My Ghetto Photography Studio

At the beginning of this year, I made it a point to become a better photographer so I went back to school. Since then, I’ve learned tricks like how to get better exposures by avoiding the flash and working with long exposures. Afterall, having some kick ass gear means having to learn some kick skills to go with it. Though I’ve always been into taking pictures, mainly for my work with Futurelooks, I’ve only recently begun to explore the posibilities.

I learned a lot of things from my photography class. I even got to shoot real models with studio strobes and lights. However, the most important thing I learned from my teacher, Syx Langemann, was how cool ghetto lighting setups were. From the tips that I was given during my 10 weeks, I was able to build my own ghetto studio.

Shooting in the Ghetto…

Only shutters. No guns. Welcome to my ghetto studio.

My main light setup comprises of a pair of Halogen Work LIghts that I got from Princess Auto. These lights were on special for $25 bucks and put out 1000 watts with two 500 watt lamps. They extend to just over six feet tall and give a surprising amount of adjustment. I’ve diffused the light with a $3 fluorescent ceiling panel and used a few clamps from an $8 combo pack from Home Depot to fix the panel to the halogen lamps. Since halogens get really hot, I’ve stuck a fan on the wall to flow cool air around them. I don’t even use strobes or flash inside because most of my subjects don’t move and I like to be able to see exactly what my shots will look like.

The backdrop that I’m using is a $40 Levelor pull down blind that is white on one side and gray on the other. I chose the blind because it was easy to roll up and easy to clean and reuse. Studios normally use rolls of coloured paper, but I didn’t want to kill anymore trees (and the rolls are heavy). Also, with a gray backround on one side, I can backlight the backround to any colour I want by using cheap gels and some cheap lamps with reflectors, available for about $10 bucks each at home depot. The bottom of the roll where I place the products that I shoot is protected by a clear 18″ x 24″ plexiglass sheet. I originally went with a large piece of glass that I robbed off a photo frame from the Dollar Store for $5, but the glass had a weird green tinge that showed up in my shots. The plexi is totally clear and doesn’t have the same problem. It was about $10 bucks.

The only thing that is a REAL piece of photography lighting equipment is the Cameron 30 inch Silver/White reflector that I got for $40 bucks. I’m actually going to see if I can use an automotive sun reflector instead to keep it truly ghetto, but I might hang onto the reflector because it folds up nice and compact.

The Results…

Here are a few shots from my little ghetto studio…

Both shots were done with my Nikon D80 tethered to my laptop. The advantage of tethering to my laptop is that I can see my shots as I take them as this drops my files directly to my laptop, versus writing them to the memory card. I have Adobe Bridge opened up and can look at the pictures exactly as I’ve taken them, allowing me to recompose or change settings in case I don’t like what I see.

With my Nikon, I need to use a piece of software called Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 to take advantage of this feature. This software lets you totally take control of your cameras settings and even allows you to hit the shutter right from the interface. It runs about $69 for this software, but you can download a free trial to see if its for you. Canon shooters get a version of this software free with their DSLRs.

Things To Consider With Ghetto Lighting

The total cost for my ghetto studo setup was about $126 bucks, which is ghetto cheap. However, there are things you need to consider when using this sort of setup.

For starters, you’ll definitely need to use a custom white balance. Halogen lights tend be very yellow and this requires you to custom white balance at the beginning and after about an hour later since the lights get yellower once they get nice and hot. For white balancing, I just use the whitest possible card stock that I can get from Staples. I just put a small black “X” in the middle in pen so that the Auto Focus doesn’t throw a fit. Beats $20 - 60 for some of those “Digital” gray cards that have been floating around out there.

Speaking of hot, if you have small children or pets, you want to keep them away from your lights because they get hot enough to burn you. On the other hand, if you’re shooting food, at least it will stay warm while you do your thing, but watch the melty cheese and ice cream.

