Inexpensive Foamcore Holder
I thought I would share my foamcore holder. Sometimes you just do not have enough hands to do everything, and while a 20×30 sheet of foamcore makes a great reflector for head and shoulders portraits usually we want someone holding it. The pros use a reflector arm on their stands, but that costs quite a bit. So, I came up with this from parts I had laying around.
Reflector mount for lightstand
As you can see it is an umbrella mount ($10 on ebay), a 5/8 inch dowel ($2 at Lowes), a couple of small clamps (a set of 10 in various sizes $10 at Lowes). And, of course, a sheet of foamcore (that one was a buck at the Dollar Tree). A 1/2 inch dowel will probably work, but I already had the 5/8 which is tight fit.
Found a Model to Pose for Me
I ran into this fellow at Goodwill the other day. He said he would be happy to pose for me for four bits. So here he is:
Mr. Ted E. Bear
Technical stuff: Main light 16 inch dish 45 degrees left, and 60 degrees up. Background light with snoot, to the right and level. F/8.0 with the main metering f/6.3 and the background metering f/11 in the center of the spot. Olympus C-5050z at 21mm (Would be about 105mm on a ff:135 camera, only it is internal focusing so was probably at about 75mm equivalent, actually). Actually the only PS mod was to set the color temp at 5600 in Camera Raw.
I would be interested in knowing how this appears on my readers monitors, as I set it to match most of the web images I see out there. On my print calibrated monitor it is way too dark.
I have been playing with Photoshop CS4, and relearning stuff I have forgotten over the past couple of years (funny I have no problem recalling the photography stuff I learned 50 years ago, just the Photoshop stuff I leaned 3 years ago). Since I hope to be doing some for pay stuff soon, I am trying to set up a detailed workflow so I do not forget things.
There are a couple of nice changes that are noticeable. The “save for web” shows clearly that it is converting to SRGB. There are quite a few changes in Bridge and Camera Raw over CS2. The “Extract” filter is now an option, and not loaded by default. Since I know how to use it, and the complicated “Select” method of doing the same thing does not seem easy to learn, I loaded it. I used the “Extract” on this self-portrait to change the background from white to the gray swirl.
Self-portrait with new background
Graywolf’s minimal walking in the mountains kit
I wrote this some time back (early 1990’s) and though it might be helpful for some folks. I updated it a bit with LED’s, etc. Items 9 & 10 were added as nice to have.
Graywolf’s minimal walking in the mountains kit
(Assumes you are not more than a day from help –for some strange reason many such lists seem to think you are going to be stuck out in the Amazon Jungle a 100 miles from the nearest help).
1. Common sense: The first thing this will tell you is, if you do not know your way around in the woods, stay on the path. That includes camping in the middle of it if you are stuck out overnight. It is nice if someone looking for you, or maybe just someone who happens by, can just stumble over you.
2. Water bottle: I like the US Army canteen with the steel cup you can cook in. Yes you can go one day without water (unless you are in the desert somewhere), but it is not fun.
3. Disposable butane lighter: If you have to overnight, you will find a fire comforting and it will help anyone looking for you notice your camp. Hum…? It would be good to learn how to build a small fire with damp tinder before you need to do it in a real situation. True woodsmen always use the smallest fire that will get the job done. You can cook a whole meal over a tiny fire maybe 4-5 inches in diameter made with sticks no bigger than your little finger. Heat requires a bigger fire. Drying out: a big fire. Remember that modern backpackers almost never need to build a fire even on a 2 week long trip, but they are properly equipped for it. Be CAREFUL with your fire, I would rather die of exposure than burn down 10,000 acres of forest, so be very careful with any fire you build.
4. Compass: Play with it a bit, read the instructions, so you will know how to use it, when and if. It will help you keep from going around in circles. I just replaced the one I bought in 1977; the fluid had started to leak out. Spend $10 bucks on a Silva Polaris and skip the $2 toys. NOTE: A GPS does not replace a compass.
5. Pocket knife: Nice to have for many reasons. If you are buying one for this particular use I suggest one of the simpler Swiss Army Knifes. The tiny scissors followed by the tweezers are the most useful additions over a regular pocket knife. All those other tools on the bigger models just add unwanted weight. I believe mine is called the Climber model.
6. Bandanna: Serves as a bandage, splint holder, sunshade, towel, and has 1000 other uses.
7. Windbreaker jacket: It would be nice if it is also weatherproof (but Goretex is so expensive). Hypothermia is the most dangerous threat to someone lost in the mountains.
8. Daily meds. If you are stuck out overnight, no reason to make things worse because your meds are back home in the medicine cabinet.
9. Foil packed disinfectant handi-wipes: Just added this in because they are so nice to have with you. Use as TP, to clean wounds, etc.
10. Large trash bag: Use as a poncho, ground cloth, or tarp; and of course to pack your trash out.
Notice the lack of a flashlight. Two reasons: 1. if you need it to navigate by, you are far better off sitting out the night. 2. The batteries will not last long enough to do you much good (This was originally written before LED lights). That said, I now have a mini LED flashlight on my key chain anyway. I also always keep a couple of Band-Aids in my wallet. This was written before cell-phones, you might want to take yours along; these days my cell-phone is like the mini-flashlight and band-aids, something I always have with me.
Nice additions: a snack or two, and a couple of tea bags. (The British SAS Survival Manual says, the first thing to do when you find yourself lost is stop, and brew a cup of tea. I say, it beats panicking by a long shot.)
Except for the windbreaker, and the water bottle all the above will fit in my pockets. Interestingly enough, for an intended overnight, I only have to add a pack, tarp, sleeping bag, mini-stove, and food.
