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The Green Bean Hair Light

Reader Jerry Hamby just sent in this great hair light project. It is made from a cheapo 45 ws ebay flash and - believe it or not - a green-bean super value can (the kind you don't want to eat too much of at one time). Just before sharing his tutorial with you, allow me to extend two small tips:

1. Empty the bean can before using it.

2. Do not empty it alone. 

Now, to the tutorial.

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Portrait Software Developer Want Your Help

Anthropics is a company that develops a portrait retouching software called Portrait Professional. Tony Polichroniadis who is the chief scientist over there is looking for some feedback on the package.

If you have any ideas, thoughts and wish-lists from this kinda software you can influence the next version of Portrait Professional. 

Use this flickr thread to share any thoughts you may have. If you just want to play round with the software and get the idea of what it can do (quite a lot), you can download a trial version here.

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Manual Focus - Practice Makes Perfect (Part 3)

In my two previous posts I discussed eleven reasons why you would ever want to use manual focus, and six ways to help you get a good sharp manually-focused picture.

As I said, it takes some practice to get sharp results, and in this wrap up post I'll discuss practice. One type of practice it easy and can be done a home. The benefit of this practice is that it is very technical and needs little preparation.

Here is how it's done:

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Six Tips To Take Great Manual Focus Pictures (Part 2)

In my previous manual focus post I discussed nine reasons to use manual focus. But wait, isn't manual focus slow and inaccurate? Not if you do it correctly.

In this post I will describe six ways to get the perfect (and fastest) manual focus. As will all things photography, practice makes perfect - You may not have your first manual focus pictures right, but as you keep practicing, you'll get better and better, until manual focus becomes a second nature to you. [image CC by parl]

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Nine Reasons to Manually Focus When Taking Pictures (Part 1)

Most Digital (and film) cameras today offer a nice feature called Manual Focus.  This has not always been the case. The older more experienced folks remember that in the good old film days there was a big excitement when auto focus was introduced as a new feature.

There are many reasons to use Auto Focus - it is fast, accurate, and let you, the photographer concentrate on composition, lighting, framing and other technical and artistic factor of your picture.

However, there are still many situations when Manual focus can give better results than auto focus. [image cc by dalantech]

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Speed Links for 7-9-2008

This has been a busy month again with a great ending.

As usual my day job was getting more of my time then photography, but some good things happened in the last week or so.

The first is that my son's teeth are finally breaking. It means that he plans to eat better, but it also means that I get some sleepless nights and wonder around the web to find great goodies.

The other good thing was a nice long vacation with no work email access (and actually no internet access at all - what do you know, it didn't kill me).

No I am back and would like to share some of the great sites and article I found during those sleepless nights.

• The 15 second DIY adjustable snoot!
  F/1.0
  If you liked the cardboard snoot and the better bounce card you'll love this adjustable snoot
• How to Reduce Camera Shake - 6 Techniques
  digital-photography-school
  Some great techniques to reduce blur when taking pictures. It all comes down to the way you are holding the camera. Techniques are especially useful, if you (like me) travel with kids which makes carrying gear virtually impossible
• Chase Jarvis SHORTS: Pimped Photography Van
  Chase Jarvis
  Yet again, chase shows us how to make photography business with style. Forget about the batmobile. It is time for the framemobile. The next challenge is to make all the equipment fit in this.
• The 75¢ Sandbag
  Nice
  Stabilizing your setup can not go cheaper then this. For 75c a bag times four you can get **some** stability. The idea is great just need to be multiplied a few times
• 10 things I hate about Flickr (and its users)
  Neil Creek
  Flickr has a lot of merits, but also a lot of vices. Neil gives a detailed analysis of how Flickr can become a better place. His comments can be used by Flickr programmers and Flickr users alike. Make sure you browse through the comments, there is a great discussion and opinions voiced there.
• quick video 3: studio setup for a large white background
  prophotolife
  If you've followed Zack Arias's white background series, you'll love this. A quick video on how to provide a white background in a full studio environment (A LA huge octagon and multiple flash units). Quick math produced 10,000 Watts/seconds.
• Seeing the Possibilities
  The f-Stops Here
  everybody can take a stunning image of a great location. David walks us through a idea to convert a boring location to a winning shot
• Alltop
  alltop
  A ton of great photoblogs. And by ton I mean A TON. A great place to freshen up your feeds
• Lighting 102: CTO Assignment | Discussion
  Strobist
  Great discussion from David on how to use CTO gels on your flash. I really like this one as it show just how creative one can get when assignment has a weird limitation such as Use a CTO gel on your flash. Dont miss the extra shot.

