Photo Studio Test #2 - DIY Softbox

Sorry folks for the very light blogging the past few weeks.  Back to photography themes.  Yesterday, I set up my second experimental home studio.  For this go around, I built myself a 15” do-it-yourself softbox for my Nikon SB-600 speedlight to use as my main light.  Now, for those of you not proficient in photog lingo, a softbox is simply a large light diffuser.  It creates more natural lighting effects by spreading out the source of the light.  This creates softer shadows than the standard harsh-edged ones thrown by simple, direct lighting.  The larger the softbox (with appropriate lighting inside,) the softer the shadows.

This softbox I built around simple trapezoids cut from 12x15” rectangles of corrugated cardboard.  The short ends of the trapezoids I cut to fit directly around my speedlight (40x65cm).  After assembling all four sides, I cut aluminum foil and taped it to the inside pieces of the cardboard shapes.  Next, to provide stability and a mounting surface for later, I took two $0.25 wooden rulers and laid them on the cardboard piece that would serve as the bottom (one on top, and one below, sandwiching the cardboard).  I punch holes through, using the pre-drilled holes in the rulers as templates.  I then attached three bolts to the construction fastened with wingnuts (on what will become the outside of the finished product).

I then duct-taped the trapezoids together to create the pyramid-shape needed for a proper softbox.  Next, I used scrap cardboard to fashion a frame (with solid corners) for the opening.  Essentially I took four corner pieces of cardboard, cut them to about 1½” in width, and taped them to the large, open part of the softbox.  This gave structure and stability to the overall product.  Then, I used tape to cover seams and make it look a little more presentable.

Lastly, for the diffuser itself, I took a $10 (most expensive part) shower curtain (unfortunately my options are quite limited here in Germany … multitasking is not in their vocabulary… I actually spent an hour at a home-improvement store and came away almost empty handed.  What kind of home-improvement store does not have a large selection of PVC pipe and fittings?!?!?!?!).  I cut this to a little larger than width of the frame of the box, and double its length.  This gave me a 17x32” rectangle of fabric.  I then used self-adhesive Velcro buttons to attach the fabric to the box frame.  The rectangle was to allow for the fabric to fold back over itself to provide double the diffusion effect.  All done!  Less than $15.  Mounting it is a little difficult though.  I gave up trying to attach the quick-release from my tripod to the frame.  The little bolt on that piece is not long enough to attach to anything other than cameras and speedlights.  So, I simply fitted the box over my speedlight, installed my light backwards on the tripod, and rested the forward edge of the box on the tripod handle, taking the weight off the hot-shoe mount of the speedlight.  This worked satisfactorily, but I need a better solution.  Time to get to thinking…

It did a decent job on diffusion

I’m experimenting more with manual mode on my D90, and incorporating the speedlight set in wireless, slave mode.  Unfortunately, unlike the more robust (and expensive) SB-800, the SB-600 only can be synched wirelessly (which means it has to be triggered by a flash or another separate, special device).  This means I had to figure out how to trigger my light using the on-camera flash.  Like any newb, the first thing we learn is to never use the on-camera flash.  Any amateurs out there, learn this and your photos will improve two-fold overnight.  So, I fashioned a piece of aluminum foil to act as a deflector for my on-camera flash.  I used a grocery-store quick-tie to secure it loosely around the pop-up flash, and molded the foil to deflect the light away from the subject area.  I turned down the on-camera flash value to its lowest (FV-3.0) and fired a test shot.  It triggered the speedlight just fine.

The shot went OK.  I shot it all in RAW which completely saved my bacon (see next paragraph).  The difficult thing about doing this yourself (without models) is you do not have the ability to adjust things easily on the fly.  So I struggle with the patience to pose, trigger the shutter release, then go back and check the results.  Often I will accept them unquestioningly.  The other difficult part is the focus.  I tried to calculate my depth of focus and prepositioned my posing stool to the ‘sweet spot’ of focal plane, but often the camera would move slightly, I would re-zoom slightly upon seeing my position in front of the camera, etc.  It’s much easier with a model and you doing the shooting.

