The Hot Shoe Diaries

Just started reading this book by Joe McNally, and it's a bit of a treasure trove. Basically a narrative of how he has approached shots, and more importantly why he made the decisions he did.

Also picked up a new way to hold my camera as a "left-eye" photographer, which seems to be working pretty well so far and a bit of inspiration, involving a monopod and a remote release. Off to play in the forest now, and try out the monopod thing, I'll post a shot when I get back (if it works...).

You can see Joe's book at http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780321602497 although I picked up a hard copy - it's nice to be able to leaf about through it... :-)

DIY Gel Holder

DIY Gel Holder, originally uploaded by Venn Diagram.

I mentioned a while ago, that I had a solution to attaching gels to flashes without sticking velcro to the head. Well, here it is in all it's glory - basically the same thing, but without ending up with stuff glued to your gear. I call it...

"My solution to putting gels on a flash"

1) These are the fellas you need, velcro ties and some velcro stick-on tape

2) Velcro ties - essentially just double sided velcro, through the loop at the end is pretty useful (if a bit tricky - this stuff sticks to itself no problem)

3) Wrap a velcro tie around the head of your flash - my advice would be "soft side down", as this gives a bit more puchase and is unlikely to slip

4) Use the velco tape to attach pieces to your gels - if you've gone "soft side down" in number 3), then you need to use the soft tape here

5) Attach the tabs of velcro tape to the tie on the head, likewise the one at the top

6) Finished article - the whole thing can be pushed back a bit to ensure a snug fit

I've done the same thing using squares of black card to control the light at the sides - two of the ties is better for this, and it gives more control

Hope you like it...

Focusing for self portraits

I've moaned on a few times about trying to get the focusing right on self portraits - the following excellent suggestion came from shoens at www.flickr.com;

"Self portrait focusing idea from Ericson Calderon that I read in the Strobist Flickr group: set your tripod where you want it, take the camera to your posing position, set the focus on the tripod head, set focus to manual (and don't touch the focusing ring), set the camera on the tripod, voila"

It sounds clever and simple at the same time, so I figure it will probably work for me - now to get out there and try it!

If you go down to the woods today...

Self Portrait III, originally uploaded by Venn Diagram.

It's me! Again!

I decided it was time to get out of the house with my lights, and try a bit of shooting "on location". Luckily, I live only a few miles from beautiful woodland, so I headed there hoping to make it before the rain broke.

The nightmare of focusing correctly when you're both in the picture and behind the camera reared it's head again. I picked up a wireless shutter release from Hanhnel for £60; it works pretty well, but you still can't tell if it's focussing at the right thing unless you go back and look at it. Then, turn of the AF and try to stand EXACTLY where you were before.

It hasn't put me off, if anything, I want to get back out there tomorrow - the CTR-301 remotes were playing up a bit at the end - I have a very nice shot of a rock lit (if I say so myself) pretty well, but WITHOUT ME ON IT. The shot was to see if the lighting worked, then, when I got back in position, the flashes didn't want to play. Still, it means I get to go back and have another play...

Strobist: 430EXII to camera left, through a white brolly at 1/4. 360AFD behind left and above, at 1/4 too, I think.

Brollies!

Brollies!, originally uploaded by Venn Diagram.

Number two brolly just turned up at the door. The 100cm beast on the left of the picture is my new Lastolite All-In-One umbrella (didn't buy the full kit with stand, sourced the other bits elsewhere, am a fan of the Manfrotto Lite'n'Tite brackets, anyway). Looking at this, can't help but feel that the 80cm silver was not a good purchase, it's reflection is on the weedy side.

That's me, once again, centre stage.

Strobist - the one on the left of the picture is a 430EXII at 1/16th, the one on the right (in the small silver) is a 360AFD at full power.

The joys of gel fixing...

I've mentioned before, the joys of trying to fix gels to a flash-head with blu-tak. I've had a bit of a notion as to how to improve on this situation without sticking velcro to your flash. Call me snobbish, but I've never been keen on the idea of sticking anything onto my hard-saved-for flash units. I could tell you now, it's really easy, but instead I'm going to deliver this inspirational flash through the medium of photography.

Sometime in the next couple of days, when I get a chance to take some shots of the whole process, I'll put the pictures up for the world to marvel at....

As a hint, it involved a trip to the DIY/home improvement store.

Gel

Gel, originally uploaded by Venn Diagram.

A picture paints a thousand words, or so they say.

In an effort to try and explain what a gel is, a picture of one in action. I tried to write a description, but I think this works much better. This is a red gel (a plastic insert for disco lights in this case) and some blu-tak to hold it in place. I wouldn't recommend the blu-tak, in my experience it doesn't hold too long...

I think any coloured plastic would work, so long as you can get it over the front of the flash somehow. I just got lucky and found some of almost the right size for next to nothing.

Incidetally, you can also see the CTR-301 wireless trigger under the flash, all mounted on a tiny Slik table tripod - very useful for sticking the remote flash on the floor or a table.

Strobist: 430EXII in shot, at 1/64th with a red gel. 360AFD to camera left, at 1/16th about 30cm away. Not the classiest of shots, but then I was in a bit of a hurry.