DIY "Paniel" lets you try out beauty dish lighting at minimal cost

    One of the virtues of do-it-yourself photo gear is that you can try out a particular lighting modifier or other equipment at little cost.

    This is especially true if you use simple materials just for the experiment with a piece of gear or a technique.

    For example, when I was making a flash modifier, I chose to use cardstock first as a "proof of concept" to see if it was something that would work for me. I have since made a second one using craft foam.

    Daniel Norton, a New York photographer and one of Adorama's regular hosts on its Youtube channel demonstrates a way to make an absolutely cheap beauty dish lighting modifier, which his model and mentee, Marisa Roper, dubbed the "Paniel."

    If you're not familiar with a beauty dish, it mounts on a flash, which then discharges into a reflector that is right in front of the flash head, bouncing it into the large dish portion of the reflector and out toward the subject. It produces a not-so-soft light that sculpts the facial features.

    It also leaves a distinct halo-like catch light in the eyes.

    Commercial dishes can run you $70 or more, depending on where you shop.

    There are plenty of Youtube tutorials showing you how to make them from woks, flower pots and other items. But if you want to just try one out to see if its something you want to invest a bit more time and money in, or you forgot to pack one and need it, the Paniel provides a low-cost option,

    You get two aluminum foil pans at either your big box store or, if you want to keep the price point really low, go to your local dollar store. One has to be a roasting pan, while the other is a pie pan or smaller. 

    The first step is measuring a hole in the back for your flash unit and cutting that out of the roasting pan. Depending on how long-lasting you want this to be, you can either use pencils or straws to hold the pie tin in place over that center hole.

    In this video, Norton demonstrates live how well this jerry-rigged device works. I like the fact that he does it live with a tethered camera because you see in real time how well it works.

   

    Norton demonstrates that you don't have to spend a lot to make good looking pictures. And if you like the results, you can now build a more lasting version of the light.

    

Compress time with time-lapse photos from almost any camera

    One real fun shot is the time lapse.

    We've all seen those videos that show people and other things moving at high speed, clock hands moving quickly or or a storm front come through like an express train with no brakes.

    Those are done through time-lapse photography, where a picture is taken at intervals and then assembled together into a video. It's one of those things that allows us to see things we usually can't see because they take a long time.

    And while there are fancy cameras that can be used to take them, it's also possible to use the kit you've already got to make a decent photo.

    First, if you use a cellphone, you might already be set, or at least one visit from the app store away from producing time lapses.

    Apple's iPhones, going back to at least iPhone 5, have a time-lapse option on the camera. You just put the phone on a tripod or other secure holder, push the button to start and then let it run until you're ready and it the button again.

    The phone will convert the series of pictures it has taken into a video. Depending on the length of time you ran the time lapse, the program will cut out frames in order to keep the video to the length predetermined by Apple.

    If you use an Android, you're out of luck with your camera fresh out of the box, but there are multiple apps on the Google Play store that will allow you to do a time lapse. Just read the reader reviews carefully to see which one will work best for you. Some may produce choppy video as it assembles a string of still photos together into a video.

    If you are using a digital camera, there are still ways to do it.

    Some cameras, such as Pentax, will give you the option to do a QuickTime movie, but I've found that it was a bit too jerky for my tastes.

    It should go without saying, but to cover myself, mount the camera on a tripod. There's no way you're doing this hand-held.

    Another way to do it is to take a series of photographs and use them as frames in a video.

    To do this, you might need an intervalometer, which allows you to have your camera take photos in a particular interval. Pentax actually has one built into its camera, but there are apps where you can use your phone as the trigger, or you can invest in a dedicated device.

    Another way to get a series of photos is to use a cable release and, if your camera permits, put it into a drive mode and just lock down the shutter button and let the drive do its work.

    In these situations, you need to figure out how long you want your video to be and the frame rate, which will tell you how many pictures to take.

    You also want to set your aperture and shutter speed to slightly blur moving objects, which will better sell the high-speed effect.

    A few years back, I did a time lapse to highlight a busy intersection the local police identified as a traffic hazard. Working with our paper's chief photographer, we figured out how many shots were going to be needed for the video (I was contributing to a larger video) and the best time to do it.

    After figuring out the right shutter/aperture combination to get the motion, I locked those settings in while setting ISO to automatic. That would allow us to maintain a constant exposure as the sun set.

    While I'm a strong proponent of shooting RAW whenever possible, in this case jpgs were the the better option as they take up less space on the card and would not be as hard to combine for the final video.

    I shot 600 shots, one picture every three seconds for a half hour. I just dialed the time between frames and the total amount of pictures into the intervalometer and sat back with a cup of hot chocolate while the camera did its thing.

    The resulting pictures were then converted into a video, with each shot becoming a frame in the video.

    There are a couple ways to combine them. You can use a video editor or software designed specifically for assembling still images into a video. I used to use Time Lapse Assembler until the software became incompatible with my Mac's OS, but I found QuickTime offers a free way to do it.

