Photo Studio Guide

DIY Wireless Tethering On The Cheap

Lou — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:50:12 +0000

It’s always nice to be able to tether your camera to the computer, but being wired sucks. Howabout wireless tethering for only $50? Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Peter Tsai has come up with a really clever–and simple–method of wirelessly tethering his Nikon D300 to his computer without shelling out for the $700 Nikon WT-4 transmitter.

Using a few pieces of equipment, most notibly a pair of CablesUnlimited Wireless USB dongles, one on the computer, one on the camera of course, he’s able to simulate a physical USB connection via Certified USB Wireless. Within reasonable proximity to the receiver, the transfer speeds are way beyond normal Wi-Fi. Best of all, a pair of these are only $50!

The downside is, these adapters do require an external power supply via AC adapter, however Peter’s rigged up an AAAx4 power pack that’s been soldered in. A small price to pay for wireless connectivity to your comuter on the cheap!

If any of you have given this a shot–or a similar wireless tethering–leave some comments on your opinions and thoughts. I’ll be getting around to trying this with my Canon somewhat soon hopefully, I’d like to think it will work on most cameras that mount via USB.

[Petek via Gizmodo via Wired]

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Lighting Setup: Jasmine Star

Lou — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:58:57 +0000

SoCal’s up-and-coming rockstar photographer, Jasmine Star, has quite the following amongst other aspiring photographers. Her transparency, personality, and zest makes her work irrisistable to follow. She loves to show of as much fun and endearing humanity through her blog as possible. But she also goes above and beyond answering questions that many of her fans pose to her.

In the most recent FAQ she’s posted on her blog, she goes over use of flash versus no flash, as well as some cool tips on her usage of Kubota Photoshop actions. She also links to an older blog post some two years old about something else worth paying attention to.

Jasmine Star’s off-camera reception lighting setup is pretty simple–oddly simple, to be honest. Rocking a Photoflex LightDome shrouding an oldschool Sunpak Auto 838 attached to her beloved PocketWizard, she sidelights and backlights the reception with the one light just in one position most of the night. Basic, effective, and dramatic.

One of my more favorite examples of her lighting is an example given in the same post, a great shot of the bride and groom.

For more of Jasmine’s awesome work, hit up her photography website at http://www.jasmine-star.com and her blog at http://jasminestarblog.com.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

12 Awesome Photographer Business Card Ideas

Lou — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:14:09 +0000

Those awesome photogeeks over at Photojojo have put together a quickstart guide to some creative photographer business card ideas.

This article actually came at an excellent time for me personally, as I am starting to rethink some business cards, and will probably start designing them this week. While I think for myself I’m going to go with a much more straight-forward design idea than say, the pop-up cut-out cards or something of that ilk, I will definitely be taking the creative spirit behind these cards and seeing what I can’t throw together in Photoshop.

I’ll upload some shots of my cards once I get them finished, to share what I’ve come up with. If you have some very creative business cards that you’re proud of, show them off here in the comments!

12 Awesome Photography Business Card Ideas [Photojojo]

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

DIY Beauty Dish On The Cheap

Lou — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:25:14 +0000

Everyone loves smooth, creamy portraits that a beauty dish creates, but hates paying the ridiculous prices for the units, usually starting at around $200. So why not hack yourself one? David Tejeda did!

The commercial photographer decided to make one himself for his Nikon SB-800 (although this can be used with pretty much any large flash unit) after looking at some available online, which just weren’t worth the cost, in his opinion. So after finding a little bit of inspiration from Flickr member Tyler Burk, adding his own special ingredient in the form of a convex mirror to help bounce light, and just a little bit of effort, David has himself a REALLY nice looking beauty dish for a tiny fraction of what even the cheapest units go for online.

Made out of a garden pot, an empty CD spindle, a drain gutter downspout, some velcro, and spraypaint, this beauty dish creates some silky lighting for your portraiture, with a reported loss of light of only about a stop and a half, not too shabby for a DIY hack at all. The top image here is the bare SB-800 flash, the bottom is with the beauty dish.

DIY Beauty Dish [The F Stops Here, via Lifehacker]

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

DIY Fiber Optic Ring Flash

Lou — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:34:24 +0000

Want a nice, even, non-directional light source for your macros and even short-range portraiture? Ring flashes are the way to go. But they’re also expensive, and most people probably wouldn’t even use them enough to warrant buying one even used to make it worth the purchase. However, how does about $5 and some time and effort sound for a pretty nifty fix?

The website Fring (short for Fiber Optic Ring) has a VERY creative method for channeling the light from your onboard flash into a circle of light around the edge of your lens/hood. With a little bit of MacGuyver-style ingenuity, you can build yourself a pretty sweet-looking piece of DIY hardware that will for sure have your friends in awe of your cleverness.

Hop on over to Fring to see how you can make one yourself, and come up with some great-looking images like these. I feel somewhat bad about suggesting a tutorial that I haven’t tried myself, however I know that at this point I don’t need one of these lights, so it’s not worth my effort at this point. When I do, however, this will be the way I go, and I may update this article later on.

