My business partner and I had been on enough shoots to know that we could easily wear out a Speedlight during a single shoot.  Changing batteries, while it doesn’t take too long, can eat up time when you are losing light.  Additionally, there were plenty of times when it was not practical to use two Speedlights because we wanted the light in the same spot.  Everything is setup to be as quick and efficient as possible.  So when we opted for a DIY dual Speedlight rig, we new found the answer to a lot of problems.

On a recent engagement shoot, we ran into some issues when both hammering away on a single Speedlight.  We had some misfires.  We had to wait on the unit to recycle. We also wore the batteries out to where we had to change them.  Not a great situation to be in, messing around with your gear like that.  Sure would be cool to have two lights on a single stand so Mark could use one and I could use the other, right?

That’s what we did.

I have to give all the credit to my business partner Mark for setting this up for us.  Using this guide from DIYPhotography.net as a guide, he built a dual Speedlight rig for less than $10.  Here is what he came up with (sorry for the cameraphone photos):

OK, so what does having 2 Speedlights on a single stand allow us to do?  Well, one Pocket Wizard is set on a different channel than the other.  This way I am using one of the lights and Mark is using the other.  We can place the light in a certain spot and still utilize it together without wearing out a single Speedlight.

It is amazing what $10 can do for a photographer!

After reading through Maciek Lesniak’s Flickr stream I found it to be overflowing with helpful diagrams and setup shots.  You see, if you are a photo geek like myself, you enjoy the setup shot almost as much as the shot itself.  It is great seeing what someone came up with, how they positioned their equipment, and what settings they used to produce the final image. In several setup shots I saw a DIY beauty dish for Nikon Speedlights and became intrigued, which led to a trip to the store, and obviously to this post.

Let me preface this with a few things first.  I realize this is not my idea and that I am not breaking new ground here.  I know that there are commercially available kits available.  But sometimes these little projects are really fun to work on.  Second, use this as a guideline.  You will see in a few steps below just how much I screwed up.  Your results could come out looking much better.  But rather than clean them up and start over, I figured I would offer a real world example. Lastly, I am not a DIY guy by nature.  Normally, I would rather just buy the stuff.  But this seemed interesting so I thought I would give it a try.  It took me a few days, mainly because I would leave the dish to dry and forget about it or get busy.  Despite reading claims from other photographers that the project took them 30 minutes or an hour, it might take longer than that for you considering the paint has to dry.

The general guide I followed was the one written by Tom at Light and Pixels.  I made only two stops when picking up supplies and that was at Wal-Mart and Lowes.  I opted to get a Tupperware bowl rather than something different mainly because I did not want to go through the hassle of mounting an L-bracket and purchasing the extra hardware.  My thought was that if the dish were not too heavy, a strap would support mounting it to the Speedlight.

Here is what I bought:

I bought a few cans (few too many) of spray paint.  I had initially thought about using yellow to make the dish look a little Alien Beeish but opted not to go that route by the time I was through.  You can get away with buying 1 can of white and 1 can of black.  Depending on the bowl, a can of primer couldn’t hurt. I also got the gutter downspout connector, wall kick plate, mirror, velcro straps, bolts, and sealer.  I believe the total price was somewhere around $30.

The first task was to drill holes into the kick plate for the mounting screws and then attach the mirror to the underside of the kick plate.

For the connection to the Speedlight, I cut two small slots on each side of the gutter downspout connector.  I used the Velcro cable straps on each side which let me place the Speedlight in and strap it in place.

Now here is where you don’t want to follow me step by step, per se.  I decided to paint the bowl interior and then cut/attach the gutter downspout connector.  Hindsight being 20/20, I should have cut everything, attached the downspout connecter, then painted.

Also, I had the bright idea to use a razor to cut out the plastic.  Even without putting a lot of pressure on the bowl base, it was still too much causing it to crack.  Which also caused the paint to chip.  Which also caused me to want to throw something in the garage. But hey, sometimes you just have to screw up and learn a lesson.

Thankfully the bowl did not crack too terribly bad.  I was not ready to go out and buy something different, let’s put it that way.  Still frustrated, and with the gentle touch of the morning dew against a baby deer’s nose, I drilled three holes into the base to allow for the kick plate and mirror to be mounted inside of the bowl.

So next, I painted the black exterior and also tried to patch up some of the cracked plastic with the sealant I had purchased.

I have set this up so that the mirror/mount obviously stays in place, but I am still able to adjust the height off the bowl interior if needed.
With everything in place, here is the result:

And here are a couple of shots taken of me using the dish:

I wish I had bought a bigger bowl, painted the outside with another round of black (which I still plan on doing), and wished I had painted it a little better (more precise) than what I did.  But, it is what it is now.  I took some test shots but was not pleased with how they came out, mainly because they were rushed.  I need to take the time to do a proper setup with the right amount of space to see if this was really worth the hassle.

If you don’t like what I have written up, here are some other DIY beauty dish examples you can read up on. All of them seem to have had a much more fluid time at creating this thing than I did!