    Open up QuickTime Player, select "Open Image Sequence" from the File menu, specify your resolution, frame rate and final video format, and the software does the rest.

    Here's that traffic sequence I did, processed through QuickTime.

     

Website offers free, reasonable AI colorizing for old photos

     Colorizing black-and-white photos is almost as old as photography itself, with people striving to make pictures look more lifelike.

    In the past, it usually involved meticulous hand painting of photos, a task that got relatively easier with digital photo editing software.

    Now, one of the new features in Photoshop is colorizing photos using artificial intelligence algorithms to do the heavy lifting. The results are fairly impressive, although there are naturally a few goofs that are relatively easier to fix compared to trying to colorize an entire picture.

    But suppose you don't have Photoshop, or the "Jack Sparrow" version you're using disables Adobe's Neural Filters?

    Vertexshare's Picture Colorizer offers a free AI-based colorization service that produces acceptable results. I played around with it for an evening and got some decent results.

    Here is a photo of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant taken from the Civil War. First, the original:

 

   And here's the colorized version (the only thing I did with the photo was just colorize it):

     It wasn't perfect, but things such as Grant's hand, his left boot and that yellow spot on the tent can be easily fixed in editing software.

    The main caveat with the service is that it only works with jpgs and pngs, and they can't be larger than 5 mb and 3,000 x 3,000 pixels. You might have to resize the image you want to colorize, as well as finish off any other edits you want to do, before uploading it. 

Television offers way to create backdrops, sets for product, model photo shoots

     Caleb Pike, over at the DSLR Shooter on Youtube offers a way to set up backgrounds or even animated sets for shooting product photos, models or action figures.

    Pike recommends using a flat-screen television. In his case, he uses a 55-inch 4k TV screen that has built-in Roku, allowing him to cast photos or animations on to the screen.

    He uses it as both a tabletop, where he projected heads-up display-style graphics around his subjects, or created animations that helped light it up. The TV he used was durable enough to put a mirrorless camera body on, but he suggested getting a plexiglass sheet to protect more delicate screens.

    The other way is to use it as a backdrop, putting up an image to serve as the background, which can be adjusted for perspective and lighting through a linked phone.

    Pike also offers a few things to look for when picking a TV, or a monitor, and how to get the best photo possible in the process.

    

 

How to bring out the inner glow of your jack-o-lantern

 

Photo by Skyler Sawyer on Unsplash

     Halloween is fast approaching, and one of the traditional decorations is the jack-o-lantern.

    Some range from the minimalist designs with a mouth, nose and eyes cut away from the gourd, while others are more elaborate pictures. The best way to photograph them is with the primary light source being the one that is inside the pumpkin. And that means adjusting your camera to only capture that light.

    Over on Instructables, user jenleigh offers some basic tips for doing it. She suggested making sure there is a fairly strong light inside the pumpkin, either a pumpkin light or a bright flashlight. I think you might get a good effect with a remotely fired flash inside the pumpkin. The best way do that would be to have the flash on the bottom and pointed at the top, illuminating the inside.

Pringles can offers macro flash diffusion for less than $2

    In a recent post, we discussed ways to do macrophotography if you don't have a dedicated macro lens.

    Now, lets talk about lighting those extreme close-ups.

    While you can use continuous light, such as a desk lamp, you might not have that option if you are shooting outdoors, or if the lights you have won't permit a fast-enough shutter speed to avoid blurring.

    One of the best ways to do that is through camera flashes, but you are going to need to diffuse the light to make it flattering, as well as work well up close.

    One low-budget way to do it is to use a Pringles potato-chip can as a snoot/diffuser for the pictures.

    A Pringles can is particularly suited for this task because the inside of the canister is silver colored, making it more reflective. It also has a clear cap, into which you can put diffusing material to soften the light.

    Plus, Pringles don't leave the same greasy residue behind like traditional potato chips.

    There are multiple tutorials online for how to make this rig, but here's how I made mine.

    First, I picked up some Pringles at the local Walmart for just under $2, and had a nice snack at work for a couple days.

    Then, after sweeping all the chip crumbs out of the tube, I cut out a hole in the side about a quarter-inch from the bottom that was the same dimension as the flash head. While some people cut away the cardboard completely, I chose to leave it as two flaps to better grip the flash head.

    While some people will mount the flash in the back, I found the side mount is better, as the head is straight up, and you can angle it to light the subject in front of the lens. The other way requires sculpting the tube into a particular shape, which only works if you are going to use one particular lens for your macro shoots. I personally prefer to keep my options open.

    For my diffusion panel, I put a circle of copy paper in the cap. After making sure it worked, I then put black duct tape on the outside to give it a relatively professional look.

    This is how the rig looks when on the flash and camera, before being covered in duct tape. 

 

       (Note the guide number of the side of the flash, a tip from an earlier post on flash photography.)

     

     Here's a photo taken with ambient light in the room, with no flash as the control.

    

  

    And here's one with the diffuser.

    For this shot, I was using through-the-lens metering for the flash, but you can use a manual flash, but it might take a bit of trial and error.

