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.

365.65 1977

1977?

Yep. 1977.

Of course, I wasn’t alive then* but I have an idea that this shot of the pin screen has some resemblance to a fancy beaded curtain in an upscale club somewhere…

Maybe?

D7000, Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, Reversed, on 48mm of extension tubes. ISO1600, 1/20th, f/3.5. Altered with Topaz Labs’s Adjust 5 Spicify filter. And 100% Good Times.

 

*unless, by ‘alive’ you mean the twinkle in my father’s eye and/or the first ~5 months of cell division and specialization in my mother’s womb.

365.64 Agoraphobia

A brilliant idea for the 365 shot popped into my about 7:50am. It stewed all day. At 4:15pm, it was finally time to shoot.

I set the D7000 up on the tripod, removed the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 that pretty much lives on the camera (when I’m not shooting macro 365 shots, which pretty much means I use the Siggy like a giant, expensive, heavy lens cap…), installed the 75-150mm E Series (reversed and stacked on 48mm of Extension tubes), and started lining things up.

Then I noticed the way the light was hitting the pins and the reflection of the pin heads in the plexiglas screen.

So the  early plan for the shot went right out the window…

Shame. That shot would’ve taken maybe 10 minutes. After all, I had all day to let the idea percolate.

This one took an hour and 10.

Oh well.

ISO400, 1/8th, f/3.5.

365.63 Pinkeh

I had designs on having some more multifun today, but I ended up liking this test shot the best…

D7000 and Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, Reversed, on 28mm of Extension Tubes (New!): ISO400 (forgot to reset it, again…), 1/200th, f/3.5, SB700 with its CTO filter installed at 1/16th power, about 18 inches away camera left, and aimed straight on, fired via that D7000’s pop-up, in Commander Mode and set to non-interference (and guess what! It didn’t interfere! But only because the pins aren’t particularly reflective…). The LED lightsabers were active as well, flanking the subject at fairly close range.

365.62 Pinned

Well, this marks the 290th post to this website… Not a huge milestone, but it also marks the 10,000th photo with the D7000 since… I’m not sure when. Maybe since I purchased the camera in June or July 0f 2011, maybe since I updated the firmware in October (that couldn’t be right… except I was in the 7700s in early February), maybe since I switched to using my initials instead of DSC, who knows. Either way, the odometer rolled over today. But that’s largely immaterial, I suppose.

More fun with Multifun and More Macro For The WIN!

The Setup:

The pinscreen on my desk, me holding the screen part up so that only the pins rested on the desktop.

The SB700 about a foot away, behind the rear left side of the pinscreen, at 1/8th power, triggered via the D7000’s pop-up, set at 1/128th power.

D7000 set for three exposures, ISO400, 1/60th.

The Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, reversed, at f/16.

Multiple Exposures delivered via changes in white balance: 1) Tungsten; 2) Flourescent; 3) Cloudy.

All in all: quick and funfunfun.