365.71 Nikon Deep Space Telescopy

I shot this indoors, with multiple lights on, at 4:02pm, 8 March 2012, in Dallas TX. It is completely overcast in Dallas today.

I do not own a telescope.

What I do own is an old, slightly scratched (and rather dusty, apparently) magnifying glass, a Nikon 75-150mm E Series, a Nikon 36-72mm E Series, a set of extension tubes, and some gaff tape.

D7000, Nikon 36-72mm f/3.5 E Series, at 72mm, mounted on a Nikon 75-150mm E Series, at 150mm, both at f/3.5, ISO100, 2.5 seconds.

(full writeup to come tomorrow, if all goes according to plan.)

365.70 Forced Engagement

I had some FUN this afternoon! Whee!

I won’t go into it right now, as I’m a bit pressed for time, but I will do a full write up with lots more pictures later soon. If not later tonight, then probably sometime over the weekend.

But here’s a hint:

D7000, Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, mounted to the 36-72mm f/3.5 E Series, via 14mm of extension tubes. ISO100, 1/6th (chosen by the camera, as I was in aperture priority mode, and thus why the pins in the upper right are not in focus), f/3.5 (both).

And, by the way, I shot some video with this setup (and have pictures of the setup) that I’ll share soon, so stay tuned!

365.69 Drive-By iPhoneography

Am I cheating by submitting an iPhone photo, hastily (read: not at all) composed while (not quite) doubling the speed limit on an exit ramp?

Maybe, but I’m doing it anyway.

This was shot with ProCamera, my current camera-replacement app of choice. Since I was driving and pretty much spraying-and-praying that I could catch these fluffy clouds all flying in formation over Old East Dallas, I couldn’t be bothered to choose the focus and exposure points, so the app (and the inbuilt camera software, I suppose) chose all of that of its own accord. But still:

ProCamera, Apple iPhone4 3.8mm lens, ISO 80, 1/1436th, f/2.8 (is the iPhone4 aperture adjustable?). Some straightening, cropping, contrast/saturation/exposure/black point/etc. adjustments made in Aperture, but only to recreate what my eyes saw.

365.66 Proof of Concept (with outtakes)

So I used the Light Pipe I made earlier today to create a Beauty Dish-ish type of thing. The fresh (and really bad) haircut didn’t do me any favors here, but this was really more of a proof-of-concept project than anything else.

I didn’t take any in process shots. Apologies. But I just cut a hole in the bottom of a roasting pan, shoved the light pipe through, attached it with gaff tape, and stuck a hastily-folded hunk of aluminum foil to the end of it to bounce light back into the pan. It makes really beautiful light, but it chews that light like crazy (and swallows about 75%) before spitting some beauty at the subject. I was having to toss out full pops to get me about 1/4 stop overexposed. I’m not sure if that was due to the distance between me and the dish-ish, or because the light pipe protrudes beyond the borders of the pan, or both.

Anyway.

Proof of Concept, today’s 365 entry, was captured with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G, ISO100, 1/200th, f/8, with the SB700 at 1/4 power.

After some modifications (and cussing), the Beauty Dish-ish itself and (Not Quite) Beautified and its offspring (Adjusted and Adjusted with Abandon) were captured with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4, ISO100, 1/200th, f/5.6, with the SB700 at full power.

Adjusted and Adjusted with Abandon received treatment from Topaz Labs’s Adjust 5 (now Adjust AI) . The first got the Retro Style 4 and Equalize treatments; the latter got Crisp and Portrait Drama, plus some contrast, saturation, and definition adjustments once I brought it back into Aperture. Fun stuff.

The Light Pipe

I’ve been back on my homemade trail mix kick of late, and picked up a container of Sunsweet Plum Amazins* to add to the mix this week.

The chopped-prune raisin-type things are tasty enough, and will add a nice bit of sweetness (plus some fiber and nutrients) to the trail mix, but what I was more interested in the packaging, especially once I peeled off the shrink-wrapped plastic label to reveal this nice, white light-modifier-to-be…

The Light Pipe
Hummm...

The container is a bit big for the SB700, so I did some tracing…

The Light Pipe

and cutting…

The Light Pipe

The Light Pipeand trimming… and trimming… and trimming… until the lid just barely scrunched around the flash.

The Light Pipe

Fine so far, but the green lid gives a bit of a green cast to the bottom.

The Light Pipe

So I applied some black duct tape, which made the fit a bit more snug.

The Light Pipe

The light spills out everywhere, which is great for some applications, but maybe not so great for others, and so I set up a roasting-pan reflector just to see what would happen.

The Light Pipe

The Light Pipe

The Light Pipe
With the "Beauty Bounce"
The Light Pipe
Without the "Beauty Bounce"

The constructing shots were made with an iPhone4 and the rest were made with the D7000 & Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G, ISO100, 1/250th, f/8, with the SB700 at 1/4 power. These last two were ISO100, 1/200th, f/8:

The Light Pipe
With "Beauty Bounce"
The Light Pipe
Without "Beauty Bounce"

If you have any questions or ideas for improvement, please let me know!

*I am in no way affiliated with Sunsweet, nor do I intend to endorse their products. Their choice of packaging for this specific product, however, is inspired.