Panoramas allow you to go wide, even if you don't have a wide-angle lens

        Baltimore Harbor, as seen from the ramparts of Fort McHenry.

     Panoramas are probably one of the oldest types of photos, dating back to daguerreotypes with sweeping views of cities.

    It is a format that's especially good for landscapes or if you're capturing something really large. Photographer David Bergman has done "gigapans" where he captures ultrahigh resolution panoramic shots where you can zoom in on individual details in the photos.

    There have been special cameras made for panoramas, including some that had rotating lenses that would cover multiple frames of film to capture the image. But a more common way to do it is to put multiple pictures together, which is how the originals were made.

    In this day, it is fairly easy to make panoramas regardless of what camera you use, especially with computers doing the stitching seamlessly.

    If you have a cellphone camera, you most likely have a pano feature built into the camera. All you have to do is press the shutter button and move the camera in the direction shown on screen to capture a panorama.

    The key to a successful one is to keep the camera steady, not jerking it around up or down, which will ruin the photo.

     If you have another type of camera, be it a point-and-shoot, bridge, mirrorless or DSLR, there are ways to create panoramas. It involves taking a series of pictures and then stitching them together in a computer.

    To get the best results, you want to shoot in portrait (vertical) orientation, as this will make assembling the panorama easier, as there will be fewer awkward edges that will have to be cropped out.

    You also want to lock your exposure to ensure the pictures have a uniform look, or the finished picture is going to look awkward, unless you spend extra time balancing out exposures in post. You should have some overlap, about 10-20 percent, to make it easier to join them and avoid any gaps.

    There are a few options for stitching them together.

    One way is a bit more artisanal. Basically open the pictures in your photo editor and line them up, doing some cropping and masking to eliminate seams.

    Some photo editors, such as Adobe Lightroom Classic, will automatically stitch the pictures together into a seamless panorama.

    There are also free software options that will stitch your photos together. One of the best is Hugin, which runs on both Windows and Mac, that lets you stitch traditional 180-degree and 360-degree panoramas.  

How to get extreme close-ups with the camera you have

     I've always said that photography can show you things that you can't see, as well as record the things that you can see.

    One of those ways is macrophotography, where you can go in for extreme close-ups of various objects. This allows you see details that may not be readily apparent to the naked eye, as well as create a new perspective on an otherwise mundane object.

    There are dedicated lenses for macrophotograpy, as well as filter-like diopters you can use to magnify the image in your lens. There are also extension tubes and even bellows that can put the lens farther out to create a close-up image.

    But if you don't want to invest in that gear, especially if you're trying out macrophotography for the first time, there are a couple easy solutions.

    If you're using a cellphone camera, you can use a simple magnifying glass to get a closer look. Just put the glass in front of your lens and you might have to move your camera back and forth to bring it into focus.

    That's how I got this photo of a coin commemorating the 75th anniversary of the B-17 "Memphis Belle" completing 25 missions over Europe in World War II.

    If you are lucky enough to have a camera with a removable lens, there's a way to get a great macro shot. It's a tip I first learned in high school back when we were still shooting film.

    Take off your lens and hold it up backwards against the camera's lens mount. You'll have to hold it tight to prevent a light leak and then move back and forth to get the image in focus. If you're using a lens where the camera sets the aperture instead, you'll have to hold your finger on the lever that adjusts the aperture to get it to stay wide open.

    I took this shot using a 50mm f-2 Rikenor lens that I reversed.   

    For perspective, here's a shot of the same coin, taken with the 50mm properly mounted on my camera.

PVC stand attachment provides extra "hands" for using poster board reflectors

    This post is a bit of a two-for-one deal. Two DIY projects in one post.

    The first one is a DIY reflector to bounce light on to your subject. You can use these indoors or out.

   There are expensive models, but a couple of photographers, including Joe Edelman and Daniel Norton, recommend using white poster boards. Norton calls the ones he uses "Brooklyn Reflectors." The boards are inexpensive — you can get them for $1.25 a piece at the so-called dollar stores, or your usual big-box store.

    With it being back-to-school, you may be able to get them on sale.

    Here's Edelman's demonstration with one.

   
    You can use the reflector with a voice-activated lightstand — also known as an assistant — but if you're shooting alone, it could get tricky trying to take the picture and hold the reflector yourself.

    Edelman proposes building a PVC holder for the reflector that lets you adjust it and put it on a lightstand. This allows you to use it hands free, and the rig can also hold flags (the light-blocking variety, not the state or national emblems) and Gobos, which go between a light source and a subject to create a pattern of light, say simulating light coming through a Venetian blind.

    Edleman's plans are in this video, although I would probably also use a joint to mount it to a PVC lightstand.

Manage where your flash goes for about $1

     Light, obviously, is an essential part of photography, which means "light writing" in Greek.

    While we spend a lot of time and energy on putting light into a photo, there are times when you want to keep light out, or remove it.

    For example, when you want to keep light from your light source, be it a flash or continuous light, from spilling over onto the background or into your lens.