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Related Links:
- Speed Links for 6-6-2008
- Speed Links for 05-09-2008
- Speed Links for 4-20-2008
- Speed Links for 2-23-2008
- Speed Links for 12-20-2007

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PRESSlite Vertex - Demo Available

The previous post about the Vertex flash light splitter raised quite a few eyebrows. First question was "is this for real?".

Ken at PRESSlite answers this question by providing an image gallery with sample shots and setup shots.

The nice thing is that the setup shots are linked with the sample shots. So you can watch a picture along with the how it was taken.

If you are considering getting one of those, watching the demo is a great fun. And don't miss the dancing flash show. (Click "Dual Panel Rotate and browse through the gray buttons).

Strobists - I'd love to hear what you think about this. share your thought on the comments.

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Reflector Card Cheat Sheet

My previous cheat sheet dealt with the impact of light position on portraiture. The idea was that you can print this cheat sheet and carry it around for fast consultation and getting fast results.

My next investigation involved a single flash again (this time shot through a shoot though umbrella) and different uses and positions for a 5 in one reflector.

Again I suggest printing the card so you have a quick look when ever you are not sure of what a certain reflector effect may be.

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Another Great Way to Create Lighting Diagrams

A while back I posted two great ways to create lighting diagrams: using Photoshop or using an online flash application.

Now, the online application as great, but it only allowed you to share a URL, there was no way to save or print your lighting diagram.

Reader Brian pointed me to a nice online application called PhotoDiagram that allows you to create a lighting diagram and then save it as jpg. NICE.

I'd love to see more modifiers in the application. If you feel like being nice, Drop Brian a line on what you'd like to see in the next version of PhotoDiagram.

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Two Great Weekend Projects - Striplight and Softbox

Do you know those weekends when it is just to hot to get out of the home? Well just for those weekends we have a great weekend project. Actually we have two weekend projects.

The first project is a Foamcore softbox. We've had those before, even for small flashes. But this one comes complete with build and assembly instructions by Paul Both. To top sugar with cream (or light with diffusion) Paul also made a nice strip light - again complete with plans and chocolate syrup. (The designs were made for the 580EX2 and 430EX Canon flashes, but will fit any flash with minor adjustments).

Paul said the role of inspiring muse for this creation was Nick Wheeler who made the best softbox ever, just a little while ago.

Download the plans for the softbox here and for the striplight here. Read on for assembly instructions (flickr set here).

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Having Fun @ The Pool #3

It has been quite a long time since the last post of fun at the pool, but now with summer kicking in big time, it is time to take a nice refreshing Ice Tea Beer and hang out in the pool.

In the last few weeks it was a great joy for me to see how the DIYP group is evolving into a group that shares more then pictures that show how to build stuff. Of course, pictures of how to build stuff are always welcomed, but posting images of fine art, extreme lighting, portraiture, and more are a great way to leverage the group to a place where photographers can talk, share and interact together (and of course, the discussion panel is always open). I also had great fun watching the at my home contest submissions accumulate into the pool, as great images and lots of fun. Again, thanks for everyone who participated.

Lastly, if anyone knows of a way to create the mosaic below by using a tag, I'll appreciate it if you share this data in the comments. I'll greatly improve the time it takes me to round the pictures into a post.

More Photodumps:
- Having Fun @ The Pool #2 - What a Splash
- Having Fun @ The Pool #1

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How Slow Can You Go?

Back in the take a shot and see the print three days later good old happy days of film we all knew what is our human limitation when it came to shutter speed. The golden thumb rule said that if you shoot slower than 1 / (your focal length) you will end up with an unusable artistic blurry image.

Just to give an example or two it means that at shooting safari animals at 300mm meant you can not go below 1/400. And when shooting portraits at 80mm, you should not go below 1/75 or 1/100.

