"I can totally make that..."

Famous last words.

Spend any amount of time with me window shopping and before you know it, I'm want to utter that phrase. Or I say something like, "please. don't buy that....you could totally make that. I'll show you!" I'm not sure if it's the girl scout in me or having a mother who was, literally and figuratively, the mother of all DIYers {someday I'll have her scan photos of the Halloween costumes she made for us as kids} but the blog 'P.S. I made this' ranks high on my "frequent visit for inspiration" list.

Many years ago, when I first saw John Derian's work, I made a feeble attempt to reproduce my version of his decoupaged plates. While, my efforts looked more like a Pier one plate smeared with Mod Podge and some clipped photos, it was not remotely in the same realm as the master's work. However, seeing this posting, inspired me to maybe give it another try:

Or what about this affordable, adorable, summer scarf:

This nautical flag sign would be great at a beach themed party, there are so many spin offs of this you could create.

Today over at Refinery29 {a fantastic site } P.S I made this has created a special, sparkly DIY project just for the readers of Refinery 29. check it out here

As a blue eyed man once said, "If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere".

Now, go, get inspired and be creative.

On Assignment: Teeny Tiny Halophiles

I was shooting scientists at the Center of Marine Biology at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore recently. Typical in-lab stuff, as in this through-the-window shot of work being done in a refrigerated incubator.

But what really caught my eye was a collection of halophile living in pure salt crystals. They would indeed be pretty happy in such a crystal, as the very definition of a halophile is an organism that can thrive in a high-salinity environment. They can even withstand extreme radiation to survive in space. Very cool stuff.

But the crystals in which the salt-o-holics were living were barely a quarter inch across. Not even the size of a pencil eraser. So even with my D300 crop on a 55 micro, I was not going to get close enough.

That is one reason why I always carry my point-and-shoot with me when shooting a job. Not only can it gather audio and/or video in a pinch, but it gets insanely close in macro mode.

Inside, a walk-thru of my efforts at getting a decent shot of the little pink buggers with a consumer camera.
__________


My Ultra-Macro Kit

As I have said before, I am big on getting detail shots. And when those details are of something really small, here's my extreme macro setup:


A Canon G9, an SB-800 out of my speedlight bag and the ten-meter version of YongNuo's aftermarket TTL cord. (The link is to the 1m version.)

That cord, by the way, is also my fail-safe remote trigger for my DSLRs just in case I am working in an environment so cluttered with RF that the Pocket Wizards go crazy.

I saw the 10m cord at PMA this year, and wrangled a sample out of YongNuo with some sweet talkin' (and a little ~$50 PayPal chaser). They do not normally sell direct, and if I had a retail source for these or I would link it. If you know where to snag one, please hit us in the comments.

I love it because it gives me some wiggle room as to where I place my closest corded SB-800, then I can slave all of the other '800's off of that flash. Great to have in a pinch, and no batts required. And with the Nikon version cord on the Canon G9, it makes the camera think there is no flash on top. Still fires the corded flash, but the camera does not limit the shutter speed to 1/500th. Which of course, makes it great for hi-speed syncing up to 1/2500th of a sec.

But in this case, it would allow me to use that cord length to position my flash wherever I wanted in a macro environment. So it fits the bill nicely.


Right out of the gate I tried something to use the crystals as lenses of sorts. I figured they would bend the light and highlight the colonies of halophiles living inside.

My background is a sheet of printer paper, which is always easy to scrounge. I laid the crystals on the paper, and placed the flash a few inches away, lying on the same paper. This gave a hard angle to the light to get the cool transmissive qualities of the crystals. A second, folded sheet of paper on the other side for fill and you keep your contrast range manageable.



Here is the diagram. Nothing great, just a first look.

And here is a good example of what I was talking about earlier, as far as neutral density filters being very useful. My limits on the G9 were ISO 80, at f/8. Even at a 128th power on the SB-800, you can only bring that flash in to about 10 inches before you are too hot. A little ND on the flash would give me a lot more flexibility for light placement. Be nice to get in closer with the light on a subject this tiny.

As you can see in the highly technical scale drawing, the G9 gets me so close the front element is almost touching the crystals. You can only get this close on the wide setting of the lens, and with the camera set in macro mode.