    (Unless you're J.J. Abrams, then knock yourself out with that lens flare.) 

    One way to do that is with a flag, basically a black device that you can put on or next to a light to keep it from spilling onto a background or a wall and scattering back into the photo.

    You can buy flags in a variety of sizes, some requiring stands to use. But you can make your own for a fraction of the price, using velcro and craft foam.

    Youtuber Spyros Heniadis demonstrates how much of a difference a 6-inch-by-9-inch piece of foam attached to a flash head can make. His method allows you to vary the size of the flag and its shape to best sculpt your light. 

    With the low cost, you can make flags for all your flashes. You could also use it for continuous lights, but I would recommend doing that directly on the light only if you're using LED or CFL bulbs, as incandescent or halogen bulbs would get too hot.

 

MyTracks offers efficient way to track where you took photos

    My first tip on this blog was using an old cellphone to generate a GPS tracklog for tagging your photos.

    At the time I wrote it, I was using GPSLogger II on a BlackBerry Bold.

    Since then, the BlackBerry finally got to the point where it won't run most apps anymore because its operating system is antique (in computer terms). I switched to using my regular phone, until my wife upgraded our phones and I retired my Samsung Galaxy J3 to GPS logging duty, which it does quite well.

    But in recent months I switched over from GPSLogger II to MyTracks.

    MyTracks, by Daniel Qin, is available on both Android and IOS, and has a companion desktop app for the Mac. I've found it better than GPSLogger for a few reasons.

    First, starting and ending a track is a one-click operation. I've lost a few tracks on GPSLogger because I forgot to click the dialog box asking for the track name. Likewise, GPSLogger asks if you really want to stop.

    Second, I found it has tracked well, whether I'm inside a building or outdoors. I've been able to generate decent tracks in the basement of the county jail.

    Finally, exporting the track file is much simpler with MyTracks.

    I can simply export the track directly into Google Drive, where I can access it from my photo-editing software.

    GPSLogger, on the other hand, did not offer a simple export to my Google Drive. Instead, I had to email it to myself, then transfer the file from my email account to the drive and extract the track from the zip file before I can use it.

    It's a lot of work.

    The only drawback is that if you use the free version of the program, you have to watch a video ad before you can export once the trial period is over. But the features still work, and it's something I can live with for the time being.

   

Washer simple key to attaching quick-release plates to cameras

     While some of the newer quick-release plates on tripods have a little handle for turning the bolt, some still rely on a slotted screwhead.

    In these cases, a multi-tool or Swiss Army Knife can help you get the plate securely attached to your camera.

    But what if you are somewhere that bars your pocket tool, or you may have forgotten to pack it. (I go to courtrooms so often it's too easy for me to leave my pocket knife and Leatherman at home.)

    But Scott Eggleston, The Frugal Filmmaker, has a suggestion for keeping a tool on you, even in place where you might be restricted in what you carry.

    In the video below, Eggleston suggests putting a small metal washer on your keychain to use as a makeshift screwdriver. Not only can it help with tripod bolts, it can also tighten other similar sized screws.

Keep yourself hydrated, and your camera steady

    The tripod is usually considered the ultimate standard for keeping your camera steady.

    But there is a way to make it an even more rock-solid way to keep your camera from shaking: Hang extra weight from it.

    Many of the newer tripods have a hook on the bottom of the center column. It will either be permanently out or one that retracts inside the column when not in use, but the purpose is the same: To provide extra stability to the tripod.

     In an ideal situation — read in a studio or indoors with few people around — a tripod's three legs provide significant stability for a camera. But outside, there's wind and other things that can cause shaking or movement.

    Plus, if you have to raise the center column, that adds a measure of instability as you are putting a large amount of weight up high on a narrow column.

    The hook at the bottom fixes that, to a major degree.

    One of the things a weight at the bottom does is lowers the tripod's center of gravity. Instead of being top-heavy with a camera and lens at the top, there's more weight lower on the tripod, making it more stable.

    The extra weight also pulls down on the legs, further stabilizing the legs.

    Some photographers will hang sand bags from the hook to provide that stability, others use it for their camera bags.

    I was going to shoot fireworks on the Fourth of July, and with a slight wind I thought I might want to put some weight on my tripod to keep it still. But my camera bag weighs in more than the tripod's total weight capacity.

    Instead, I took my water bottle, which holds 24 ounces of liquid — about 1.5 pounds — and hung it on the hook with the carabiner I used to attach it to my camera bag when I travel.

  

    I could clip a second bottle on to it, giving additional weight and stability. And the carabiner's short enough to keep it from swinging wildly in the wind.

    In case you're wondering, here's one of the fireworks photos I took with the stabilized tripod.

    If you're looking for tips on how to shoot fireworks, Digital Photography School has some tips here.

Video can help when your motor drive isn't fast enough

    Back in the days when cameras would take only one picture when you pressed the shutter, you wound up missing a lot.

