
- White craft foam
- Sticky-backed Velcro
- Bottom of a Ziploc container
- Piece of emergency blanket
- Scissors
- Spray adhesive
Brannon explains the process:
I used a bowl to cut a 12″ disc in the craft foam. Made flaps in the center for my SB900. I scored the disc and put pieces of Velcro on either side so I could create a relatively bowl shaped disc. I cut the bottom out of the cheapest Ziploc bowl I could find, used spray adhesive to attach the piece of emergency blanket inside it and attached Velcro to a few strips of foam and the back of my new reflector. Works reasonably well as a parabolic reflector or beauty dish if you will.
View additional photos here.
The results? Amazing, in my opinion, especially for the cost.
I have yet to try this myself, but it is definitely on my shortened To-Do list.
Originally posted at Digital Photography School
Lighting can be the difference between a good shot and a great one.
Walk into most professional photographer’s studios and you’ll be confronted with truckloads of lighting equipment. To the average hobby photographer it’s enough to make your mind boggle – and for your stomach to turn as you think about the cost of it all.
Most of us can’t afford a full lighting rig – however what if there was a way to experiment with the type of lighting gear that pro photographers use without spending too much money? What if you could make it yourself.
In this post I’ve found 10 DIY Flash and Lighting Hacks that put some of these lighting techniques within the grasp of the rest of us. Some are more involved than others but all are fun and will provide you with some new lighting gear to experiment with.
1. Multi-Super-SB-Ring Light
What can you make with six speedlight flashes, a coffee can and a little spare time?
You get a multi-super-sb-ring-light! (pictured left).
You could probably also blind a small village if you’re not careful!
Find out what it is, how to make one and what the results are like here.
This one looks like a lot of fun to play with – even if it’s just for the challenge of it and the looks you’d get when you pull it out next time you do a shoot..
2. Poor Mans Ring Flash
All you need for this one (pictured left) is a used milk bottle/jug and some scissors.
The result is that you’ll have a Poor Mans Ring Flash.
A ring flash is one that fits around the lens – it creates a wonderfully unique lighting effect. They will usually lighten your wallet by a couple of hundred dollars.
It’s so simple that I whipped one up for myself today in 5 minutes.
It worked out pretty good too – not bad for the cost of a couple of liters of milk!
If you want to experiment with other methods of making DIY ring flashes you also might want to check out this post for another method. This one is a little more involved, but I think will probably get better results.
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3. Inexpensive Light Tent
Have you ever wanted to replicate the crisp clean product images that you see in catalogs with the products seemingly floating on a white background?
If you do – you need some kind of light tent/light box.
As usual, light boxes can cost you quite a bit – but thanks to DPS reader Jeffrey Bail you might be able to achieve the results without having to spend much at all.
In our Inexpensive Light Tent tutorial Jeffrey shows you how to turn a box, fabric, tape, glue board and light into a great little light tent.
As I mentioned previously, I entered a photo that I had taken of Kohen into the Parents Magazine Cover Contest. This morning I received an email that stated:
Congratulations!
Thank you for entering the Parents Magazine Cover Contest! Your photo is currently in the running to become one of our weekly Reader’s Choice finalists! The photo with the most votes this week will go into our semi-final Reader’s Choice round for a chance to travel to New York City for the Parents Cover Contest Photo Shoot.
As you would expect from any father, I am very proud and very excited. So stop over HERE and cast your vote for him every day (including today) until May 30th!
–or–
Use this link to vote: http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/299930
- Nothing like every ray of sun being hidden from view and listening to the Pet Shop Boys’ remake of “YMCA” to put you in the mood for the day.
- Totally stoked about shooting my first wedding next month!
- When looking to purchase new photography equipment, the big trifecta (what I need, what I want, and what I can afford) often have a hard time lining up, with what I can afford being the most rebellious.
- I am constantly confronted with situations that cause me to wonder if people’s incompetence knows no bounds.
- I love the privacy of living in the middle of nowhere, but I’m starting to think that the benefits are definitely overrated.
