Efficiency

Efficiency

Lately I have become slightly obsessed with efficiency, more so than usual. I often find myself enjoying conversations with other professionals and intrigued by their methods and practices, especially when it comes to equipment. Most people, especially in the photography business, will have their own opinion on what gear to take and what is necessary to achieve the shot they want. This is a point in which I will concede every time, but I will often argue the finer points of what is truly necessary. When I first started, I was like many new photographers, working with professionals who were using big name equipment. In many cases the power packs for the flash heads weighed 50 lbs or more. Moving this gear around did get you bigger biceps, however it was slow. In the beginning I did want this equipment because I felt that it made me a better photographer, I didn’t. I slowly started to realize that there might be a better way to achieve similar results without the back strain and snail’s pace.
I began to take note of the gear I was really using and removed items that were rarely used. This was great for two reasons. One, it reduced the weight of the overall gear I was hauling as well as the amount. Second, and not so obvious, it helped me to hone in on my lighting technique and helped me to be much more efficient at lighting.
I now have a package that includes 3 light-weight stands, 3 strobes, 2 shoot through umbrellas, 1 brolly box, wireless triggers, 2 cameras, 3 lenses, batteries, CF cards, and a tripod. All of this weighs under 50 pounds and fits into one backpack.
The best thing about this set up is complete mobility and the ability to give the client a number of looks quickly and efficiently. It saves you money by keeping your gear and overhead costs low and lets the client get more bang for their buck. I really like it because it gives me more time to experiment and find a real cool look and it really expands your portfolio.
Finally, I must say that the shrinking of gear and the light weight nature of the small package is great for traveling, location shooting, and allows me to save on my healthcare costs :P. Yet, I cannot say that this was mostly my Idea. The initial inspiration was a website/blog called strobist.com and I must say that it is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to have the look of big lights, but in small packages.

DIY Passion - LIght Diffuser

I enjoy learning and one of my best ways to learn is to do a little DIY. I probably started to build or more to the point reengineer devices at a young age. It was something of a release for me and very relaxing, but a good dose of frustration. As an adult this has evolved into a healthy habit of DIY, mostly due to the fact that I am a cheap skate and don't want to spend ridiculous amount of money on a piece of plastic or whatever. So what I am going to present in the next few posts in a series of DIY projects that I have completed in which I use quite heavily this day. Most of these DIYs are used for my professional career.

Project one - Light Sphere

Gary Fong has been quite successful at creating and selling flash modifiers for professional photographers for several years. I have used a few of these and they are pretty good and they do the job nicely. Essentially, the modifier spreads and softens the light from the flash in all direction. This allows the light to be more flattering on the subject and cover more area that the unmodified flash. These flash modifiers do the job so well that I really wanted one for my event work, but I could not justify the cost. So I did a bit of web sleuthing for a few days and I found that many peoples DIY solutions were basic plastic plastic covers over the flash that did not have the varying capabilities of the Fong light sphere. So i continued searching and did not find a solution that satisfied my needs. So in true form I did what anyone would do in this situation I tabled the idea or in other words I gave up. However that only lasted a few days.

About 2 days later I was in my kitchen and p

utting away some left overs and could not find the tupperware that I wanted to use. So i decided to call my girlfriend to see if she borrowed it and she politely told me she did and directed me to an older set that was in another cabinet. When I opened the cabinet I saw what I was looking for in more ways than one. It was a cheep semi-translucent container with a translucent top. It was perfect for my DIY project. I asked her where she got the container and she explained to me that Mother's market has these readily available for FREE next to the homemade peanut butter. I immediately hung up the phone (which did lead to a strange argument later) and drove to the Mother's Market and found a giant stack of these (plenty of replacement later). I grabbed a few and cut one to my needs. Here is the result:

I must say after using this for some time it is comparable to the Fong light sphere in quality and effect. The best part of this project is that it is completely free and pretty much replaceable anytime. Even if you do want to purchase a Fong light sphere this is a great way to practice or test the concept without burning a hole in your pocket.

Overall, this is a very cheap solution for anyone that wants to improve their lighting and create great portraits, be it for the amateur or the professional. So go to your nearest Mother's market and pick up a few and experiment. Have fun and take great pictures! Please let me know if you do take this project up and what your results are.

D.A.N.