    It took time and good reflexes to capture a particular point in fast-moving action back in the film day. I remember going through more than a few takes trying to get a photo of a dart hitting a balloon for a photo class project on "hard and soft."

    While there were motor drives back then, three shots per second was the usual speed, which meant you'd burn through a 36-shot roll in 12 seconds.

    Today, even so-called "entry level" cameras can fire off six frames per second when in drive mode, and with memory cards that hold far more data than the computers that guided the Apollo Moon missions, you can shoot for a while.

    But sometimes that's even not fast enough, as Sony has now got some of its cameras operating with drive speeds of almost 50 frames per second — if you're willing to invest a couple thousands dollars just for the body alone.

    But if you want to get to that speed, there's a way to do it, even with a cell phone. Shoot a video instead.

    A couple caveats first: You're likely not going to get the full pixel count your sensor normally gives you since video is cropped to either a 720 or 1080 format. You might get closer if you're using a 4k video resolution.

    You'll also have an image that's in a 16:9 aspect ratio, but that's not a deal breaker. And you'll most likely be working with a jpg image, which hobbles some post-processing options you would have if you were shooting raw instead.

    But this is a cheap, effective way to get even higher motor-drive speeds than your camera can produce. Some cameras will let you shoot video at 60 frames per second (that's the speed that makes professional and college sports coverage on TV look crystal clear).

    I actually discovered this trick while shooting video of training a National Guard brigade was doing at the Yakima Training Center, a sprawling military installation in Central Washington*. One of the things I shot was a crew firing a howitzer.

    I wanted to send a picture to one of my sons, so I scrubbed through the video to find a picture of the smoke coming out of the gun's muzzle block. I found my frame and did a capture with the editing software I was using, and then processed the photo.

    It was at that point that I discovered I had something incredible. In the photo below, you can see the artillery shell coming out of the cloud of smoke at the end of the barrel.

    I doubt I would have got that if I were shooting stills with the drive running (for that camera) at its full speed of 6 fps.

    It's not something I would do every day, but if you have a situation where you need that extra bit of speed in the number of frames you're shooting to catch some fast-paced action, your camera's video function is a great tool to have in your box.

    (*The Yakima Training Center is where they also filmed the combat scenes in Audie Murphy's "To Hell and Back.")

Know your flash's guide number at a glance

    If you aren't using your flash in automatic mode, you're going to need to figure out things like aperture and power levels on your own.

    But first you need to know how much power your flash has, and for that you need the guide number.

    The guide number is a figure that shows you the flash's power, based on a formual of distance times aperture. The higher the number, the farther away a subject can be and still illuminated adequately.

    In the old days, we would have to do some math to figure out the aperture setting for a subject at a particular distance, or use a table on the back of the flash that would tell you what settings to use for a subject at varying distances.

   Today, if you want to use your flash manually, there are calculators you can use on your phone, such as the one in the Photographer's Companion, where you input a few variables, such as the guide number, flash power and either aperture or distance, and it will do the rest of the work to find the right camera settings.

   If you don't know the flash number, you can look it up in the flash manual, which you can also upload to your phone so you'll have it at all times.

    If you have just one flash, remembering the guide number is simple enough. But what if you use more than one flash, and they have different guide numbers.

    What I have done is made a label showing the guide number that I affix to the side of each flash unit, so I can tell with a quick glance what the guide number is when figuring either how far away to put the flash, or what aperture I'm going to need to get the right look.

    When I made my labels, I used a word processing program and set it for an inverted output, with white numbers on a black background, making the label look inconspicuous, even more than the old tables that used to be on flash units.

Turn household items into lighting modifiers

    Daniel Norton one of the photographers who appears regularly on Adorama's Youtube channel did a video during the COVID-19 lockdown demonstrating how to turn things around the house into lighting modifers.

    Among the items he uses to modify his single speed light are tin foil and poster board reflectors, as well as wine bottles and honey to create different effects.

    While he was doing it with a small figure on his desktop, the techniques could work for portraits.

DIY flash grid lets you put subject in spotlight

     We've talked earlier about softboxes, which allow you to make your light bigger and softer, which can be a flattering look.

    But there are times when you want the light to be tighter. For example, if you want to just do a rim light, you don't want to completely light up the subject.

    This is where grids come in. The grid creates a narrow spot of light with feathered edges so the light falls off. It does this by forcing the light through a grid, channeling it in one direction and reducing spread.

    Photographers use grids on all kinds of flashes, with some covering large softboxes, while others fit over basic speed lights. However, the smallest of those are $7 at some retailers.

    If you are looking to make your own, or make a custom set, you can do it for a few cents a piece.

    There's a couple videos out on Youtube showing how to make them, but the one I like is done by Spyros Heniadis. Instead of using straws to form the grid as some suggest, he recommends using corrugated plastic, also known as coroplast. What I like about it is you just assemble strips of material to a size that would cover your flash head. No need to glue individual straws together, assuming you can find black straws where you live.

    You can pick up coroplast at craft stores or sign shops, or just grab some campaign signs after the election, but you want to make sure the material is black. Other colors will cause a color cast, and white will spread the light out, defeating the entire reason you're doing this in the first place.

