Donimages Photography

Cheap video light kit!

2019-02-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Photographing Coral Fluorescence

2015-08-16T18:15:00.000-06:00

Green zoanthid corals photographed to show difference between standard reef tank and fluorescence photography methods.

Yeah yeah yeah. More corals. But this is kinda cool. Many corals will fluoresce under actinic or other deep blue lighting. Here's how to shoot them!

The header photo is composed of two (obviously). One taken with standard reef tank photography and one using fluorescence capture techniques.

The actual full spectrum photo
from the beginning of this article.

Most reef tank lighting either has actinic bulbs, or deep blue LEDs. Mine is using a mix of 440nm LEDs and 460nm LEDs. Fluorescing pigments in corals generally react in that range. But cameras have trouble capturing the neon colors.

Here's the fluorescing version.

While our eyes catch that fluorescence pretty well on their own, the cameras just end up with muddy dark colors. The trick is to block out as much of the light that ISN'T coming off the corals themselves. So we need a barrier filter.

Sad hammer coral.
It's recovering from being bleached by
a way too intense metal halide light.

There are companies that will sell you barrier filters made specifically for corals. But if you have a Tiffen Yellow #12 around, it's the SAME THING.

That means any quality #12 yellow filter will work. You probably have one already. Or can get them relatively inexpensively online. Then it's just a matter of playing with exposure.

These shots in this article were all shot at f32 with my Nikon D3200 and 85mm Micro lens. I didn't turn off the pumps on the tank (I should have), but they all came out ok.

Sometimes, the coral is so dark that it's difficult to get the dramatic photos, but the favia coral above still takes a handsome photo.

And this isn't only for DSLRs! I was experimenting with my Canon Vixia HF M500 video camera, and just held the Yellow #12 filter in front. You can see a dramatic change in this video I put on YouTube.

Play around and have fun!

Avast Marine Works Porthole XL

2015-05-12T08:25:00.002-06:00

Avast Porthole XL mounted on Nikon D3200 with 85mm VR Micro

One of the coolest things about having an aquarium is photographing the life within. Sometimes, however, getting the pic through the glass of the aquarium is difficult, or the angle you want isn't from the side. Instead you want to shoot from above. Or better yet, within the water.

Truly waterproof DSLRs are expensive and even getting a housing for your body/lens combo is pricy. Avast Marine Works has created a simple tool to help. With the AMW Porthole (available here), you can submerge the lens of the camera without getting it wet, allowing you to make the best photograph possible from above.

Blastomussa wellsi photographed with the above Porthole and D3200 combo in my small aquarium.

This Porthole is easy to use, attaching like a Christmas tree stand with 3 plastic screws that fit snugly onto any lens. As you can see, I can get some great images with this that I just couldn't get otherwise.

I only have one Con to all these Pros, however. The glass is difficult to reach to clean. It arrived with dust and water spots inside. I rinsed with water then used a microfiber towel to dry. I think I may have introduced some scuffing on the inside of the clear acrylic. It would be much better, I think, if I could remove the acrylic to clean it, rather than trying to reach my fat hands down inside. I would gladly pay an additional $10-20 for a threaded option.

Even with my little gripe, this device is WELL worth the money if you have an aquarium and want to get more than the usual side-on photographs.

Windows Phone 8x (HTC) Lock Screens

2013-02-23T14:45:00.003-07:00


My "Trio" lockscreen image in action.

I recently gave up my iPhone 4s for a Windows Phone. The HTC Windows Phone 8x, in fact. I'm tired of Apple. The arrogance of their products (as well as their fanbois) just got to be too much for me. I previously had an Android based Galaxy S and liked it. But the interface of the Windows Phone, along with the true Microsoft Office apps, attracted me.

I went out this morning to play with a new lens. The Nikon AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm VR DX "kit" lens. It's dirt cheap, and my first VR lens. I decided to concentrate on making vertical images that would make good lock screens for my phone.

The image at the top of this blog entry is a screen capture of my "Trio" lockscreen in action on my phone. That's probably my favorite one.