The second thing I learned is that I have to adjust the lighting on the fly.   Just about all the shots were far too dark.  My overhead ‘hair light’ was a single halogen spot from my normal dining room ceiling light.  But it cast far too much orange when combined with the speedlight.  All the WB tricks couldn’t get rid of that.  The other part was, when I did my first run of post-processing, to achieve the right exposure, all of them had to be bumped up by about +1.5EV.  This made them all look extremely soft focus-wise, and noisy.

 

So for my next shoot, I plan on trying to incorporate these lessons.  Hopefully the results will be much better.

Home Studio Trial

So, on Sunday I set up my first edition MacGyver-inspired home photography studio.  Despite the fact that I am a rank-beginner, experimenting with lighting, I had some fairly decent results.  My planning for this set-up centered on two factors:  available light sources, and available space.  For this first factor, since I do not have the cash to throw around (more than I already do) pursuing this activity, I determined I, at minimum, needed three light sources:  a main light, a fill light, and a background light (that I hoped could also provide a little of a kicker).

My lighting needs were met by the most expensive product, my Nikon SB-600 (appx $220) speed-flash.  I determined to use this at the +2FV setting to provide my main light (and since I did not yet have a diffuser, I angled it to bounce off the white ceiling.  My fill light was provided by a 500W halogen work-light, the kind you can pick up at Lowes for around $20.  It has an adjustable-height tripod and is a multi-tasker (perfect for justifying the expense!).  Since the light produced is very harsh and pretty warm (I’d have to play around with the WB levels in post-processing and may try experimenting with the manual settings on the on-camera WB settings), I diffused the light using a cotton-fitted sheet stretched over a clothes-hanger rack purchased from Ikea for $7.  Finally, for the lighting, I used my dining-room ceiling lights for the background.  I have four-independently adjustable low-wattage halogen spot-lights installed in the ceiling.  Because the lights were pretty low-wattage and the light was not very directional, it wasn’t perfect, but it did the job.  I had experimented with placing a small, spot-light type reading lamp on the ground at the base of the backdrop, with varying results as well.  In future iterations, I plan on trying to find a more directional, higher-wattage spot light bulb to put in the ceiling fixture to use as a hair light.

For the available space issue, because I have a pretty narrow row-house, and because I can’t set up a permanent studio, I settled on the dining room as most feasible.  Even then, however, the space issue is difficult to contend with.  Ideally, I would have liked to have had about 15 feet in between the camera and the subject and 10-15 feet between subject and backdrop.  However, my dining room only provided about half that space.  I wanted to have an out-of-focus background, so I did my best to limit the depth-of-focus by using the aperture control mode on the camera and setting it to the lowest f-stop.  For the backdrop, I purchased two paint drop cloths for about $6 each and hung them on the wall with thumb-tacks.  For many of my shots, the speckled drop cloths remained far-too in focus for my liking (hence space is an issue).  I may try to do more reading on making my own backdrop with a more, blurry pattern built in.

One of the things that was a true obstacle was how to trigger my speed-flash.  My SB-600 can only be used wirelessly, which means it triggers its flash optically, responding to another flash.  Therefore, the speed-flash had to be triggered by my in-camera pop-up flash… and as anyone who has studied even a modicum of photography lighting, in-camera flashes are NO-GOs.  So, I fashioned a rig of aluminum foil and secured it to my pop-up flash with a bread-bag twist-tie.  I molded the foil to reflect the in-camera flash away from the subject and onto the speed-flash positioned to the camera’s right.  Voila!  Worked perfectly!

Here is one of the results of my shoot.  Where are the rest of them?  Well, since my readers are mainly family members, they will see the results in due time … or maybe they are just too terrible to use!  :)

Final cost outside of camera, speed-flash, and model fees :)  appx $40.