 

 

    One thing I did different was instead of using craft foam for the body of the grid, I used cardboard from postal mailing boxes that I used to make the softboxes, and then wrapped it in black duct tape to both hold it together and give it a more professional look.

    Here's a shot I took without the grid.

    

    And here's one with the grid.

 

    I used a 1-inch long grid, but you can use different lengths to either widen or narrow the field. With this method you can make a variety of grids for different situations.

How to get decent portraits with on-camera flash

     So you've decided to get a speed light to go with your camera, but you don't have a way to use it off-camera, or you don't have the space for a portrait.

    What do you do?

    Gavin Hoey, one of the photographers featured on Adorama's Youtube channel (disclaimer: I am not sponsored by Adorama, but its channel is a good resource) goes over some ways to get flattering light with a camera-mounted flash.

    (Note: This is for flash units mounted on the camera's hot shoe. If you're using a pop-up flash, these tips will not work for you, but check out the diffuser we featured earlier.)

     What Hoey suggests is essentially bouncing the flash, preferably off a white or neutral-colored wall or ceiling. If you bounce off a colored wall, you're going to get a color cast.

    But what I found interesting was Hoey's suggestion for bouncing off a wall behind you if the room's small enough. Along with creating a softer light by bouncing it off a larger reflector, this over-the-shoulder move can also allow you to avoid the harsh look of a subject against a black background since the foreground/background light are now more balanced, thanks to to the inverse-square law.

    For those not familiar with this law of physics, light falls off at the inverse square of the distance from the light source. At 3 feet away from the light source, the light is 1/9 the brightness it would have at 1 foot. As you go farther out, the difference decreases, so you can actually get a more even lighting the farther back the light source.

    You do have to pay for that with either a wider aperture or a higher ISO.

     Another tip Hoey offered for overall studio photography is to first take a test shot with the settings you plan to use but no flash. The goal is to have the frame completely black, which means that the ambient lighting will not have any effect on the picture, and that all lighting will come from the flash. That can also be helpful if you're in a situation with mixed light sources. 

Power strips give you options when traveling

 

Photo by Kier In Sight on Unsplash 

 

     As the pandemic appears to be receding, we can start thinking about traveling.

 

    With more of our camera gear relying on batteries, whether it's a smartphone or a DSLR, we need to make sure we have chargers we can plug in. And let's not forget our computers.

 

    It's been my experience in my travels, that one thing hotel/motels skimp on in the rooms is power outlets. There usually aren't too many that are readily accessible, which was probably OK back in the pre-digital age, but it's more than a minor inconvenience today.

 

    And if, as I've done, you have to share a room with somebody, that can create a scramble for the available plugs or having to take turns charging your stuff. While cellphones can charge relatively quickly, battery charging for cameras can take hours, which can create friction with your roomie.

 

    Plus, if you have chargers scattered throughout the room, using plugs in the bathroom and other places, it becomes too easy to forget one and either have to buy a new one, or hope that the hotel staff will send it to you.

 

    (I had to have a hotel send me a shirt I forgot was hanging in the closet. I count myself lucky.)

 

    But there's a way to satisfy most of your electrical needs with just one outlet. Throw a power strip in with your luggage.

 

    A decent power strip will give you anywhere from three to five outlets, depending on the size of the strip. I would go for the largest strip you can afford to buy, as well as can easily pack in your luggage, as sometimes chargers can tie up two outlets.

 

    If you're traveling abroad to where the power system's different than in your country, you only need to buy one plug-in power converter. Just plug the strip into the converter, and you have outlets running with the same electricity you find at home.

 

    And if you're out in the field and you don't have the type of chargers you can plug into your car outlet, you can buy a power inverter that will convert the 12-volt DC current to regular AC electricity. Just make sure your inverter and power strip can handle the power demands.

   

 

Pencil boxes can bring order from chaos with your camera gear

    If you are taking your photography seriously, you're going to to be dealing with more gear than just your camera.

    Even if you manage to keep your Gear Acquisition Syndrome in check, you're going to wind up with stuff that you need to find a place for in your bag or studio.

    While camera bags do offer some ways to organize gear, such as dividers to create spots for lenses, cameras and other larger accessories, there are going to be smaller items that you just don't want rattling around loose in your bag.

    Sometimes there are tiny pockets you can use for some accessories such as lens cleaning cloths and memory card holders, but their space is limited, especially if you're packing extra batteries or other accessories.

    There's a solution you can find in the school-supply aisles of big-box, office supply or dollar stores that can help you put everything in its place and make your bag or studio a bit more orderly: Pencil boxes.

    These plastic boxes that are typically used for holding pencils, pens, chalk, erasers and similar classroom sundries can be used to store or carry gear. I use two to corral and organize my gear. 

    I use one box for the audio gear I use when shooting video (recorder, a couple plug-in lavaliere microphones, a USB charger and cable, patch cord and earbuds), and the other contains the batteries I need for my camera, flash and recorder, as well as a battery adapter so I can use AA penlight batteries in one of my DSLRs.