• Isaac Lane Koval
• Jon C. Haverstick
• Light & Pixels
• Knick Knack
• VOX
• Digital Grin Forum
• David Tejada

“Midnight Snack” | 52.9

Something interesting happened to me the other weekend. Someone asked me “Hey man, what is going on with your weekly project thing?” I was not really sure anyone had been following along, which is partly why I did not feel super guilty for missing a few weeks. So where have I been?

Life here has been…well….hectic to say the least.  My wife and I are expecting our second girl (due date of Feb. 1st, 2010) and I have been fighting a sickness for a few weeks now.  Throw in an incredibly hectic schedule and this project just took a back burner.  But something clicked when asked about it and it kinda lit the flame back, so I thought I would pick things back up.  My brother-in-law and I have really been working hard on our own photography business and studio.  With so many irons in the fire, some things have to get let go.

Enough of that…

The shot of my head was taken at our studio using two Calumet Genesis 400 lights shot through 45″ umbrellas.

I brought the image in, flipped it so the lighting would match what I shot of the fridge, and then processed it a bit further. The image of me looking into the fridge was shot using two Speedlights.  On the second shelf of the fridge I had an SB-800 shot @ 1/8th up toward the top of the fridge.  I also had an SB 80DX behind the open door @ 1/4th power shot toward the door.  This light ended up not being much in the final image given the post-processing.  The camera was mounted on a tripod and set on a timer.  The Speedlights were fired with CyberSyncs.  I don’t have a behind the scenes shot for this one because I really just wanted to get the light out of the fridge and close the door.  Plus nobody really wants to see a shot of my messy fridge.

The greenery was a stock photo that I purchased from iStockPhoto.  I looked briefly online but couldn’t find exactly what I wanted.

“Required Reading” | 52.8

Any sensible person knows that you need to stay up on your zombie knowledge in order to survive the coming apocalypse of darkness.  I hope that these recent additions to my current collection will help further guide me to the right steps to take when the dead walk the earth.

OK, so this is a little late this week.  Sue me.  I was busy.

My sister gave me a super idea for one of these shots but it requires a lot of setup, so I will have to work on getting the items together to pull it off.  It will also be a lot of Photoshop work and since time was limited this week, I went in a different direction.

The setup was relatively simple, yet I was again frustrated with not getting the shot the way I wanted in camera.  I had a Calumet Genesis 400 high above the camera, shot into a 60” Westcott umbrella which was collapsed.  I had another Calumet Genesis 400, shot bare, positioned directly behind me for rim lighting.  I positioned an SB-800 with green gel in front of me facing the book interior.  The camera was on a tripod and set with a timer, lights fired with CyberSyncs.  My camera settings were ISO 200, f/16, and 1/250th.

Target Acquired | 52.4b

Deep in the furthest mountain recesses, I conduct my secret missions.  Void of curtains, plants, family photos, my bunker decorations consist of bullets and schematics.  Under the security of night, I roam.  Yet lately I feel eyes of the enemy, possibly scanning my location.  I need to be more careful in maneuvering the countryside. Whole out on patrol, ensuring my sector has not been breached, I hear rustling.  Subtle, but I certainly heard something.  My training will not let me avoid it.  Could the enemy have found me?

So this was an accident.  In setting up for the “Not Tonight, Honey” image, I took a quick shot of me with the facial mask on.  Using the ABR800 (@ ¼ power) I took a quick self-portrait using our bathroom door as a backdrop. This was not shot with the end result in mind.  This was not shot with the intention of ever doing anything with it at all.  After stumbling across a night vision image while researching another project, I wanted to see what could be done with this image.

Camera Settings: D700 | Nikon 24-70mm ƒ/2.8 | ƒ/20 | 1/250th | ISO 200

“Not Tonight Honey, I Have a Headache” | 52.4 | Larger view

Into week four and thankfully a few ideas are still milling around in my head.  This idea was one that I had the entire week but waited, due to a grueling schedule, until the very end to shoot. As with a lot of my images, I enjoy humor, and it is easier to poke fun at yourself than worry about offending some oversensitive person.

As with last week’s image, one might argue that the post-processing removed any hint of off-camera lighting that was used.  My argument to that is I wanted the foundation image to look a certain way prior to working the image in post.  That “certain way” could not be done with the ceiling fan light or night stand lights. Each week I am trying to do something a little different with the lights as that is the only way that I am going to learn them inside and out.

For the setup, I used an Alien Bee Ring Flash (ABR800) and Nikon SB-800 Speedlight.  The ABR800 was shot into a cloud diffuser, high camera left and the SB-800 was shot into a Calumet reflective umbrella, high camera right.  The camera was tripod mounted dead center, pointing toward the bed.  The camera was set on a 10 second timer.  Lights fired with CyberSyncs. Here is a setup shot:

My challenge with this was not the lighting or the setup, but getting everything in the shot that I wanted.  I wanted the nightstands, entire bed, some of the wall, and both of me.  I wanted it obvious that I was in bed, so I did not want to zoom in too far to do that.

Had a lot of fun processing this one as well.

