Taking lightning photographs are actually surprisingly very very easy!For such kind of photographs (I accidentally,on the way took this one) you almost don’t need any pro equipment at all.
Get in and read my easy and simple tips on how make that simple diy photography of stormy lightning.
We all know how important it is to get a good picture in order to get a good selling page in your eBay.com store.
A good picture will generate more traffic to you store and will probably will get you better conversion rate,that means in simple words MORE MONEY!!!
Here I’ll cover the basics of how to shot a good picture with a low budget studio equipment.One light tent and three flash units might cost you less than 90$.Get this and you’ll be ready for your eBay product photography homebased studio.
The cookie post started when I had a newly wed couple that came to my office to get their wedding album.I had to bring some goods in to serve the guys,so I went don’t to the local super market,having only a couple of minutes to choose the best sweet for my visitors,I decided to go with the chocolate chips cookies that I all ways love!
When I took the box from the self I said to myself ,”hey that’s a great photo on the box I want to do that too!”
Here is one of the first pics that I took:
Get In and read the rest of the story (I bet you’ll want those chocolate cookies too)!
Read the rest of this entry »
Well,as you may all know,the issue of getting the right color temperature,also known as White Balance is one of the biggest influence prospect in the final picture quality you can get out of your camera.
When you get into some mixed light scene your camera auto WB (White Balance) metering system might loose its north.Therefor when I shoot wedding or commercial events I’m looking for some more accurate WB measuring system.
Two of the most popular tools are the Gray card and the Lens cap.
The gray card is a simple gray card that as you take a picture of it in the scene you are shooting will help the camera manually set the WB.The lens cap is a cap that you put on your lens and and it suppose to white blank the camera.After you take a picture with the lens cap on you can set the manual WB.
There are some white balance lens cap that sell on ebay for about 5$.I wanted to test that with the more old fashion gray card.So lets see what wee got here:
So what is my conclusion?
The winner:Gray card!!!
Controlling your ambient light in your studio shots will let you much more control over the total image output.In the previous discussion about the ambient light we got to the point that the amount of the ambient light in your pictures is determined mainly by the shutter speed (in opposite to the flash light in the picture that is controlled by the aperture value).
In this first part of the discussion about the ambient light in a flash controlled environment we will give an example on how to take out the ambient light from your pictures.It could be used when you shoot a model on a white background as a white wall or some paper.When you control the amount of ambient light in the picture you can actually can give the white background any gray color shade you want,for white to totally black.
In the example below,the flash power is fixed (Canon 580EX 1/32 max power) the camera aperture is fixed on f/5.6 and the ISO level is also fixed to 100ASA.The only parameter we change in the picture will be the shutter speed.It actually very surprising to find out how the from models exposure isn’t changed as we change the shutter speed.This will be the best example to the fact that
SHUTTER SPEED CONTROLS THE AMBIENT LIGHT IN A FLASH CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT!!!
We change the the shutter speed by 1 stop jumps -
1/8
1/15
1/30
1/60
1/125
1/250
Take a look for the changes in the ambient light in the picture.If you have any ideas or pictures that shows us the ambient light,let as know!
As you may know if you read my site,or if it is your first time around,I do recommend to learn about flashes and lighting by testing the studio setups that you’ll find here and on the web with small flashes.This will allow you not to spent a lot of money on studio strobes before even knowing about flash photography and if you’ll like it at all.
Almost every one has with his digital camera an off camera flash.Usually it will be a good start to explore your creativity with light and studio photography.Two lights will more than double the options.In this post I’ll will go over some of the most affordable flash units that you can get.Don’t feel cheap , as they give great value for the money.In this category I listed the flashes for the price range 50$-100$.So dig in and see which will be your choise for the first/second flash!
One of the most popular flash unit as for the strobist.com.The built-in variable power of the Vivitar 285HV auto professional flash provides you with fill flash and the ability to shoot properly exposed rapid-sequence pictures. This vertical bounce flash gives your photographs soft, professional lighting. The four f-stops give you control over the flash distance range and the depth of field, while the auto Thyristor circuitry allows for a faster recycling time as well as more flashes per set of batteries.
I have to say that this flash unit looks very impressive.With digital operation and a clear LCD monitor its will give you a great budjet option.