THESE IMAGES ARE FREE FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE ON A COMPATIBLE SMART PHONE!

Please do not otherwise use or reproduce these without my permission.

"Trio"

A similar version with fewer birds (heh).

"Solo"

Some other miscellaneous shots:

"Masted"

"Newport Cat"

"No Lifeguard"

"Storm Drain"

Kids at the Beach

2012-06-26T13:43:00.001-06:00

Recently I had the chance to introduce bodyboarding to my 9 year old daughter. She was a natural! But that also gave me the chance to create some new images at the beach. It's been a long time...

Since we weren't anywhere near the Huntington Beach Pier, I had to make do with shore shots. These are tricky as they require a longer lens (as a rule) and often you want to be in the water as well, putting your gear at risk.

The further out you can get, the better the shots will be! You can get side-on shots as well as good frame filling head-on shots.

One thing to be aware of, however: SUN!

Here on the West Coast, the sun will end up behind your subject, throwing them into shadow. So the best time to shoot will be before noon if at all possible, so the sun is at your back, lighting the subject.

Of course, that puts you and your subject at the whim of temperature. Until late July and August, morning temps can be quite cool, making the cold California ocean unbearable. Of course you could always use a wetsuit, but that's pretty pricey for something the kid will only be able to use for a short time before growing out of it.

Possibly my favorite shot here was the last one. My daughter coming out of the water, exhausted but she obviously had fun. That one took some Photoshop touch-up to make her face visible without blowing out the ocean behind her.

When shooting action in general, and surfing in particular, I'm a fan of keeping the DOF as shallow as possible. The background ocean doesn't need to be sharp for this, just the subject. Throwing the ocean out of focus makes it become a wash of color, really enhancing the subject.

Now that summer's here, and I'm back in California, I intend to shoot lots more!

Bachelor Buttons

2011-08-07T07:48:00.000-06:00

Handheld macro is tough. The shots in this post are all done with the Nikon D80 and a Micro-Nikkor-P 50mm macro lens. Because I was doing this handheld, to keep the shutter speed up I had to open the aperture. These are all around f5.6.

While I could have used my silo or even taken the pot with these flowers indoors to get out of the wind, I enjoy chasing the shot handheld. (Plus I'm lazy.)

No, these photos aren't museum or magazine quality. But they're great for my daughter. These are her flowers. She planted them as seeds this past spring, and two of them bloomed just as she was leaving for a week long trip to California. So I took some quick photos to email her so she could enjoy them and show them to her grandparents.

After all, photography is about sharing, not technical perfection.

The storm has passed...

2011-06-21T06:53:00.000-06:00

After the storm passed yesterday, we were presented with this wonderful rainbow against the dark clouds.

I was in the garage taking photos of tools and woodworking stuff with my 55mm Micro Nikkor lens when I noticed the rainbow out of the garage door.

No time to meter or get a modern lens. Guessed the exposure and got the shot before the rainbow disappeared. I added a half stop or so in Photoshop, but it was pretty darn close. f5.6 1/200.

Must be Spring!

2011-05-10T05:46:00.000-06:00

I was hanging out in front of the house on Saturday morning and noticed my tree was budding. Since I was waiting for my son to finish getting ready, I decided to go grab my camera and see if there was anything interesting to shoot.

After half an hour or so of shooting boring leaves and buds, I was about to put the camera away when I spotted this little guy. I don't know what was so interesting about that bud, but he was going to town on the underside.

Shot handheld with my D80 and a Nikkor Micro 55mm f3.5.

Portrait Professional

2011-04-15T11:37:00.000-06:00


On the left, straight from the camera. On the right, Portrait Professional 9 using default settings.

I got a chance to play with a new toy recently. Portrait Professional software.

The photo of my daughter was taken with my D80 and a Sigma 70-300 lens (I think) with a Vivitar 285 strobe on the top left and a 150w monolight to the right.