Speaking of the G9, I skipped the G10 but am pining for the new Canon G11, as they finally went after the only thing that was wrong with these little gems -- chip noise at higher ISOs. They actually dropped the megapixels and went for better quality. Hallelujah. Plus, it has an articulating screen, which will be awesome for video.

So this is (maybe) okay for a first attempt. But the translucence of the crystals isn't really happening for me, and there is no relief showing the internal imperfections in which the halophiles are growing. Strike one.


For a second try, I backlight them. Same gear setup, but now I am shooting through the crystals and right into the light source. I used a piece of printer paper as a diffuser in between. This is starting to make the halophile colonies look better, but what I really need is a dark background -- with backlight -- to highlight the imperfections and colonies.



Here is the diagram for that one. The counter is actually a very dark gray, but I am picking up the reflections of the backlight paper because of my shooting angle. So it all looks white.

Again, close but no cigar -- strike two.

I can see the transparent qualities of the crystal, but the internal imperfections are washed over by the white backlight.


By raising my shooting angle up a little, I get the dark gray countertop as my background, and still get that backlight refracted by the imperfections in the crystals.

Ooooo, that's a BINGO.

Now, you get both the translucent and transparent qualities of both the crystals and halophiles from one light source. And a with a sheet of printer paper as your only light mod, no less.



Here is the angle. Same, exact lighting setup as above, but the elevated camera angle makes the difference. Swaps the white background for a dark one, and now the crystals pop.

Raiding the printer paper drawer is standard operating procedure when I am going to shoot anything small. I'll almost always be able to use paper as a background, a tiny light tent, a reflector -- something.


A Sucker for the Little Hacks

I spent all day shooting photos like the one at the top of the post -- three or four speedlights, gels, etc.

But the one I was most pleased with at the end of the day was the halophiles in crystal on the dark background. And the scientists were pretty psyched, too. As far as they know, no one had yet made a quality close-up of halophile colonies embedded in salt crystals.

So I got that going for me. Which is nice.

If you want to see more about what they are studying, start here. Suffice to say, those hardy little guys will dance on our graves. Amazing little creatures -- and even more of a salt-o-holic than I am.
__________


(For many more articles like this, see the On Assignment section.)

Ressurection of Jesus | Amena Brown

I saw this in Facebook and I have been blown away with how Amena Brown created this video. She's one talented woman.

Check the video. It will change your life!

God Bless you!

Rosco Thinks Big by Thinking Small

Okay, so maybe I am predisposed to like this new gel kit, what with that catchy name and all. But this was the result of a very organic collaboration between a web community and an existing business, in which we were both the problem and the solution.

Basically, too much of a good thing almost made the good thing go away. Then we saved it by making the good thing better.

More, inside.
__________



A Little Backstory

Rosco has long had a sample program, wherein they give away packs of gels that are sized to do a serviceable job as small flash gels.

As long as you extend them a little (and don't mind the spindle hole) you can surf the whole rainbow for free if you can get your mitts on a pack or two. This program chugged along just fine, with the sample packs serving as a nice gateway drug for the full-sized, $7 20x24-inch sheets.

After all, how useful is a sample gel for a ProPhoto shooter? Not very.

But people were always quietly using the sample packs for small flashes, holes or no holes. You'd use the "good" gels and chuck the rest. A little wasteful, but what the hell -- they're free, right?

And that works fine, as long as some bonehead doesn't come along and send a gazillion people emailing in for free sample packs. Which is exactly what happened.

They went from losing an acceptable amount of money to losing way, way too much money on the free samples. Just because the gels were free to us does not mean they were free for Rosco. Ditto the multiple, full-time positions they had dedicated to cutting and assembling them. (Heck, I thought they had, like, a replicator or something ... )

So, about a year ago the sample program was put on the chopping block. Which was, of course, the worst possible outcome. So I got in touch with a man named Joel Svendsen at Rosco, and we put our heads together to come up with a solution.


The Strobist Collection



So, there it is. There are 55 gels in all -- multiple copies of the really useful ones, with no holes. (Only single copies are shown here, for illustration of color selection.) The kit is $9.95, suggested retail price. And while $9.95 is not as good as free, free was not going to keep happening.

There have been several parties -- individuals like Mason Trullinger and stores like MPEX -- buying big gels and cutting them into kits for resale. But the scale was not sufficient to offset the problem of the demand for increasingly expensive free samples.

