Kino Flo - Soviet Style (DIY)

I'm about to build a small studio so surfing the web and watching various lighting technique videos is my recent educational hobby. Being on a slightly restrained budget is a good thing otherwise I'd spend money worth a small/medium/super car on various appliances that I probably never need.

I'm a big fan of Kino Flo and the way Peter Hurley is using it for his superb headshots - but spending something around EUR 1.000 - 2.000 for lights isn't an option yet. So stumbling across an instructional DIY video by the Winnipeg based photographer Tristan Shea Penner on how to make the rig using appliances from the nearest hardware store. You can have a look on his video and diagrams here.

I've followed the instructions with a bit of improvising. The results can be seen below:

I went to the nearest hardware store and got:

• 3 sheets of 9mm strong plywood based on the measurements provided on the diagram 38x143 cm.
• Obviously wiring, marrettes, waterproof casing, screws, bolts, etc and additionally I've got a light switch. The power wire is 5 meters long not to mess about with extension cables. 

On the image above you could see the layout before the fun started.

I've decided to paint all the plywood black but was way too lazy to sand it. Above you can see an already assembled rig with four neon tubes, wired up to the switch and working fine!!!

A bit of wiring, I'm not a big friend of diagrams, because I basically have no clue how to make them. The biggest issue that I've got a one pole switch; you can see the blue wire had to be put in a Soviet Style workaround :)

That's the working setup. First rig was completed about 3 am in the morning, with several small troubles with wiring on the way. The total budget of this project is roughly EUR 150. The only downside of course is the heavy weight (roughly 8 kg) and some minor flickering of the tubes before they warm up.

I'll post some pictures of the ready setup once I move in into my new studio. I'd advise to use heavy duty lighting stands especially for the top light I'd use something like the EUROLITE SHOW STAND I ALU. 

Thanks for the reading. More images to follow.

Found myself on YouTube

Fucking lovely. Matt Price was having a comedy night here in Bratislava and we did a spontaneous routine together. Absolutely love it, just discovered it yesterday.

Control your camera from over 40 meters!

I was reading up on remote controllers for my camera and have stumbled upon a very interesting post on the DIY Photography page. 

If you are doing any extensive light painting work, especially if you are doing it alone, you know that one of the more annoying things about it is triggering your camera.

You could always use the timer, or the intervalometer, but for more complex stuff timing of both the camera and starting the tools becomes harder and harder.

Some cameras have an infra red remote, but the distance is pretty limited.

Sawo of Enlightpaintment came up with a pretty neat solution, they use a garage door opener remote from eBay with Canon's 2.5 mm trigger jack to create a 150ft camera remote that is capable of both focusing and triggering. See the tutorial after the jump.

Read More on the DIY Photography page.

The tripod issue is solved. Well almost...

Some of us a re great enthusiasts when it comes to photography. We always have our point and shoot like the Nikon 1 or are simply using an iPhone to take pictures. So carrying a tripod is rather impractical and handheld is not always an option especially when your exposures go way beyond 1/30 of a second. There as a solution now - well at least the guys from statc let you pre-order it in hope to reach the desired funding for mass production.

Statc is a portable micro pod that enables stable shots and unique perspectives while reducing the need to always lug bulky gear. It uses a magnetic interface to attach to most metal surfaces and will support cameras up to 2lbs. It's easy to store, and the integrated thumbscrew allows adjusting ballhead tension on the fly. This is great for MILC (Mirror-less Interchangeable Lens Cameras) like Sony's NEX series. It will easily accept point & shoot cameras, iPhones, POV cameras, small video cameras and any thing else with a 1/4-20 thread.

Preorder yours today! - http://thestatc.com/

Where do my images end up?

I'm not a commercial photographer and currently I'm not so much worried about other people using my images for non commercial applications. I'd say I'm rather happy to see that and support them as much as can. However if you reach a certain point with your photography and start selling images you want to get paid! That's when a rather new application comes int place that performs a reverse image search among a collection of over 2 BILLION images.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.

TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. It is free to use for non-commercial searching.

The application is free to use for non-commercial purposes, however there are services offered for professionals.

Check it out yourself: www.tineye.com

TinEye Services for Business. View TinEye Services.

Automating Mass Portraits using QR Codes

Sometimes when taking photos on large gatherings or events we often encounter a problem of hoe to get the picture to the face. Big event websites are usually uploading everything and you have painstakingly look through the photos until you discover your face.

The photographers form the Bieber Photographic have come up with an idea to generate QR codes using a few scripts and distribute these to the guests at a free portrait shooting event at their church. Easy to use and as far as I understood also free to reuse. 

The original article can be found here.

Global Evolution Day - Bratislava

Global Evolution Day - Bratislava, a set on Flickr.

Just by accident I heard this demonstration outside of my house, so I decided to go along for a little while and take a few shots. Feel free to reuse them wherever you want.