The photo is cute out of the camera. But a friend was showing me this software, Portrait Professional 9. I decided to run that shot of my daughter through the software to see what it's like. I accepted all the defaults except for the placement of things like chin, eyebrows, and so on.

I'm VERY impressed. The skin blemishes disappeared. The software whitened her teeth and managed to leave her hair alone. Super easy to use and really cool.

This software (now up to version 10) is the next photo tool I'll buy.

Ramen-ography

2011-04-13T21:52:00.000-06:00


Ramen prepared "Don-Style" D80, Nikkor 55mm 3.5 Micro Window Light

I was home sick today (pleurisy... Yuk!), so took advantage of having the house to myself while cooking some lunch. The above photo is the end result of me cooking ramen noodles.

That shot was done handheld using only window light. I noticed after that there are (at least) three things wrong with the picture.

Needed a reflector on the left to fill in the shadows a bit.
There's a speck of noodles on the rim of the bowl. (Doh!)
You can see the stove line on the top left of the shot. (Doh again!)

I like the exposure though. A little fill in the shadows and on the fork would have made a huge difference I think. But I was in a hurry to actually eat my subject.

I took pics of the entire process. Check out the Flickr set here if you're interested. The rest of the pics were taken with me holding the camera in my right hand and a Vivitar 285 on a Cowboy Studio radio trigger in my left. With a manual focus lens this was "fun". I focused by leaning toward or away from the subject.

The other pic I kind of liked was this one:

Ramen Boiling with Steam
Nikon D80, Nikkor 55mm 3.5 Micro
Strobist: Vivitar 285 handheld

I liked how I caught the steam, and darkened the background a couple stops. But the background is identifiable as a stove.

I would like to try again but with a light stand with a boom arm to hold the strobe. And a time when I'm less hungry...

Rosco Strobist Filters

2011-03-30T06:01:00.000-06:00

I needed to add some length to the Rosco Strobist filter set to give the velcro pads a place to attach. I decided to use gaffer's tape and protect the edges as well.

The gaffer's tape covers approximately 20% of the filter, which is unfortunate. But a trade off I'm willing to make. Most of those colors have multiples in the pack, so if I need a full sized piece, it's available.

The box was made of scraps I had of zebra wood and purpleheart. I just wanted something to protect the filters when not in use. With the gaffer's tape, they obviously don't fit in the little plastic box anymore.

DIY AI Conversion for Old Nikon Lenses

2011-03-06T07:01:00.001-07:00

55mm f3.5 Nikon Micro on the left, 200mm f4 Nikkor Q on the right.
After modifying to work with a Nikon D80.

Some great lenses are available out there for dirt cheap. But they won't directly mount on a DSLR body without modification.

A while back, Nikon changed the traditional F-mount to include auto exposure functionality. It called that change the "Ai mount". The physical mount is pretty much the same, but Nikon added the indexing pin to the bodies, and the indexing ears to the lenses.

More information is available here: http://www.aiconversions.com/

So what does this mean to us DSLR owners? It means that owners of non-Ai lenses have been dumping them for next to nothing for years. High quality glass for ridiculously cheap prices.

My first lens modded:
200mm f4 Nikkor Q

But we cannot use the lenses directly on our DSLR bodies. There's a maximum aperture lever on the front of your body. That lever is moved by a pin on the lens to tell the body what the lens' maximum aperture is so it can calculate exposure. A non-Ai lens will break that lever if it is mounted to a modern body. An amount of material has to be removed from the aperture adjustment ring.

Machining the lens requires careful work disassembling the lens and removing material from the aperture ring. If you don't want to deal with that, the link above offers this service for $35. I'm too cheap/broke to do that, so I figured it out on my own.

NOTE: If you do get them mounted on your DSLR, the camera will no longer meter exposure. You will have to figure the exposure out on your own. Nor will you have autofocus! If these two feature losses are unacceptable, skip these lenses and buy newer ones made for modern bodies.

I've done two lenses so far. A Nikkor Q 200mm f4 and a 55mm f3.5 Micro. I had originally used them with uncoupled extension tubes. But that only allows them to be used as macro lenses. I wanted a bit more flexibility. So I went ahead with the conversion.