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At My Home Photo Contest - The Winners

It was not an easy decision for any of the judges. With 50 submissions to the contest, it was amazing to see how each one of you portrayed the concept of home.

When I thought of how to describe the subject of the contest, my wife said "keep it as open as possible", and as I usually do, I followed her advice.

And what a great advice it was, submissions took the subject of "Home" to many directions, and played on the home theme in many different ways. As you can see below, there was a lot of debate and diversion amongst the judges as well.

Without much more ado, I give you the winners of the "At My Home Photo Contest", each won a personalized copy of the great America At Home Photo Album.

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Portrait Lighting Cheat Sheet Card

Setting up lighting for a portrait can be quite a complex task. If you, like me, are using small strobes which have mo modeling light it is hard to predict what will be the outcome of each lighting array.

There are however some basic lighting schemes, kind of a starting ground for new portraits. Of course, once you lay out the initial lighting you can change it, move it around and use modifiers to soften or restrict the light.

Wouldn't it be nice, though if you have a magic card that will show you what will be the final lighting of almost every lighting scheme? I think it can be pretty darn cool.

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At My Home Photo - Contest Submisisons

The past three weeks has been truly wonderful and submissions started to accumulate to "At My Home" Photo Contest. It is amazing to see how many of us feel differently about our home.

Indeed submissions span multiple subjects like family, couples, occasions, every day homely routines, just plain family fun and even pets. Each picture heart warming in its own way. Thanks for everyone who shared their home and family with us.

All the pictures below got tagged with "DIYP" and "atmyhome" and pushed into the DIYP flickr group, but for some reason, not all the images were available to all participants. Why, I don't know. I guess it is a Flickr glitch. So you can either watch a (partial) slideshow here, or scroll below and watch the submission as my search dug them up.

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Spiderlite in Action

A while back I posted a great lighting project by Alex Campagna called the DIY Spiderlight.

The project successfully aimed at building the Wescott TD5 Lighting fixture (AKA Spiderlite).

Alex even threw in a DIY softbox to complete the design.

If you've wondered what's so good about them spiderlites, Scott Kelby from Photoshop insider shares a great video that has all the good reasons to buy on (or better yet, to build one). See the video on the full article.

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Best Book Ever - Light: Science and Magic - A Book Review

I have just finished reading Light: Science & Magic (for the second time) and (again) I can not calm down. It took me a week and I spent every almost every waking hour reading it. Let me share the joy I had with you.

In general, Light: Science & Magic tells you everything you need to know about photography lighting. And the stuff it doesn't tell you, it tells you how to figure out yourself.

Just before I go into an in-depth review of the book, I'll say that reading this book in one week was both good and bad for me. Good, because I got an intense dose of photography lighting, obtaining critical mass of lighting know how. But, because reading so fast did not allow me to perform any of the exercises on the book, this is why I plan yet another slower reading of Light: Science & Magic where I will try out and test the techniques portrayed in the book.

Have you read this book? Let me know what you think in the comments. Now for the review:

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Speed Links for 6-6-2008

It's been another great month here on DIYP and in my life in general. The At My Home contest is gaining momentum, if you did not submit until now, there is just a little over a week left. There was some great reading over the internet during this time. I'd love to share some of my favorite readings.

• Introducing Your Little One to Photography
  Photodoto
  As a parent it is a great joy to share photography hobby with family and with your kids in particular. Photodoto shares some great advice on helping your little one see the joy of photography
• Nude Controversy
  Dilvie
  Eric shared his motivation for shooting nude. An excellent post on nude photography and feminism
• Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo
  Scientific American
  Did you ever get the photo of the guy standing on the twins with one of the jets behind him? In the days of Photoshop and other image manipulation software it is easy to fake a picture. Here are 5 ways to stop a fake.
• 10 Travel Photography Quick Tips
  Boots n' all
  We've all been there. The postcards look way better then our trip pictures. Here are 10 ways to mend this. Not enough? Zeke Kamm, the nice guy, has some more tips on How to Take Vacation Photos That Don’t Suck
• Off-camera Flash Demo
  Bert Stephani
  Bert Stephani always has something good in store. Aside from shooting beautiful models, he gives great tips and videos. In this post he shoes great pictures taken with off camera flash. Also, make sure you don't miss his latest video
• Are photographers really a threat?
  The Guardian
  We are all aware if the latest trend to see photographers as terrorists. Bruce Schneier shares his view on the reason behind it. Bruce coins the movie-plot threat as term that describes the gear behind photographers. make sure you browse through the link in the beginning of the post. the amount of reported cases is staggering. This is exactly why you need to be aware of The Photographer’s Rights