Sunpak, a division of ToCAD America Inc. announces the upgraded version of the popular Sunpak PZ40X, a compact, lightweight, full-featured, shoe-mount electronic flash unit for digital and film cameras. The new Sunpak PZ40X II retains all the advanced features of the previous model, but it is now dedicated to the top-selling Nikon D50, D70/D70S, Coolpix 8800; The new Sunpak PZ40X II also works manually with non-dedicated cameras employing a single-contact hot shoe. The PZ40X-II is also backwards-compatible- with TTL metering for all TTL flash Nikon Camers And even though it is 40% smaller and significantly lighter than previous flash units with the same features, the Sunpak PX40X II has an impressive ISO 100 Guide Number Range from 60 at the 24mm zoom-head setting to 120 at 80mm. The Sunpak PZ40X II provides such advanced features as TTL auto flash, i-TTL for Nikon, a large, backlit, full-info LCD, and a power zoom-bounce flash head covering 35mm-equivalent focal lengths from 24-80mm in continuously variable auto mode, or 5 manual steps. Tilt positions range from zero to straight up for maximum bounce flexibility, and the built-in, near-IR auto-focus-assist beam turns on automatically when needed. Other features include: 5 power ratio settings down to 1/16, flash-exposure confirmation, bar graph flash range display, and power-saving circuitry that automatically set the unit to Standby Mode after five minutes.
Metz is one of the best third party company out there.Some of the canon users will say that the pro Metz flash is better than the Canon 580EXII.It is very noce to know that Metz also has a budget unit.This Metz flash is designed to be totally computable with your new Canon Cameras sophisticated TTL system. Featuring an easy to read, backlit display, you will find this an extremely easy to use reliable unit. Technical specs: film & digital TTL; auto shut-off; AA battery size; battery type: Alkaline. NiCad. NIMH battery type; coverage: 0.94 in.; depth: 3.74 in.; display type: LCD; exposure OK indicator; extended zoom; guide number @50mm (ISO 100): 30 guide number (meters); height: 4.53 in.; integrated AF measuring system; max guide number (ISO 100): 36 guide number (meters); max recycle time: 5 seconds; number of batteries: 4; tilt: +90° head tilt
Phonix offers here the most less expensuve unit around.With your standard zoom, the built-in flash is usually effective to only about 13 feet, and that’s when your zoom lens is set to its widest-angle setting. When you want to zoom in on the action, you’ll find that the built-in flash does exactly the opposite of what you want. Its range is reduced to about 10 feet, and sometimes even less! It is even more annoying if you have a 70-300mm telephoto zoom lens. What is the sense of having the magnifying capability of 300mm but your camera’s flash is only effective to about 10 feet?
When you want to use your zoom’s telephoto capability indoors, requiring the built-in flash, your pictures come out dark, or even worse, not at all! Compared to your built-in flash, the zoom head of the Phoenix DZBIS-112CII (set at the tele position), allows you to shoot up to 3X further away with improved color, more natural lighting, and added depth to your pictures.
In addition to pure power, this Phoenix flash provides better looking photographs. It reduces or totally eliminates the annoying “red-eye” effect. Even when using the red-eye reduction feature of your camera (necessary because the built-in flash is too close to the lens) the flash reflects off your subject’s retina directly back into the lens and often results in pictures with “red-eye”.
The height advantage of the Phoenix DZBIS-112CII Flash greatly reduces or eliminates this “red-eye” effect. If your blue-eyed subjects still get “red eye”, this can be totally eliminated by using the bounce/swivel feature of the flash head to “bounce” the light off a neutral-colored ceiling or wall, for professional looking portraits.
If you think I missed someone from this list you are free to let me know about it.Just post a comment below.
Enjoy!!!
Aug 19
Going around the web I found a manufacture of really big,but portable diffusers.
The good thing about it is that they have an online catalogue and downloadable catalogue.In this catalogue there are many examples on how touse their products,much of them also show the setups used for taking really professional shots.You could and should download the catalogue and learn how the pros use those bounce panels.It will be you job to learn how to adjust the stuff that you have at home and imitate the effect of the real one.
Of course you could also buy their products,there is an online price list available.
Click here for the online catalogue.