Shot with the Nikkor Q 200mm F4
on a Nikon D80

I used my Tamron 28-80 f3.5 lens as the template. Since I'm not metering through the body, getting the maximum aperture setting close is all I needed to do. f3.5 is close to f4.

I removed the aperture ring (sorry, disassembly is NOT covered here. There are plenty of resources on the net!) and lined it up with the Tamron. I marked where the Tamron has removed the material from that ring then hit the ring with a Dremel and a carbide grinder bit. I had to remove the indexing ears to allow the material removal identified by the Tamron. Unfortunately, that left the lens unable to meter with Ai bodies now.

It was slow work. And the bit kept wanting to jump and cut other places. The final result is ugly but functional. I tested it and the lens works quite well. A 200mm prime is a nice addition to my lens collection! And I only paid $30 for it!

55mm f3.5 Micro
After Ai conversion.

Next I modded my 55mm f3.5 Micro lens. I decided to only remove material around the maximum aperture pin instead of everywhere. That worked just as well. And it left the lens fully functional with Ai bodies since I didn't remove the indexing ears.

Both lenses work great with my Nikon D80. I don't mind the loss of auto focus or TTL metering. Especially with a digital camera since I can check the exposure immediately on the LCD.

Pick up a cheap lens and give it a try. You may like the result!

Castle Rock City Trails - East Plum Creek Trail

2011-03-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

Castle Rock, CO, has a series of city supported trails and open spaces that are available to visitors and residents. I took a walk with the kids along the East Plum Creek Trail. (Official website: www.crgov.com )

Much of the trail is concrete paved, so it is an easy trail for anybody, even wheelchairs.

There are many photo opportunities along the trail, even just from the paved portion. It wanders along a creek much of the way, with the plants and animals that are normally found near water.

It was February when I walked through, so animals weren't in evidence except for the occasional rabbit. The plants were mostly brown with some green appearing due to the early spring-like weather this year.

I recommend leaving the paved trail. There are several tracks branching off around Wilcox and Plum Creek that allow you to follow the train tracks. There are bridges with some rather benign graffiti worth checking out.

I'm from Southern California and used to gang graffiti. This isn't gang graffiti. It's suburban teenager graffiti, with political slogans, personal messages of love, and in one place a memorial to a teenager that was recently killed. Artistic work, but very non-threatening.

The railroad is a significant part of Castle Rock's history. There are still two active railroad tracks through town, the Northbound side on East side of I-25, and the Southbound track on the West side of I-25. I wandered along the Northbound track for a short distance.

The trails run near homes and businesses as well, providing some opportunities for suburban and industrial photography.

A portion of the paved trail was under construction to add a bridge over the creek. That provided some interestingly incongruous images of construction equipment in the trees.

There is much more to the trail than what I walked. But since I had my kids with me, my little girl was getting pooped out. I'll visit again, preferably once spring comes and the plants begin to flower.

Enjoy the photos here. Or even better, visit Castle rock. The East Plum Creek Trail is only one of many photogenic areas in Castle Rock, CO.

Shooting with the Quantaray / Sigma 70-300 DL Lens

2011-02-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

"Low Water Crossing"
Nikon D80, Quantaray 70-300DL
f4.5 @ 1/500"

Back around the turn of the century, when I was still shooting film, one of my favorite lenses for my AF bodies was the Quantaray / Sigma 70-300DL Macro lens. It was lightweight, sharp, and focused pretty darn quick.

So when I got the D80, one of my first purchases for it was another one! Even new, it's a dirt cheap lens. I found this one on eBay for $50, barely used.

"No, YOU carry it!"
Nikon D80, Quantaray 70-300DL
f8 @ 1/320"

I finally got to really put it through its paces recently walking along the trails in Castle Rock, CO, with my kids.