“Something is afoot” | 52.2

Sitting at home, draped in Nike shorts and sipping on a funky fresh cup of fruit punch, a disturbing noise could be heard outside the window.  A slight groan. Possibly from one of the undead?  Had I found myself in the middle of the zombie apocalypse?  Something is afoot…  It might be a zombie.  I better grab the shotgun and check it out.

So here is one of the worst setup shots I have taken.  I guess I was more worried about getting the shot the way that I wanted that I didnt think too much about the setup shot itself.    I took this photo in the small wooded area next to my house.  One SB-900 was shot into a collapsed Westcott 60″ umbrella to put a bit more directional light on my and the ground below.  I also fired a bare SB-800 behind me for rim lighting.  The camera was tripod mounted and triggered with a remote.  The Speedlights were fired with CLS.

I learned a good deal about the distance limitations with CLS and being outdoors.  As you can see in this setup shoot, the far Speedlight didn’t even fire here.  I was in a direct line of sight with it and was not too terribly far away.  I had figured it would have fired but it didn’t.  I ended up moving the tripod closer than I really wanted in order to get CLS to trigger the Speedlights.  Yea, yea, I need to pick up some Pocket Wizards or Cybersyncs.

“Professional” | 52.1.b

Because wearing a tie makes you professional…

I cannot imagine the thought process that was swirling around in the idiot’s head who said “you know, that suit looks great, but would what really make you look professional is another piece of clothing tied around your neck hanging down.”  Seriously.  Wearing a tie does not make anyone professional.  In many ways, it reminds me of really bad bathroom spray.  You can use it after someone takes a dump, but it doesnt really cover up the smell.  So what you have is crap AND bad bathroom spray.  Kinda like a tie, if you catch my drift.

But I digress.

When I first set out to start this Project 52 of mine, this was the shot I had in mind. But opted to go with a different shot instead.  Thought I would see what the Dustin Diaz presentation format would look like with this as well, thus the black strips and text on the final image.

The setup was rather simple.  Here is a quick shot of how this was taken:

Note: I probably would have placed the SB-800 somewhere else, if I had not left my other light stands at the studio.  :-/

“My Eyes Hath Seen The Light”

So I am not quite ambitious enough to begin a 365 project, taking a photo every day of the year.  I would be setting myself up for failure.  A photo each week sounds much more my speed and an attainable goal, so I figured why not, right?  The idea I had in mind was one that I actually shot and had planned on posting.  However, while waiting on the rain to calm down at work the other day, I started experimenting a bit with the Speedlights and ended up taking something entirely different.

After all, it was “Face-Up Wednesday“.

Here is a quick outtake, which was me getting the lighting where I wanted it.

Strobist: Single SB-900 on a light stand, with green gel, inside of the small room camera right.  I had it aimed toward the ground.  Nikon D80 + Nikon 24-70mm on tripod triggered with remote.  Speedlight triggered with CLS (+3.0). Camera settings:  1/100th; f/5; and ISO200.

Recently some of the South Atlanta Flickr folks gathered for a model shoot out.  With many photographers comes many talents, specialties, ideas, and equipment.  Through these meet-ups and shoot outs, I have met many people and try to take away elements here and there to build it into what I would like to do personally.  This past shoot really opened my eyes to lighting.  Not just lighting in general, but creatively using light to totally change the environment you are working in.  All of that was made possible by Matthew Miller.A tireless worker, Matthew knows what he is doing and seems to approach each take as if it is a puzzle to solve.  He works and works, changing lighting positions, settings, etc, to bring the solution to the forefront resulting in an amazing image.

What do I mean, exactly?

Here is a behind the scene shot from the location.

We were outside, using a ’56 Belair (thank you Jay & Allison), and you can see what natural light was available.  However, Matthew’s ability to creatively approach the situation with his lighting abilities, completely changed the shot for everyone.  Using an array of Alien Bee lighting products, flash head units, and a Vagabond, Matthew was able to alter the environment and drastically enhance the mood of the shot.

Granted, I processed the shot a bit in Photoshop (using Nik Color Efex 3.0), but the overall environment was totally changed just by the lighting. You can see from the first photo that Canon flash units were used along with an Alien Bee light, shot through an umbrella, powered by a Vagabond.  Another flash unit was placed in the back seat of the car facing up to light the interior of the car.

Another great example, and probably my favorite use of the lighting that day, was again from Matthew. Check this shot out and while you can see some subtle post-process, the knock-out punch is delivered by the lighting.

Mary was positioned, reaching for the gun, make-up running with a frightened expression on her face.  We were shooting inside of an old strip mall where the roof had caved in not too long ago which provides an excellent place to shoot with texture and grit.  So was the shadow on the wall done in post?  Absolutely not.  Matthew positioned Mary’s fiancé to Mary’s right and an Alien Bee light behind him.  (Here is a behind the scenes shot.) When the lights fired, the creepy shadow was cast on the wall, offering only a glimpse of the pending doom, which is far more frightening than actually seeing it.

It is amazing the control over a shoot you can have when you control the lights.