The other thing that you need to keep in mind is that with an indoor lighting setup, ghetto or otherwise, metering can be an issue. Getting yourself a light meter can save you a lot of time. I’m finding that I’m doing lots of exposure corrections in Photoshop or using a lot of exposure compensation on camera because the meter in the camera is having a hissy fit in this type of environment. This is why professionals in studios always use a lightmeter. I plan to pick one up when I’m in Taiwan for COMPUTEX as they aren’t exactly cheap around here at $300 for a good one. I’m sure I’ll be able to get one for less than half that like the Sekonic L-358.

So there you have it, my $126 (less, if I ditch my Cameron 30 inch reflector for $5 sun shades) ghetto studio. I hope this inspires you to come up with some of your own ghetto setups and some cool looking pictures. Happy shooting!

Birthday Wishes a New Distraction and Getting Edumacated

Sorry about the lack of updates. It’s been pretty…umm…busy around here. Let me fill you in…

Birthday Wishes…

First off, it’s been over two years since I started up this blog. And as I said in my very first post, it was put together to allow me to ramble on about stuff that’s important to me. I’d like to wish my blog a happy belated birthday and I hope that it will continue having them till I’m too senile to blog anymore. This year my blog will be getting a facelift. Maybe a tuck, some botox, and some bigger knockers. If someone thinks they can do a great job, please give me a shout.

Speaking of birthday wishes, Leo Chiang just celebrated his “fourth” annual 29th birthday. The funny thing is that “33″ is what he does at his day job and was also one of the episodes of Battlestar Galactica where he was overfeatured quite prominently. It looks like he had a really good time. Please note the NSFW warning

Also on the January birthday wagon this month is Ed Lau. Ed thinks he’s getting old. He’s pondering getting tattoos and a motorcycle. I wonder when Leo will turn that ‘Stang into a Hog. Personally, I’m taking a different route dealing with the “old thing” this month.

Rock On!

 

OK, so I’ve been busy playing RockBand. I got it a few days ago and I’ve been going at it non-stop. I’m so addicted to the drums. I’ve been pounding on those things every night with the headphones on and I can’t remember having so much fun rocking out to my favourite tunes through the rock of ages. Since CES, I’ve been pre-meditating the purchase of this game. Now I’m going to need to get a projector because if playing GH3 on a Huge Ass Screen is fun, RockBand will be…twice as fun! It’s easily the best deal of any game out there right now. I mean, just look at all the stuff you get!

Getting Much More Edumacated…

This past Xmas, I gave myself a gift of some new camera hardware. A Nikon D200 and D80 made their way into my life. With all the hundreds of features contained in both cameras, I decided that taking a photography class wouldn’t be a bad idea. For the next ten thursdays, I’ll be taking a course with Vancouver Photo Workshops to improve my command of these two beasts. One of the problems with my picture taking skillz right now is that I tend to take too many pictures. You could call me a “Rapid Fire Whore” with the 5 FPS capabilities of the D200.

Processing so many pictures takes a ton of time and when I do find a good picture, I couldn’t explain to you how I got the shot. I have no real photography background so hopefully by bringing up my knowledge of the basics (White Balance, Shutter Speed, ISO) and how they work together, I’ll be able to take my photography to the next level and be more consistent in getting great shots more freqently without peeling off all my available frames. Not to mention, my D200 has no magic “Green Button” to get me out of trouble anymore.

It’s also time for me to get back to learning Mandarin. With COMPUTEX creeping up on us, I’m going to need to brush up on my language skillz.

Are any of you folks getting much more edumacated in 2008?

Hot Language of the Moment: Mandarin Chinese

As some of you know, I’ve been taking Mandarin Chinese lessons at Langara College. I just completed Level One over the holidays and will be going back this Saturday for Level Two. My whole reason for taking it was to allow me to communicate better with my contacts in Asia. During my trip to COMPUTEX in Taiwan, I felt pretty useless. All my non Chinese friends would look at me for guidance when it came down to lay down the native tongue. I would just look back and shrug. I figured that it was a good idea simply because of my travel and my business. Turns out that Mandarin is now one of the hottest languages to learn.