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Related Links:
- Speed Links for 05-09-2008
- Speed Links for 4-20-2008
- Speed Links for 2-23-2008
- Speed Links for 12-20-2007
- Speed Links for 12-11-2007

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A Portrait Trio - 1 Jim, 1 Model and 1 Light

Pro Photo Life is a site to adore. Jim features videos, business articles and Lighting and studio techniques and plain fun.

His latest installment is a video showing three basic lighting techniques using just one light. Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting and Edge lighting. All really easy to set up and will give three very distinct and diverse looks. Read on and watch the video.

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One Week In Two Weeks Left

Just a quick reminder to everyone that DIYP "At My Home" Photo Contest is running on the Flickr group.

In the first week of the contest, you have made 24 great submissions and the number of topics and techniques is almost as vast as the number of pictures submitted. You can view a slideshow of the images submitted here.

If you plan to make a submission and still don't have a Flickr account you can get it here, and join the DIYP group here. I have noticed that new Flickr members takes a while to get update in the system and getting a flickr account now (even if submitting in two weeks) will verify that your entry is there for the final cut. Yep, it is the final cut in two week from today.

If you have questions, please add them as comments to this post.

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The Roller Aerial Monopod

The following tutorial on building an Ariel Monopod is a guest post by Adam Hajnos.

Recently I was carrying around my camera and tripod at a music festival when I got the idea to do an aerial shot. I extended the tripod out all the way and put the camera on a timer. Only problem is, my tripod weighs upwards of 50lbs. So here is a simple solution to make a lightweight, portable monopod for "aerial" photography.

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Studio DIY: Gel Holder for Flash

Craig Colvin (Flickr) came up with a great design for a gel holder on a flash. The design includes an L shaped plexiglass.

Now, if you ever followed the strobist way of mounting gels on your flash, you know the great value those little pieces of colored tape can provide.

You probably also know that it can very annoying to apply the gel strips on the flash or to remove them. Not to mention stacking them together - this becomes a Velcro hell.

The nice design by Craig solves this problem by providing a Velcro free gel chassis. Sometimes you need nothing more than some bended plexiglass. See Craig's full design and instructions here.

If you can not bend plexiglass yourself you may want to consider using an Acrylic stand. I could only find big ones but I know that there is a smaller version from my local coffee bar.

This got me thinking on alternatives to gel holders and the thing that popped to mind was name tag pockets. Those are pretty cheap and once you place on over your flash, you can freely insert and remove colorful gels.

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More Gels:
- Homemade Gridspot
- Painting With Light
- The Optimizer
- The DIY Speed Strap - Accessories And Samples

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Even Better Softbox Part Two - The Test Results

Nick rocks again with a follow up on the Better Softbox - a comparison of softbox lining materials.

One of the questions asked in the comments when I built my first large softbox was "would a matte white finish on the interior give a more efficient output?" I had to admit, it had never crossed my mind to use anything other than aluminium foil as the lining material as I had just assumed this would be very efficient. After doing a bit of research on the internet I found a table with the following values listed for the reflective efficiency of various materials and finishes:

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Even Better Softbox Part One - The Build Process

Anybody who's read this blog for a while knows that I am a big fan of Nick Wheeler. Not only he creates great imagery and photographs, but he also shares his setups, and creative process. If you did not visit his stream so far, you are in for a treat.

Last time Nick guest posted on DIYP, he showed how with a little time, two good hands and ingenuity you can create a professional grade softbox. But Nick was not happy and promised to return with a better design. And Nick is the kind of guy that keeps his word. Read on to see how Nick created an even better softbox (who would have thought this is possible) with interchanging lining and a truly genius flash holder.

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At My Home Photo Contest - Q & A

At My Home photo contest is starting today. I wanted to take a minute and answer some contest related questions. Just before I do so, I'd like to remind everyone that DIYP and America At Home will give 5 personalized America At Home photo albums to the lucky talented winners.

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