Fring – DIY Optic Ring Light [via Lifehacker, via Hacked Gadgets]

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Quick update – Logo

Lou — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:00:15 +0000

So as can be seen up above, there’s a new logo at the top. It’s not great, but will be better than the generic theme logo that was there before. I’m sleep deprived, have to work in the morning, and will do a better one later. But for now… It’s at least better.

There are some articles I’m working on that will be up later on this week, including some lighting tricks. Keep an eye out, they’ll be up shortly!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Status: Revived…

Lou — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 04:29:28 +0000

Just a quick update… I’ve revived this site, and unfortunately only managed to have a backup from just before I started posting a lot… I’ll have more up here over the following weeks though, and probably a host of other new stuff I’ve been wanting to do since it went down last time.

Just keep checking up, and subscribe to the RSS feed too.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Portable seamless paper surface

Lou — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 10:33:59 +0000

Photo from Flickr by Umbra Photo

Objective:

Create a stable, portable, platform for using seamless paper on a carpeted floor.

Materials:

6 pieces of 2×2′ DRIcore Subflooring (Link goes to product at Home Depot Canada, as HD in the US no longer sells DRIcore, but that’ll give you the general idea)
Enough adhesive back tile to cover a 4′ by 6′ rectangle.
Utility Knife or Sharp Scissors

History:

Like many photographers, I am sometimes forced to find unique solutions to special problems. My current studio studio space has wall-to-wall carpeting and the obvious options of tearing out the existing carpet or moving to a new studio location were not ideal. Therefore, I set out to create a stable, portable platform that would allow me to use seamless paper on the existing floor without unsightly wrinkles in the paper, or the model punching holes straight through it with her high heels. For less than $40, I was able to create a platform that I can use both in the studio and on location and serves the purpose admirably.

Construction:

Step One:

Go to your local home/construction/hardware store and pick up a couple pieces of 2×2′ DRIcore subflooring. For my initial attempt, I chose to work with a total platform size of 4′ x 6′ which is large enough for what I wanted and also portable enough for me to take on location.

If you’d like to make the platform larger or smaller, it would be quite easy to do. The DRIcore subflooring has a tongue-and-groove connection system that makes it easy to add panels or take them away. It also makes it nice to be able to break down the platform and store it when it isn’t in use.

Step Two:

Once you’ve decided on a size for your new platform, get some adhesive backed vinyl tile from your local flooring store and tile the 2×2′ sections. I was able to pick up 1×1″ vinyl tile at the local dollar store for $1 for 3 tiles.

Step Three:

Once the tile is adhered to the panels, you’ll have some overlap on two edges because of the tongue-and-groove design. With a sharp utility knife or pair of scissors, trim the excess tile from the edges.

Step Four:

Once the tiles are trimmed, the panels are complete and ready to be assembled into your platform.

Step Five:

Assemble the panels and they are ready for use. I use duck tape to secure the grooves after they’re fitted together, then tape down the seamless as I would to hardwood studio floor. It’s sturdy, works well, cleans easily, and is portable. All in all, it’s a good solution to an annoying problem.

Photo from Flickr by PatrickSmithPhoto

Conclusion:

I like the look of seamless and enjoy using it, but I was limited to how much I could do with it considering the wall-to-wall carpeting in my studio. The construction of this platform solved the problem and only took about an hour to build, start to finish. It’s portable enough to take on-location when needed, and it is easy to put together and tear down. Hopefully this will help some people in the same situation.

The author of this tutorial, Martin F. Hengst, is a photographer based out of Cockeysville, MD specializing in glamour, intimate, and boudoir portraits for any purpose. Martin has worked with many models and amateurs of all levels, and takes pride in creating very sensual and powerful images for his clients. You can view Martin’s work at www.hengstphoto.com. This article was reproduced with permission from the author.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

What’s this about?

Lou — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:55:55 +0000

Forensics, Nature, and Model Photographer LEGO mini-figs by turkguy0319 from Flickr
Welcome to Photo Studio Guide (dot com)! You might be asking what this is all about… Well, here’s the deal: As an amateur photographer who’s looking for all the resources possible to aid me in my quest for better shots, and cheaper hacks for gear, I thought it’d be nice to find a site that has all that fun crap in one location… Didn’t really find one to my liking. So, that’s what this site’s about. My attempt to put everything I want to learn or have learned from in one location, and help out the rest of the community with a great photography studio guide.

I also want to give props to those photographers who inspire me, and whom I respect. Certain photogs will be featured here, and their work will be showcased as I find it. It’s one thing to just have a repository of information; to me, the social aspect of it is what helps the most. So I’m going to encourage submissions to the site of your experiences, your tricks, and your tips.

So we’ll be building a lot of info and resources for you guys soon. Help out, spread the word, and all sorts of good stuff. Thanks!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.