I was reading in the paper the other day that even as far as Alabama (what the hell?), people are learning Mandarin, and there is a shortage classes and instructors. Today, in the local paper, I read that even the local government is sending officials with the most likely chance of interacting with Chinese VIPs to Mandarin crash courses put on by UBC. The crash course not only covers common phrases, but also culture and customs so that they can best interact with Chinese officials. This is likely in preparation for the 2010 games and to fix relations with China that were botched by the current Canadian Federal Government.

Looks like I better concentrate and pay attention in class. Otherwise, my non Asian friends will be translating for me in Taiwan this year

Eating Books

One of the New Years Resolutions that I’ve decided to start early is to read more books. I was never a readaholic in school. In fact, the only time I ever went to the library was when I HAD to go with the class. Even during College and University, the library just wasn’t a place that I gravitated towards. I was always drawn more to the resources available on the web. As a result, I now make all my income from it.

I went out to the local Chapters bookstore to find some good reading material. I also wanted books where I could learn something from. I’m not a fluffy fiction guy, though I did get into reading Harry Potter at one point. I read the first three books on my PDA. Someone had leaked it onto the web and I came across a copy while looking for free apps for my Palm. Anyway, I started thinking of subjects that interested me and personal finance and investing was one of them.

The first book I picked up was “Why We Want You To Be Rich”: A collaboration between Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” guy. I love the show “The Apprentice” and I had read The Donald’s book “Art of the Deal”. I really got nothing out of “Art of the Deal”. I don’t even remember it.

“Why We Want You To Be Rich” is basically like a long interview as Donald and Robert weigh in on subjects like the world economy, investing, and common questions asked of them like “I’m a Baby Boomer with without much money. What should I do?” It also had a lot of “Edumercials” that sold their education services. After the read, I think I’m going to stick with watching the show “The Apprentice” rather than reading more of Trumps books. I didn’t like the first one, and I didn’t really care too much for what he said. Kiyosaki on the other hand I felt contributed much more to the book. That’s why the next book I picked up was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Updates and Stuff

I thought I’d just do a bit of housekeeping and update you folks on stuff that you may or may not want to know about. To start, I mentioned that I was going back to school to improve my writing and learn Mandarin. Both classes are finally done, and I learned quite a bit.

My writing course was taught by a successful independent writer by the name of Brian Payton. Brian has written for a number of publications such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Globe and Mail, and Canadian Geographic. Brian is currently promoting his new book “Shadow of the Bear - Travels in Vanishing Wilderness“. Since my background was never a writing one, I learned a lot from Brian’s lectures and the real world knowledge that he imparted. He’s given me a new found respect for print media and the inspiration to improve my craft. It was hard for me to believe that it was his very first time teaching.

My Mandarin class went both good and bad. I was the bad part. I never studied. When I studied, it consisted of me listening to the lesson on CD before class. By the end of the class however, I must have retained something because words all of a sudden began to mean something. After our final oral test, the teacher encouraged me to go to level two. She said that I had the confidence, but I need to practice more in order to retain it. I will be going back to school again in January for level two. Hopefully by the time COMPUTEX rolls around, I’ll be good enough to survive in Taiwan.

AGLOCO added a new feature that tells people what percentage of top users you are in. I nearly popped a plug seeing it say “You rank in the top 0.72% of all members”. This means that 99.28% of people aren’t doing as well as I am. Come on! Haven’t I scared you people away already?

My daily and often multiple daily updates have increased my blogs value to the point that Text Link Ads was able to sell a link on my site. They have me listed here. I’m only $40 bucks a month! That’s a bargain! However, they take 50% of the cut. That’s pretty high, but it’s free money so I’ll take that for now. Seven spots left folks. Better hurry!

That’s all I got for now. I’m sure I’ll think of more later.

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