As I said, it's lightweight and easy to carry. It's also easy to shoot handheld when necessary or possible. The long 300mm zoom effectively becomes a 450mm lens when used on the APS-C sized sensor on my D80. That gives me some serious reach.

Bokeh is respectable as well with this lens. Not quite as creamy as some lenses, it's not distracting either.

Auto focus is handled by the body motor, so this lens cannot be used with the newer prosumer bodies that do not have the "screwdriver" to drive the focus gears in the lens. The lens itself will work with those bodies, but it will be manual focus only.

The zoom grip is large and covered in soft rubber. It is located in a comfortable place on the lens body, my hand goes right to it.

"Junk and the Rock"
Nikon D80, Quantaray 70-300DL
f4.5 @ 1/3200"

The manual focus grip is tiny and I *always* have to hunt for it when I want to switch to manual. It's annoying, but once you get used to peeking around the body to see where it is, you don't notice anymore. And the only times I'm using manual focus on this particular lens is when shooting animals, and I want to ensure I'm getting the eyes razor sharp.

I know the APO version of this lens is more desirable, but I've never felt the need to spend the extra premium for APO. The technology is sound, but as you can see from the photos in this blog, I don't think I'm missing anything.

"Castle Rock Fuel & Feed"
Nikon D80, Quantaray 70-300DL
f5.6 @ 1/1250"

Overall, I'm a fan of this lens. Not only does it allow for the creation of excellent images, but it's cheap enough you can carry it with you on those rough shoots where you may bang it on a rock, drop it, expose it to sand and grit, or otherwise abuse it.

"A Girl's Joy"
Nikon D80, Quantaray 70-300DL
f4.5 @ 1/500"

High Dynamic Range Images

2011-02-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

HDRI Image "Junk Car"
Nikon D80, Tamron 28-80
3 Exposures: -2.0, 0.0, +2.0

A cool technology is "High Dynamic Range Images", or HDR/HDRI. Basically it's taking multiple exposures of a subject at various exposure settings. Software is then used to combine the different exposures into a single image.

Photoshop CS3 (possibly CS2) and later has an HDRI tool, and there are dedicated HDRI software packages such as Photomatix. Each of them takes the visible range from each image and combines them effectively. The result is that shadows have clear detail, and highlights aren't blown out. That process gives the image a similar exposure range to what the human eye can see naturally.


Non-HDRI Image, "Junk Car" This is the 0.0 exposure. Nikon D80, Tamron 28-80 f3.5, 1/800"

The image at the top of this article was created from three exposures: One two stops below metered, one at metered, and one two stops above metered. The second image is the unprocessed image at metered. You can see that the highlights are pretty blown, and the shadows are impenetrably dark.

Comparing the two images shows just what you can do with HDRI techniques. If you have a newer version of Photoshop, check out the tools built in. If not, or if you want to play with the more advanced features, check out Photomatix at http://www.hdrsoft.com.

Exploring the "Wet Look"

2011-02-05T18:16:00.001-07:00

Orange and Bronze Ballpoint Pen
(http://www.mantadesigns.com)

This time I'm using a piece of white swirled art glass. $6 or so at Hobby Lobby. They have a wide range of textures and colors. This white has translucent swirls that can pick up the color of whatever is underneath.

Here I have it on top of some black vinyl.

If I wanted to make the swirls nearly disappear I could put some white posterboard or a sheet underneath.

The Wet Look

2011-01-31T20:20:00.001-07:00


Black/Gray/Gold Rollerclip Ballpoint Pen by Manta Designs (http://www.mantadesigns.com)

This is really REALLY cool. The only thing I'd change is the color of the "sky". It should be bluer.

The photo was made by taking a square of ripple glass bought at Hobby Lobby for a couple dollars and painting one side black. Painting one side black is known as making a "black mirror". (A white mirror is made by painting one side of glass white, a blue mirror... you get the idea.) I used a piece of ripple glass instead of straight glass for this shot. It makes the pen look like it's floating on moving water.