-Josh

Images and Emotions in Normandy (Part 1 of 2)

I have always been a devourer of World War II history.  I still remember the eerie feeling I had as I drove in a taxi over the Rhine into Mainz back when I was a PFC, the very first night I arrived in Germany in 2001.  To think of the thousands of kids just like me who died 56 years before trying to do what I had just accomplished at the cost of 30 Marks was humbling.  Of course, to this history buff, majoring in the European Theater of Operations with a concentration in the Western Front 1944-1945, the beaches of Normandy, France was my Mecca and I was to perform my hajj while assigned to Germany.  Then, came September 11.  My ambitions to tread the same sand as those brave boys did on June 6, 1944 were suddenly, and violently thrown aside by my own generation’s call to battle.

wind-swept flag before dawn; Easy Green Sector - Omaha Beach; Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, France

This past month … nine years, several assignments, a tour in Iraq, a wife, and two kids later … I found myself stationed in Stuttgart, Germany, wondering what to do with three days use-or-lose leave.  My wife suggested I take the opportunity to finally perform my pilgrimage.  I picked up my Audi A6 (a sweet gratis upgrade from Enterprise) and took off down the A8 on a beautiful Thursday, September 16^th toward Karlsruhe.  As I meandered throughout the hills of Eastern France, I was assaulted by history.  I passed by signs identifying the Maginot Line, and shook my head in sad reflection on Patton’s folly at Metz.  As I drove on, I thought of how the average American views the average Frenchman.  Silly jokes about cowardice come quickly to mind.  But then I crossed the Meuse next to the city of Verdun.  The spookiness of that place cannot be underestimated.  It gave me a different understanding of the quick French capitulation in 1940.  I think the loss of an entire generation of French boys (around 4.3% of the total population was killed in the Great War) made the politicians somewhat reticent to throw the next generation once again into the breach.  Finally, eight hours after my journey’s start, I pulled into my hotel in Caen, a busy town at the base of the Cotentin peninsula, and gateway to the history of 1940s Normandy.

dog green; Dog Green Sector - Omaha Beach; Vierville-sur-Mer, France

As I was due back home by Saturday night, I could only afford one full day of battlefield tourist in le Département du Calvados.  Thus I had to prioritize my time.  I arrived on a cold and windy, dark and deserted Omaha Beach at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer 45 minutes before sunrise on September 17, 2010; 66 years and 103 days since that Day of Days.  I spent several minutes setting up dramatic night-sky photos of the monument, memorial, and the flags representative of the nations involved in French liberation.  As the sun began to creep up to the horizon, that pre-dawn light eerily illuminated the bluffs to the West.  I sauntered across the cold, hard-pack sand, avoiding the numerous areas of sea water cut off from the rest of the ocean, caused by the types of sandbars that must have made life very difficult for those coxswains on the LCVPs.  I walked west from Dog Red Sector, across Dog White, and finally to Dog Green at the town of Vierville-sur-Mer.  Anyone who has seen Saving Private Ryan knows more or less what happened at Dog Green Sector.  It was here that A Company, 116^th Infantry Regiment, 29^th Infantry Division from V Corps came ashore.  Their mission was to take Dog One exit, the road in the draw through the bluffs connecting Vierville to the Normandy inland.  Their company landed unsupported as their armor support largely foundered in the Channel, and their left flanking units were dropped hundreds of yards east of where they were supposed to be.  A/116^th alone suffered 120 casualties on Dog Green.  As I stood there, even at near high-tide, the thought of trying to scramble up to the shingle, soaking wet, overloaded, sea-sick, and under constant, accurate MG-42 machine gun and 88mm artillery fire made my stomach ill.

low tide; Dog Green Sector - Omaha Beach; Vierville-sur-Mer, France

It’s a testament to the bravery and leadership skills of those men, who managed to save a plan that was falling apart, improvise, adapt to conditions, and find alternate routes to their objectives.  As the day wore on, openings were made in lighter defended areas straight up the bluffs and by day’s end, the towns at the base of the beach exits lay in US hands.