With this kit (not free but still chump change on the photo gear scale) we go from nearly exploiting a situation to death to sustaining it. I think this is a fantastic solution by Rosco, as they were full ready to kill the sample program before we got them to think about it differently.

Because of the multiple copies of the most-used gels, one kit should last several times longer than a typical sample pack. And this is an honest transactional model which is sustainable for Rosco, for photo retailers and for small-flash photographers.

Plus, I'm gonna make an absolute killing in licensing fees.

(Kidding.)

Actually I am not getting any money from Rosco, because licensing fees paid by them at the OEM level would be roughly tripled by the time they were passed through a distributor and on to retail. Futher, Strobist has committed to advertising support for the project in the form of 3,000,000 free pageviews for a banner ad for the packs. I want to see them succeed and I hope you'll support them, too.


Which Colors, and Why

A lot of thought went into the color and frequency selection, and I think we did a good job with it.


Five each:

• Full-cut, half and quarter CTO's and CTB's. In addition to their primary use as light balancing gels, this provides a calibrated warm-up/cool-down capability. Additionally, they offset each other (in identical strengths) for cool/warm dual lighting. Where both lights hit, the light is neutral, but shadows from each light are warm or cool. (Neat building blocks for cool portraiture or conceptual product/still life. CTO's and CTB's are among the most useful gels in the Rosco library.

• Rosco 08 - The classic gel for skin on a key light. Once you shoot skin with a slight warming gel, you will never go back. I go back and forth between this and a 1/8 CTO, but I think the #08 is better. Leave your camera WB on daylight and warm the key light. Why warm the whole frame, ambient and all, by WB'ing to flash setting? Warm just the subject and leave those background skies blue.

• Tough Plusgreen - For balancing with cool fluorescents. In a pinch, this can be combined with varying degrees of CTO warming gels (see above) to balance with warmer fluorescents.

[NOTE: In this setup, your photos would be warm, overall. But the flash and FL's would be consistent, which is the important thing. You then shift it all to neutral in post. And besides, I have a an idea for an all-in solution for flash and *any* color of light source coming shortly. Stay tuned.]


Two each:

• N9, N6 and N15 neutral density (ND) filters -- These will make any manual flash more useful. In 1/2-, 2- and 3-stop strengths, you can turn a full-power-only eBay special flash into a useful unit. Also, flashes with full-stop manual setting (Vivitar 285, LumoPro LP120, etc.) get partial-stop fine tuning. Most important, you can now take any variable-manual flash way down below 1/128th power, for killing unneeded power for close-up work.


One each:

Sometimes you gotta add a little more cowbell to kick it up a notch. While I had a strong hand in choosing the above gels, the folks at Rosco took the lead on selecting nine different colors for adding strong effects when you need them. These guys know color and lighting, and I happily deferred to their expertise here.


UPDATE: Even tho the Rosco site lists them as 1"x3", they are actually 1.5"x3.25". This is straight from the horse's mouth. FWIW, Rosco mistakenly forwarded the dimensions of an old sample pack when doing the page. Please use the bigger measurement when checking to see if the gels will cover your particular model of strobe.


Available Now

Rosco already has a network of U.S. dealers stocking the gels, and you can see where to get them (and the colors they chose for the effects gels) here. In the UK/EU, The Flash Centre will be carrying them too. I'll post a link when they are up and running.

Thanks for helping to spread the word. And if your local dealer carries Rosco gels, feel free to suggest that they consider us small-flash shooters and get onboard.

Savage Review: Pneumatic Posing Table

I try not to spend much space here on product reviews. And generally when I do review something, it is because I really like it.

Usually, my logic is, "Why waste both my time and yours if I am just going to dog something?"

Usually.
__________


What a Posing Table is Supposed to Do

The idea is simple. The combination of a stool and posing table allows for a comfortable support for arms, elbows, etc., so you can have lots of flexibility with body position when shooting relatively tight portraits.

And to be fair, I will give Savage props for hitting a very attractive price point -- $120. That's not only for the table, but a stool and two fill reflectors (silver and gold) to fit the table.

That would be a killer deal. If it worked.


That Sinking Feeling

The problem is that it simply will not support even modest pressure on the table. It purports to be adjustable, but as soon as you pose on it, it slooooowly heads south.

