Yo Dawg, I heard you like strobes...

Day 27 and a new piece of gear arrived on the UPS truck today!

I have that family portrait shoot coming up next week, and I decided I wanted a little more oomph from my fill light than I was getting with the little 32 Ws one, so I ordered a LumoPro LP120 manual flash, which comes highly recommended from Strobist and quite a few other off-camera flash resources.

This is strictly a manual flash, no TTL, no focus assist lamps, nothing fancy, but a decently powerful hotshoe flash that has a variety of ways to trigger it: on-camera, PC cord, optical slave or miniphone jack. Supremely useful little lights to use, especially off-camera.

So, since I had a new toy, I have to shoot it, right? I decided to fool around with a DIY construction paper snoot on my 580EX II to get a spotlight effect, and ended up with this:



One thing to not is that I do not have a seamless black background, and that it really noticeable in this shot. I have also misplaced the flash shoe that came with my 580EX II so in this shot, the flash is precariously balanced on whatever small black things I could find! :D

Not all that happy with this shot, but with the tools I had it at least looks close to what I imagined.

More lightbox shots,

I had a brief moment to set up the lightbox again tonight after getting my daughter off to bed. I wanted to try some macro work, but I was surprised to find that I wasn't able to get much of anything working my extension tubes. Serious blurring and razor-thin depth of field even at f/9 or narrower. So, I went back to the 50mm and shot with that.

A dedicated macro would be so nice... *sigh*

Anyhow, I tried an 'art' shot. This was a great learning experience. First the shot:



The setup here is straight forward. Two drops of food colouring in a crystal wine glass. I learned a lot here. First, the white balance on this shot is really, really off out of the camera. I have no idea why. I was able to correct to a degree in post processing, but there is still a distinct grayness to the 'white' background. Second, one sheet of tissue paper isn't going to cut it for diffusion, there are some real hotspots on the glass. I also couldn't fire the flash because the front of the glass would blow out from the reflection.

Plans to correct these issues include purchasing some proper diffusion material for the box, and purchasing a nice, powerful gooseneck style lamp to light from the top. Something in the 100w or more range to really pick up the light levels.

Here is the second shot of the night:



This is a baby Crested Gecko, one of the acquisitions from the Reptile Expo last weekend. The 50mm really, really shone on this shot. I would suggest following the link to my Flickr and looking at the scale detail in the large size shot. The 50mm is insanely sharp for the price, like, crazy sharp.

This shot came out better than the water shot, crisper and better exposed. I had to add a full +1EV in the water shot to brighten the background, and I didn't have to do it on this shot. I was able to fire the flash on this shot, so no doubt that was the difference.

It's finished!

Pardon the quality of my 'building' pictures, they were just quick snaps in the basement, but here we go...



The box is about 15" or 16" square, and it's your normal bone-standard box. The first step is to cut off the top and three sides as above.

The result looks like so:



Next, strips of white poster board are cut to size and glued to the inside of the open sides.



After all three sides are done, and the next step is to cut another piece of poster board to the interior width of the box. Leave this one long, as you want it to lie along the bottom and up the back without creasing. This is what gives you the 'seamless' background.

The two side 'windows' are then covered with white tissue paper. I've only used one piece, but I might add another or replace the tissue paper with something more robust like nylon fabric or the like.



Finally get some lights. You can light from the top, but I chose to light from the sides using these two 'accent' lights from Home Depot. They were about $18 each, and they use a 35w GU10 Halogen bulb.



Here is the setup with my good friends Calvin and Hobbes providing my light stands. I've placed another sheet of poster board over the top of the box, but I like leaving it unattached in case I need a little more space to load in a larger object.



Here is a test shot. My friend, Ninja Duck!



All in all, I call this one a success. I'm not sold on the tissue paper sides since I already have a small tear, but for the moment it works!

Dun dun!

Supplies purchased! Time alloted! Project DIY photobox is a go!

Pictures tonight?

Stay tuned faithful readers!