Lighting was done with a small hotshoe strobe shooting through a translucent umbrella, and a 150w studio strobe bouncing off a reflective umbrella. The backdrop is just a piece of white posterboard with a small optically triggered slave pointed up at it. The glass is resting on a couple boxes so the slave strobe is hidden behind the boxes.

Here's the setup shot:

I'm trying to get my hands on some gels (I've got a box of 'em somewhere, but I think I may have tossed them recently... Before getting my D80. Gah!) A blue gel would make a world of difference on that background. Or maybe a dark orange one. Something other than white!

Using old non-Ai lenses.

2011-01-28T09:23:00.000-07:00


Fountain Pen Nib Shot with Nikon D80 and 55mm f3.5 Micro non-Ai lens on adapter made from extension tubes

There are some great lenses out there for dirt cheap. I mean REALLY cheap. If they were made before 1977, they had slightly different mounts and aperture controls. Newer bodies are unable to mount these lenses without damaging the lens and/or body. That includes my Nikon D80.

There are several shops out there that will upgrade your non-Ai lens to Ai for around $35, assuming the parts can be found.

The lenses I wanted were to be used in macro photography. Manually stopping down isn't a big deal, nor is lack of autofocus. So older lenses can be used without much impact on the process.

I already had extension tubes to use with my D80. And the tubes don't care if the lens is an Ai or non-Ai mount. So those old lenses can be used on the tubes!

I picked up two lenses, a 55mm f3.5 Micro, and a 200 f4 telephoto.

55mm f3.5 Micro Nikkor P with PK-3 27.5mm 1:1 Extension Tube
I got this off eBay for $46 including shipping. Came with the funky rear cap / case. This lens is like new. No scratches, scuffs, or damage. Pristine. (The lens, not the case.)

Nikon Nikkor-Q 200mm f4

This lens is nowhere near pristine on the outside, but optically and mechanically it's perfect. Nice features like a built-in hood and the aperture goes down to f32. For macro use, this will give me some outstanding working distance.

Both of these lenses take outstanding macro photos when on the extension tubes. The two mounts together with no tubes in between work out to just a small amount of extension.

The photo at the top of this page was taken with the extension "adapter" and the 55mm Micro lens.

I may decide to send the 200mm off for modification, but I think the 55 I'll leave in its pristine state.

Tamron AF28-80 F/3.5-5.6

2011-01-25T15:17:00.000-07:00


Tamron AF28-80 F/3.5-5.6 Nikon Mount

This lens came in the mail earlier this week. I've been down with the flu so have only spent a few hours (over the past two days, when I'm lucid) working with it. It was purchased from Adorama for $70. It's new with a USA 6-year Tamron warranty.

I was looking for a lens to solve two problems for me:

The Nikon kit 18-135 lens is larger than I'd like for quick snapshots and carrying around all day.
The Nikon lens is a G lens, which means it has no aperture ring on the lens. I cannot use this lens uncoupled, such as with my extension tubes.


Inexpensive extension tubes Cost around $10-15

I love macro photography, always have. So I wanted to be able to drop a lens onto these extension tubes to play a little. The manual aperture is necessary so it can be fully open during focusing, then stopped down as desired for the final image. Without the manual ring, the G lenses rest at their minimum aperture with no way to open them up.


Pulsar watch, straight off my wrist

I took a series of shots with the Tamron and the extension tubes, playing with depth of field and exposure. As expected, the effective aperture shrinks as you add tubes. You're moving the aperture further away from the sensor, causing it to appear smaller. Just like a hole in a piece of paper. When it's right in front of your eye, it looks large. Move that piece of paper to arm's length and it is much smaller. The same principle applies to using extension tubes or bellows.


A little closer now

Since it's digital, I can guesstimate the exposure for my strobes and take a photo. If I don't like the exposure, I can change the aperture and shoot again. And so on.

This works out MUCH better than I used to have to do with 35mm film.

The lens is reasonably sharp both in normal use, and in macro use on the tubes. Focus is slower and noisier than the Nikon G lens. The Tamron uses a gear train driven by the camera body, while the Nikon has an internal USM motor. I was also able to send the lens into a perpetual focus hunt by pointing it at a horizontal line. The Nikon had no problems with that line.