    I made labels for mine by typing up the names of the boxes' content category in a word-processing document and then used clear tape to put labels on each end of the box, so I know which one I'm grabbing regardless of how it got put back. If you have a label maker, either one that prints out the label on tape or the old fashioned ones that embossed each letter on a plastic tape, go for it.

    This setup ensures the stuff doesn't fall out of my bag, and provides some protection in the bag. It also creates a bit of a modular setup, allowing me to make it easier to better customize my gear load for a specific situation. For example, I do the online broadcast of our church services, so I just take my audio kit from my bag, taking just what I need and leaving the rest at home.

    The boxes can also be used to organize gear in your studio or storage space at home, avoiding a photographic junk drawer.

 

    The audio, left, and battery boxes inside my camera bag, sandwiching the case for my speedlight.

Get better portraits with DIY clamshell lighting setup

     One way to get good portrait lighting is to use "clamshell" lighting, and there's a way to do it without without triggering Gear Acquisition Syndrome.

    It's a lighting technique that can work with all sorts of portraits. What it does is uses a light source from above and one from below to light the subject. It's a relatively soft light and does not create harsh shadows.

    But you don't need an elaborate studio setup to pull it off, as Alastair Currill, an English photographer, demonstrates in this Youtube video. You can do it with one flash, a modifer to soften that light and a reflector to bounce the light back up to the subject.

    You can use a speedlight for the flash, and if you don't have an umbrella, you can use the DIY softbox and light stand we talked about earlier. As for the bottom light, you can use a table with a white cover or a foam board from the local big-box or dollar store.

    He also has another video demonstrating the principles behind clamshell lighting, albeit using more expensive studio gear.

Photographer's Companion a Swiss-Army-Knife app for serious shooters

    There are lots of apps on the market that can help with your photography.

    You can find apps that will turn your phone into a light meter, tell you when blue and golden hour are in your area and do a variety of functions.

    But if you have limited space on your phones (because companies will make it virtually impossible to delete some of the apps on your phone even if you'll never use them), you may find yourself picking and choosing which program to use.

    Or, you can just download one that can do most of the tasks you'll need.

    I would submit that the Photographer's Companion, available for both Android and iPhone, fits the bill nicely. Developed by Stef Software, it comes in free and paid versions, with the main difference being that the paid version has no ads and a few extra features.

    Personally, I've found the free version suits my needs, as most of the additional features in the paid version are things I wouldn't use or, in the case of flashlight and level, I already have on my phone or on my camera.

    

    For starters, this program gives you at the very minimum a reflected light meter. If your phone has a light sensor on it (this is usually used to adjust your screen brightness in relation to ambient light), you also get access to an incident light meter. This can come in handy when you're shooting manual or, as I did when I did a little photo project with my mother's old Argus C-3, the camera you're using doesn't have a light meter.

    You can also select your camera model or input the specifications, so it will be able to calculate things such as field of view and depth of field for your specific camera and lens combination. You can also use it to calculate proper flash settings, which is helpful in studio work or if you're using a non-dedicated flash on your camera.

    It can also show you when sunrise and sunset will occur in your area, as well as when to expect blue and golden hours, those times when light is at its most magical for photography. It can also show you the phase of the moon and the optimal exposure time for getting a picture of the moon or a moonlit scene.

    For those into astrophotography, it also uses the NPF rule for calculating the best exposure time to get no star trails.

    And each section has a help button that takes you to the website to get a tutorial on how to use that particular part of the app, as well as explain the principle behind it.

    This is not sponsored content, and I only use the free version, but I recommend it as a way to get some good high-quality photo apps without straining your phone's memory.

How to know the spare battery in your camera bag's at full power

 

 

 (Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash)

    Unless you're using your cellphone as your camera, batteries are going to be one of those accessories you'll need for your camera.

    It's usually a good idea to have more than one battery for your camera, as it gives you backup if you are out shooting for an extended period.

    But with multiple batteries you need to come up with a way to ensure that your batteries are fully charged. Trust me, there's nothing more frustrating than being out shooting and discovering that your spares are deader than Elvis.

    There are a few methods for doing this. One involves putting a little stick-on slider device on the battery, where the green side means the battery's good and the red side means the battery is due for a date with the charger.

    Those work fine if the battery clips to the outside of the camera or light body. My wife's camcorder batteries are mounted on the outside, so a setup like that would work just fine.

    But this doesn't work with the tight tolerances of an internal battery compartment.

    I've come up with a simple system, particularly after acquiring a second camera body and purchasing additional batteries for it.

    First, I've numbered each battery to ensure that they're all getting equal wear and tear, as well as knowing that the next number in sequence should have a full charge.

    Then, I added a rubber band to the battery and the plastic bag it sits in. If the battery's good to go, the band is wrapped around the bag. If the battery's spent, I put the rubber band in the bag with the battery, giving me an additional visual cue.

