Just a quick note on how I took the “identity” shots in one of the previous posts.

After running around the house, trying to find something to build a DIY lightbox/tent out of I stumbled on a picnic thermal box, the one you’d normally use to keep your beer cold ;) Other than it being a bit on the small side it was near perfect. All white, rounded corners and easy to clean (although there was no yellow/brown residue) ;)

I couldn’t get my flash inside the way I wanted so I grabbed hold of a flourescent reading light and stuck it in there. I had to adjust for awful white balance but it did the trick. Nice diffused light, just the way I wanted it. The only slight problem was the
fact that flourescent bulbs don’t always emmit the same color light and you will get some shot-to-shot variations in white balance.

setup shot with autoWB on Canon A80 and my test subject inside

I’ve been reading Strobist for a long time now but I’ve never had a real chance to actually play with what I’ve learned. Last week I went out on the first photo related purchase in almost two years and I got myself a 580EX flash. It ain’t cheap that’s for sure… But, my excuse, or rather – shove over the ledge – was a wedding. Not mine (thankfuly). No, I was delegated the role of photographer at my uncle’s wedding yesterday and there’s no way you can do something like that without a flash. So I went broke on one and borrowed another (550EX) to use it in slave mode when I need it. My brother acted as the lighting assistant for most of the day. But this post really isn’t about the wedding so more on that sometime in the future (if they let me put anything online).

Today I had to return the things I borrowed, but before doing that I had a really quick photo session with two of the pups. I only got to take about 20 shots before “the assistant” had enough so there’s plenty of room for improvement.

I improvised a studio with 4 shoe boxes, 2 styrofoam blocks dressed in black t-shirts, 1 styrofoam bouncer, 1 old calendar, 550EX at 1/4 power in slave mode bounced into the paper and the 580EX mounted on the camera and bounced left into the styrofoam at 1/4 power. I tried to prevent light spill on the background as much as I could but as I said, the setup was far from perfect.

Now I have to figure out how to do the same thing, or better, with only 1 strobe…

setup shot

It was fun though…

This seems to be a brilliant and brilliantly simple idea from Kodak and one that may well become known as their rise from the dust.

“old” Bayer filter array, used in virtually every digital camera today

new Kodak array

I can imagine John Compton and John Hamilton, the nerds at Kodak, going: “We’ve got millions of them, why do we need so many photosites to detect color?!”

Interview with the brains behind the idea.

more: The Online Photographer post