Clearly they were cutting some corners to hit the price. But jeez, this thing is about as stable as North Korea.

I took a chance on it even though one of the two reviews on Amazon mentioned the exact same problem. I figured maybe the guy got one that was a little out of whack and I'd be luckier.

With mine doing exactly the same thing, I have to think there might be a design problem at play. Sad, as I only planned to give it light duty and thought I could get away with going the bargain route.

As a stop gap, I have taken to wrapping a collar of gaffer's tape around the center column where I want the handy quicksand action to stop. (You can better see the tape collar if you click through on the pic above.) But I really should not have to do that.

If you are in the market for a posing table, I'd recommend skipping this one. And if you have one to recommend, please hit us with a comment and link below.

peace out

I remember summer, originally uploaded by kikafluff.

blog out loud sf>>

Rebecca and me, raring to get the party started...

This past Sunday, fellow blogger Rebecca Orlov {loving.living.small and Apartment Therapy L.A.} and I took our Blog Out Loud, blogging symposium to San Francisco. The venue,BellJar, was simply, stunning. If you haven't already been there, git on in there.

We had a completely stellar and generous panel {see below photos} filled with such great experiences and ideas to share. The audience, was as much a part of the evening as anything. Great input and questions. It was fun to meet, in person, readers and fellow bloggers~ who added to the night through their great dialogue.

We began the morning by having a get together at the de Young museum cafe {a little shout out to the staff there, who were incredibly helpful and cheerful}

In the fore ground, my two oldest friends, Allyson and Analisa represented the 'non-blogger' contingency and my personal support system. {thank you, you two!!}

Lynn Goldfinger- Abram, telling the group some great little story.

and then on to BellJar....

pre-event shopping takes place among the gorgeous little things.

our audio video guy, Matt, gettin' set.

Nick filled in as bar tender to the 3buck.

wow. we had some serious blog out loud booty for the first 20 guests. All of this talented work came from etsy/bloggers who donated their work: paper pastries, we collective, tiny pine press, ink and wit, erin vale design, ferm living {also a panel member}

thank you Fleurt design for you overly generous floral art.

old friend, SF landscape designer, blogger of garden rooms, Robyn Pope, contributed this beautiful, organic gathering {this was one of two!I know I keep saying this but, the generosity was unbelievable}

and so we begin...

Our talented group of bloggers from Left, Cassandra LaValle of coco+kelley, Christiana Coop of Ferm living/clever spaces, Lynn Goldfinger-Abram of Paris Hotel Boutique, Susannah Murdock of Petunia Faced Girl, Sasha Wingate of BellJar, Anne Sage of The City Sage

The incredibly talented designer, Christiana Coop of Ferm Living and blogger of Clever Spaces.

Petunia faced girl blogger, Susannah Murdock chats it up {the real petunia faced girl made a brief cameo}

doing our best to look like a sorority pledge day photo.

aaaaand......it's a wrap.

Thank you each and everyone who participated whether you were panel or audience. And for those of you unable to make it, we missed you and hope you can join us next time....

please check blogoutloudevent.com for the video content of this event, coming soon!

Boot Camp II, Assignment 3: Results

Greetings from The Cave, as my new (future) basement/office is known around the house. Today we are reporting back on BCII, #3, in which you were assigned to light and shoot a residential space of some kind.

Hit the jump for results, and one lucky winner . . .
__________


This Space Intentionally Left Blank

As you can tell, we're not real big on furniture yet in The Cave, but that'll change soon. I am roughing in what I want to do with it now, and will be hitting you guys up for creative ideas on how to handle the walls and other surfaces shortly.

I want to do something cool with it, and there are a lot of visual people who hang around the site. More on that in an upcoming post.

But I did want to shoot the empty end of the room (nary even a window) as an example that you can create shape and form with little more than some light and a big box. After all, this assignment was not so much about who could find the coolest room, but rather how you approached the space you chose.

Speaking of rooms, most everyone got the residential thing under control. Although some houses might have been best suited for The Addams Family. Others were damn close to a head shop feel.

Some people chose to go the detail shot route. And we even got the obligatory example of blatant pandering, natch.

Lots of kitchens were entered -- including some that were great examples of complex problem solving. But they were short on nuance, which admittedly is very difficult to pull out of a kitchen shot. But impressive balancing, nonetheless.