Two things I don't like.

Fussy mounting- Hard to get it lined up just right so you can twist it into place. Then, once it's lined up, you end up turning the zoom instead of the lens body. A bit annoying, but once you get used to grabbing in a specific spot it's not bad.
Closest focus distance is much further away than the Nikon when mounted straight on the body.

And the seconds keep ticking by...

Overall, I rate this a 3 out of 5. It works adequately, but isn't as good as I'd like. If you add in bang-for-the-buck, give it a 4 out of 5. At $70 it's a steal.

Reflectasol and the DIY Softbox

2011-01-22T15:14:00.001-07:00


Stuffed Starfish. This is NOT made of chocolate!

Working through learning to use strobes, I've been using various combinations of hard strobes, paper reflectors, ceiling and wall bounces, and my old Reflectasol umbrella/folding reflector.

I never got the soft even light I was shooting for. Nothing seemed to get there for me. Until I can create it, I can't control it. I was about ready to blow some money on a softbox or shoot-through umbrella.

Reflectasol with a Cowboy Studio radio receiver
and Vivitar 2000 strobe

I was folding my Reflectasol up again and noticed that the reflector material could be removed from the frame rather easily. So I got an idea. What if I replaced the reflective materal, which sucks as a shoot-through, by the way, with some translucent material?

Would a white sheet work?

I pulled an old white sheet out of the closet and hung it on the now bare frame. It's not fancy, just a proof of concept. I threw a stuffed starfish onto my bed, set up the camera, and shot. The result is the photo at the top of this article.

Not fancy, but it works:

Reflectasol frame with an odd Regent strobe on the trigger
and one old sheet hung from the frame.

Soft, even lighting was the result. SWEET! Now I can confidently use this as a shoot through umbrella / softbox. And still switch to the reflector when needed.

UPDATE: I recruited my daughter to be a model. The setup didn't change between her and the starfish. But I have noticed I need more oomph than is available with that little strobe.

Sensor Noise and ISO Settings

2011-01-21T22:12:00.001-07:00

As I've been playing with lighting and exposure with the Nikon D80, I noticed something disturbing. When looking at a photo at full 100% resolution, I saw large amounts of noise. No clean lines, no sharp edges, no solid dark colors.

This bothered me. I triple-checked my ISO setting (100) and was still seeing it. Then I happened to look at my EXIF information. My photos were being shot at ISO 1600! GAH!

Turns out that while I was specifying my ISO setting, the camera had a setting deep in the menus for Auto ISO. And it was ON.

Once I turned that punk off, suddenly my exposures were much more interesting. And my images were MUCH cleaner.

At the top of this page I posted a comparison of 3 images. Each is more or less exposed the same, and zoomed in and cropped on the pen's nib. As you can see the ISO 1600 exposure is WAY noisier than the ISO 200 exposure.

Now I need to go back and start over learning my exposures. I thought I was at ISO 100 all this time, and experienced enough trouble to be very frustrating. My calculations weren't matching the resulting images. Time to go back to the Strobist Lighting 101 class and work through the exercises again.

One light + a Mirror

2011-01-17T21:27:00.003-07:00

VW Bus
Model by Malibu International LTD

Two posts back I talked about putting the optically triggered booster strobe in a Magic Silo. (See HERE if you missed it.) I showed it being used by itself with a lens adapter as the subject.

Today I'll show what I did to fill out that flash and get rid of the dark side of the ~~moon~~ adapter. Let's start with a photo of the above VW Bus model with the single strobe in the Silo.

Not bad. The soft light on the nose and top of the subject from camera left is decent and workable. The whites are white, green's green, and so on. Here's the setup on my studio/bed:

Simple enough. That dark square to the right is a mirror that I will use to even out the lighting on the far side of the strobe. Here's the setup with the mirror in place:

I used a camera bag to prop it up. The model is again on my piece of ripple glass with one side painted black, making for a water effect. Not much of that was picked up in this shoot though. I wasn't lighting to highlight the water effect, so it's not really there.