    I do something similar with the rechargeable AA batteries I use for my voice recorder and speedlight. If the batteries are wrapped with a rubber band, they're charged. If they're loose in their bag, then they're dead soldiers.

    What are your suggestions for tracking your batteries?

Need to RTFM? There's an app for that

    For a lot of people, the manual that comes with your camera or other equipment might be something you read once — if at all —and put it away.

    But with today's cameras being essentially computers with a lens, it doesn't hurt to keep the manual handy, especially when you need to remember how to use a feature that you've only operated occasionally.

    The obvious answer is to keep the camera manual in your bag, but that puts additional wear and tear on a cheaply made paperback. Heck, even the cover's paper, so it's not going to last too long in your bag.

    Or you might be like me, and there's no room in your bag for all the gear you carry.

    (For the record, I've never regretted having something in there and not using it. On the other hand, I've kicked myself plenty of times because I didn't have a piece of gear I realized I needed.)

    But there's a high tech way to carry the manual for every piece of kit you have without it taking up any additional room, or getting chewed to pieces in your bag.

    Every manufacturer has downloadable PDFs for their manuals on their websites. All you need to do is log in with your phone/tablet and download the file, where you can read it using a PDF reader on your phone.

    Personally, I also upload the books on to Play Books, Google's e-book reader, which can also handle PDFs. It allows me to access the books from my phone or any computer. You can do the same with the Books app on the iPhone.

    Since there's also a local copy on my phone, I can access the files on my phone even if there's no service.

    In addition to my camera manuals, I also have the instructions for my digital recorder and my speedlight on the virtual bookshelf.

Recycle film canister as DSLR pop-up flash diffuser.

    While the pop-up flash on many DSLRs are a way to get some extra light in a picture, it's not the best.

    These flashes, which take up the top part of the pentaprism, are typically tiny and work best at the range of 12 feet. It's also a hard light, which means a subject is going to have hard shadows around it and be harshly lit.

    I only use mine in situations where there's no other way to get the picture or as a wireless trigger for other flashes.

    But over on Instructables, user deth2all presents a way to take some of the harsh edge off the pop-up's light, and even add some color to it as well. And if you used to do a lot of film shooting with Fujifilm, or know someone who did, you can get the main part you're going to need.

   (deth2all/cc-by-sa)

    The diffuser consists of the plastic film canister that protected the film cartridge before use and later when sitting in your gadget bag. It has to be Fujifilm, which used a white, translucent plastic to make its cases; Kodak's canisters are all black.

    The project involves cutting away part of the canister's side wall, so it can fit over the flash head. He also cuts a slot in the side of the cap, which is glued back in. That slot is used to insert a colored gel for various effects, as well as balancing the flash with another light source.

    (He recommends getting sample packs of gels from art-supply stores, but those have since stopped providing them. You can make some of your own by cutting up colored plastic report covers.)

    The results he posted on the site show some reasonably good results. If you're looking to improve your flash photography but aren't ready to make the leap to speed lights, this is a good option.

Getting 360-degree panoramas with your cellphone with help from Google

    We've all seen those photos on Google Earth and Street View that show a 360-degree panorama of a subject.

    It gives you a chance to see an area as if you were actually there. When my wife and I were house-hunting after I had gone ahead for a job, we would use Street View to take virtual driving tours of neighborhoods where we were looking to buy, so we could both get a sense of the area.

    While Google uses a sophisticated camera mounted on a car, or backpack for trail views, and dedicated 360-degree cameras are in the triple digits, you can do it yourself inexpensively if you have a cellphone camera.

    If you use an Android (sorry, iPhone users), you can get a VPai Clip for your phone. The golf-ball-sized device, which I got online for less than $20, is not a camera as much as it is a pair of lenses for your cellphone. Each lens captures a 210-degree field of view.

    I know what you're thinking: That adds up to 420 degrees, and a full circle's only 360 degrees. Well, those additional 60 degrees allows the software you download on your phone to overlap and seamlessly stich the pictures together to create a 360-degree photo that you can see as a panorama, a sphere or a "little planet."

    If your phone's only capable of FHD video resolution, the image quality may not be the greatest and you'll have to upsize it to post it on Google Street view, but in the words of Krusty the Clown, it's not just good, it's good enough. Check out this one I did recently.

    But if you're using an iPhone, or don't want to get an attachment for your phone, Street View has you covered.

    The Google app has an option that allows you to use your camera's full resolution and optics to capture a photo sphere. It takes patience, a willingness to have people think you're a bit insane and a pair of steady hands.

    When you go to take a picture, the app will display a dot on the screen for you to line up on, and when you line up it takes the picture and moves the dot to the next spot. Eventually, you'll do a full 360-degree arc horizontally and vertically.

    If you do this, it's important to stay in one spot and turn in place, otherwise it won't quite line up as well, and you might miss spots, as I did in this one of the Alamo.

    Or this one in the torpedo room of the USS Blueback in Portland, Ore.

    But if things work out, you get a reasonably good shot, like this one:

    Let me know what you think, or if you try this, share links in the comments below.