Ikea.... Bright!

Well it's been a while since I've posted pictures on my blog. I've been either busy or did not had any pictures worth posting.

This weekend I had an opportunity of borrowing our local photoclub studio strobes set, I a did a series of product/food pictures, which I will be posting in the next few days.

Hope you like this one, it is actually a remake of a similar picture I saw on flickr (if you click on the picture you will get to my flickr page where the link to the other photo is...).

Strobist: SB-80DX behind subjects at 1/64. Black cardboard cut in the shape of the objects to prevent light spilling out on the sides.

Sea Louette

Another nice place in P.E.I., CANADA called "Campbells Cove". Lots of beautiful rock formations there...
5 seconds exposure with a 3 stops ND filter.

The voyager

Shot at dusk on the beach of Basin Head, P.E.I., CANADA

Grand Falls Super Wide Angle

Since my camera doesn't allow for wide angle lenses, this is actually a stiched panorama of 10 images (5 x 2) shot in portrait orientation.

This is a very nice place in New-Brunswick, Canada called "Grand-Sault"

Beach Crocs!

Here's the first of many pictures I will post in the next days that were shot during my vacation in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Upon my return I was excited to learn that version 2 of Adobe Lightroom was out, and boy was I happy when I found out they included virtual gradient filters!
They will simulate and color you want, exposure, sharpness etc. and you can add many of them in any direction. How cool is that!?!

On this picture I used a blue gradient filter for the sky and a coral one for the beach.

More to come !

Spiderlight & Softbox Food shoot !

Hi again everyone!

I did a food shoot a few days ago to test the possibilities of my softbox. I must say I am quite amazed at the results! :)


1/40sec F2.8 ISO 80 (please note I shot this using a Powershot S5 IS. The f2.8 on my camera is much more slower than the real f2.8 you are getting on a DSLR lens.)

I realize this is not lightning speed shutter, but with the camera on a tripod it doesn't do much difference. It is also to be expected from a light such as this one.

See setup shot below:



Hope you like it! It is my first experience at product/food photography.

Alex

Spiderlight softbox (continued)

Well hello everyone.

Sorry it's been quite a while since my last posts about the spiderlight and softbox. I had waited a while for the parts needed to put everything on a light stand and I finally got them (like a month ago).

Now I finally found some time to take a few extra pictures as requested by a lot of people, and did a real good test out of everything. Read below for details.

First, I needed something sturdy to support this big softbox. So I went online to www.bhphotovideo.com and ordered an Impact Air-Cushioned Heavy Duty Light Stand.
Since this stand is only about 40$, I had a lot of doubts about it but when I got it I was amazed about how strong it really is. It's the perfect candidate to hold this big softbox.

Next I needed a swivel bracket to attach my spiderlight/softbox combo to the light stand and to be able to point it in the direction I want. Having looked over the official westcott website for a bit while designing my spiderlight fixture, I noticed this nice tilter bracket they made for their real spiderlite.



It's not cheap (about 32$) but I wanted something of quality that could last beyond my softbox so for me it was an obvious choice. You can get it here at B&H Photo.

Since my softbox design attached directly on the spiderlight fixture (I will improve on that on my future designs), all I need to do is attach the spiderlight to the tilter bracket. Since the westcott tilter bracket already came with an insert pin, I went to my local hardware store and bought this double treaded bolt along with two nuts. One end is designed to screw into wood and the other one is like a bolt:


So I pre-drilled a hole in the bottom of my fixture and screwed the bolt in place. Since there is no "head" on this screw/bolt, the only way you can screw it is by using a combination of two nuts. See picture below of the bolt in place on my spiderlight fixture:


With tilter bracket insert pin in place:


All that needed to be done next is to fit everything together:


Overall view, with the heavy-duty light stand:


Some people also asked me how I proceeded with the diffuser panel. Since I like when things are nice and clean, I went to my local fabric store and had them cut my white cotton fabric to perfect size and sewed a velcro around the whole perimeter. Since I was there I also bought a piece of ripstop nylon and had the same treatment done to it. She sold me a couple meters of self-sticking velcro for my softbox, so now I have two different diffuser panels that will velcro on demand to my softbox. Sweet!


Next chapter: REAL FOOD SHOOT with the softbox!