Getting There
I finally got the fourth head and the 16″ reflector for my flash system. I guess you can tell from that that I figured out how to get the third flash head socket to work on the power pack.I now have the basics for serious studio portrait photography. I even bought a posing stool, the other day. It is amazing how many photographers use those cheap wood stools from Walmart.
A quick and dirty self-lit photo:
Left to right:
Main/Key light with 16″ reflector
Background light with 5″ reflector
Fill light with 5″ reflector and 45″ shoot through umbrella
Hairlight/Kicker with the snoot.
The Power Pack is on the floor, and the background stand with the gray backdrop hanging crookedly is, well, in the background. I also have a white and a black backdrop.
That is the basic setup for somewhat formal portraiture. There is more I would like to have but can wait until I find some more money. Now, it is time to work on the business side of things, Then then comes trying to find some customers.
Since I cannot work much, and this is to be purely a hobby business, I plan on specializing in business portraiture. A rather limited area that no one could make a living off of in a small town. The upside is that most of my clients will be feeling it is something they need, rather than something they can do without. I see it ranging from executive portraits to business card photos.
I will also be using the setup for some small product photography, mostly my own limited ebay sales.
Since they did away with the senior citizen free admission at the university, I see this as a way to keep form going crazy(er).
Light Meters (Sekonic L-308S mini review)
I know that I mentioned that my old Sekonic L-308B was dead. Well I ordered one of those Interfit flash meters from Amazon. For $43, I got a thing that looked and felt like a kids toy. OK, if it works, I can live with that. Unfortunately, it mostly read f8, when it read something else it was pretty much at random with no correlation to the flash output. So, I sent it back. I am glad to be able to report that I had no problem about that with Amazon, they even paid the return postage.
Then I had to wait until I could build up a bit of funds…. A month later I again ordered from Amazon, this time a Sekonic L-308S for $189. That model is the same as my old one, only two generations newer; there was an L-308B II inbetween. As far as I can tell the only immediately noticeable changes were to the interface. An improvement is that it now gives decimal partial stops (e.g. f2.8 + .3) instead of having a tiny dial that you had to count how many hash marks. The other change that I do not like much is that now instead of showing just the mode you are in it shows all of them with a circle around the selected mode, that kind of clutters up the small display. A not so noticeable programing improvement is that you can now set the meter to 1/2 or !/3 stop display in which case it does not display the decimal fraction of an f-stop, but it does display the shutter speed in 1/2 or 1/3 stop intervals instead of full stops.
The new one also came with the attachable Lumidisk which was and optional extra on the 308B. You use the Lumidisk to measure light ratios by pointing the meter at each light source and taking a reading (You have to do the arithmetic, seems like they could have computerized that). Of course with something like the Norman P808 Portrait Pack strobe system it is easy to switch flash heads on and off to do the same, but the Lumidisk will be especially handy if you are using a reflector panel for fill. Take a reading of the main light with the disk in place, note the reading. Then, take a reading off the reflector panel with the disk in place. Subtract the reflector reading from the main light reading and that is the difference in stops (the new decimal display makes that easier). Finally, remove the disk and slide the dome back over the sensor and take a exposure reading normally to set your camera. Pretty simple really.
In fact that is one of the nice things about the 308’s, they are simple to use. That comes at the expense of a lot of features that may or may not be important to you. If you actually need all those features go for the L-358 or higher model, but you can not carry them in your shirt pocket.
One complaint that I have read is that it is a shutter priority meter. It is set up that way because it is primarily a flash meter. However, it is dead simple to hit the up/down buttons to bring it to a desired f-stop and then read the shutter speed. Of course, if it had both modes you would not have to waste a half second to do that. I personally do not consider this a problem.
The meter can also be used as a reflected light meter by simply sliding the Lumidome to the side and uncovering the sensor. However, I personally prefer an incident light meter for most of my work. An aside: I was once told by a lab owner that my negatives were the most consistent he had ever seen, I attributed that to the fact that I almost always used an incident light meter rather then the in camera metering.
The four stop test in my previous post was setup with this meter. There was no need to adjust levels or exposure on that shot, it was dead on.
My conclusion is that the L-308S works as well as my old L-308B did before it went to light meter heaven after fifteen years of use. Hopefully, this one will last that long.
How’s the Studio Comming Along?
Another one of those drawn out affairs, I seem to get into. It is kind of funny, I bought a 16″ reflector for one of my studio light heads back about the 4th of July, as some may remember that was a mistake that took awhile to sort out; now for Labor Day I have done it again. Won, if that is the correct term another on eBay and am waiting on it now.
In the meanwhile I have been doing some test shots.
That one is one of a series of self-portraits (What can I say? The model works cheaply.) just to check things out. Besides the difficulty of getting just where I want to be in the image I ran into a couple of problems with the background. It is the cheap muslin that came with the stands, I could not get the creases out of it, and they showed when I used a 3 stop over exposure on the background; I had to adjust the image in Photoshop to get rid of the creases, but that kind of destroyed the separation between my hair and the backdrop. Three stops is the rule of thumb that I used in years gone by, and you find it in many places on the web. It worked well with film, but digital has more latitude. Let’s look a what happens with 4 stops.
Four stops gives good separation of my white hair and the white backdrop. This photo is unadjusted for levels; f2.8 for the umbrella key light, f11 for the background light, fill is just room bounce as the photo was only taken as a test. subsequently, I put the muslin through the wash. That got the creases out, and left a lot of small wrinkles that even if you do not burn out the background as in the above photos are not too distracting.
The following is kind of a tie into the previous post. A view of the bike with the chaincase completely installed taken with one lighthead using only the 5″ umbrella reflector to give strong shadows.