With the mirror in place, and no change in exposure (1/200 @ f28) the subject changes significantly.

NOTE: Framing isn't exactly the same. I was handholding the camera. It's close enough to see the lighting.

Here are both photos together so you can compare.

Wow. The blown out white areas in the top somehow flattened with the reflector in place! I had moved the peaks in the histogram from the right side closer to the middle. Even at the same exposure with the same amount of light from the strobe (it's not adjustable, after all) I got more color and more detail and less clipping.

These are the little details and tricks that pros use to make those photos we like so much look so tasty!

Sepia In-Camera on the D80

2011-01-17T05:56:00.001-07:00

My little girl, goofing for the camera.

The D80 has some post processing features built into the camera. Being a Photoshop user (currently still on CS3), I've generally avoided those features. Making changes on the itty bitty LCD on the back of a camera isn't a lot of fun.

But I thought I'd see what the monochrome tools could do. The above image is a shot of my daughter being silly for me. On-camera flash set to minimal, just enough to trigger the slave flash I was holding in my hand underneath the camera. You can see the dual sparks in her eyes.

In-camera I chose Monochrome - Sepia - Dark. It created a new file with the modifications.

I pulled both images into Photoshop, but the only changes were to crop and merge into the single image above. No changes to color, contrast, or curves were made. As you can see, the sepia effect isn't bad. But it would really benefit from some contrast enhancement and burn in. Since these need to be done in Photoshop (or your photo editor of choice), there's really no point in doing it in-camera. The effort just doesn't return any value.

Oh, well. It was worth a shot.

The Magic Silo

2011-01-16T21:15:00.001-07:00

The Magic Silo is a light tent made by RPS Studio Lighting. It folds into a 17" diamater flat circle and fits into a nice pouch.

I bought this thing right after moving out to Colorado, probably 6 years ago or so. I paid $40 from Englewood Camera. I tried using it as the instructions suggest. Put the lighting on the outside of the tent and point the camera in from the top. But I could never get it to work for me. I was using hot lights (aka: clamp reflectors with light bulbs in 'em), and they just weren't strong enough to work. So into the garage it went.

Now that I've been playing with strobes, such that they are, I brought it out again. But not to place over the subject! No, instead I put my optically triggered booster into the silo and used it as a softbox.

It reflects a lot of light out around the silo, unfortunately. But it works. And I can fix that reflection by putting a reflector such as an automotive sun shade inside to help direct the light.

There should still be some fill light to help flesh out the subject, or I can get the silo more to the front. I need to do some experimenting. But I think it makes a good start.

I'm glad I never sold it!

More with the Flash Booster

2011-01-15T05:51:00.001-07:00

I played some more with the D80 and the Quantaray MS-1 Flash Booster yesterday.

Those lenses are some the old gear I found when I did my inventory. I offered them up on Craigslist for free, and someone will be by in the morning to pick them up. Before listing them on CL I wanted to take some photos.

The lenses were placed on a mirror, the flash booster was placed so the light spill would hit the subject directly, while the bulk of the light would bounce off the wall.

Again I played with flash exposure compensation and apertures until I got a clean balance. I think it worked pretty well.

For the jewelry, I placed the booster on its back just forward and to the right of the subject. This bounced the entire force of the flash off the ceiling, making for a really big reflector.

For the lens I just used the 18/135 kit lens. Manually focused. The subjects were placed on a piece of ripple glass with the back side painted black.

If you've never used glass for a base, head over to Hobby Lobby or any craft store that sells supplies for stained glass. They have some really cool things you can play with!

Manual focusing is really easy with that big clear viewfinder in the D80. The last photo shows the maker's mark on the inside of the ring. Handheld and manually focused and it only took one shot to get that in focus.

Because I was using the kit lens, I had to crop these subjects in Photoshop CS3. Otherwise they would be a small bright blob in the middle of a black field.

;-)