If the number of entries is any indicator, this third assignment in the progressively harder series kicked some of your butts. We had fewer than half the number of entries as compared to the other two assignments. (Wait'll you get to #4.)


On to the Short List

I liked the geometry of this frame, and the strobe through the door looked very much like natural light.

But I did want to crawl in there and turn the lamp on -- just burn it in with a little shutter for some glow and another layer ...


There was lots to love about this one, too: The intense color, the balanced light (ambient interior, strobe, sunset and fire) and the graphic lines in the composition.

On the downside, there was one thing I kept going back to. If you are going to go that geometrical, and have your lines that close to being straight, make an effort to square off the verticals and the horizontals. If you do not have a shift camera, you can always offset your shooting position to one side and crop to get the same effect.


Lotsa cool things going on in here, too, where Lucas uses light against a dark palette to create a moody still life out of a dim corner in a room.

Click through for setup pics, which he kindly included.

(Many thanks for that, Lucas!)


This picture was certainly harder than it looks, and was built on a bounced flash to create the floor to the exposure.

Again, if you are gonna be that close, try like heck to get those verticals vertical. Since it is built on flash, a stretch here might be to put something on the TV screen and burn it in with an ambient exposure.



This living room from Thailand also went for the graphic look, with the composition creating layers of nested squares and rectangles. They took great care to dress both the vertical and horizontal lines, which added to the impact of the design.

Also, in the less-is-more department, this room is largely an ambient light shot. The overheads were softened with tissue paper to smooth them out a little, tho.

The lone, snooted flash details the Buddha busts, which appear to be getting some top ambient, too. Food for thought: You can sometimes accomplish more by going with the ambient flow, and using your flash to tweak problem areas. This photo is a great example of that.


This photo could very well be ambient-only, as Kevin sells the balance between the fill and the defining shaft of light very well.

But in fact, it is completely lit by flash. The "ambient fill" is a second strobe bounced off of the ceiling, several stops down. (The shaft of light is courtesy a 6" DIY snoot.)


I like form revealed by the exterior flash shot through the blinds. And it is busy enough so where the keystoned vertical on the right is not very distracting, either. (You can get away with a lot when you have so many things going on in your photo.)

I also like the snooted spot, calling attention to the back of the frame, although I would have dropped it a stop or two. If that is taken down to where it is so subtle it is almost not there, it starts to look pretty slick.


Last but not least, a photo which engages in the sincerest form of flattery. What Daniel lacks in abject originality, he more than makes up for in execution -- the flowers in the monochrome setting make the photo.

Nicely done.

And much better than mine, to be honest.
__________


And the Winner Is . . .

This assignment probably surprised some of you by being deceptively difficult. It can be hard to balance windows, incandescents and flash. Let alone an CFLs thrown in there. But at least the subjects weren't moving, right? And your significant other probably got a clean room out of the deal.

Frankly, it's a pick 'em on any of these -- and several others, in the comments of which I left little notes. But who gets the multiple-flash (and boom) Strobist Kit, the lighting DVDs and the Trade Secret cards?

Click here to find out...

Please Remove Ski Mask Before Entering Bank

Q: What the best thing is about getting beaten up with a baseball bat?

A: How good it feels when it stops. And that is how I feel about the end of anonymous comments on Strobist. As of this past weekend, they are a thing of the past.


Fortunately, it is free and very easy to comment using any of a number of different kinds of accounts. Please click through to this or any other post's comment section to see how to do it.

While you're at it, please take a look at the commenting guidelines. And don't forget to grab a name tag.

-30-

ooh! la la! ce qu'est une vente!

Over the weekend, wandering around Mill Valley, my friends and I went not once but twice into Maison Reve. The beautiful home store showcasing 'urban farmhouse living' is hard to keep away from. Lucky for those of you in the Bay area, the shop will be having their monthly tag sale this coming Saturday, August 29th, 8-noon

I over heard the shop owner explaining that the sale consists of treasures and finds {not store stock} It's like having a French flea market in your own backyard...if you're in the SF area. I'm so sad to be missing this amazing sale.

Photos from the last event look like a treasure trove of finds.

Is your wallet beginning to wimper?

• 108 Throckmorton Ave
• Mill Valley, CA 94941
• ph. 415.383.9700
• www.maisonreve.com