June 24th, 2004:
studio lights
Thanks to Jess and her excelent reasoning, we bought a few monolights yesterday. Last night, after I had worked on the softboxes for quite a bit, I built a quick makeshift studio so I could try them out with Jess.
The lights were great. Very bright.. enough that I’ll get plenty of use out of them before I decide I need something bigger and better. The pictures, however, were only so-so. Without the softboxes, the shadows were pretty harsh. And with only one real tripod (my camera tripod) placing the second light became problematic. And, with the limited space I had available (6′x8′ ish) it was even harder to produce any kind of control. The most difficult task was trying to keep the wall behind her clear of shadows. I’m going to look at some more examples of studio work online, so I can get a feel for how others deal with shadows and what I like best.
So now I’m practicing like mad trying to get everything figured out so that I can do it right the first time for the shoot this weekend. If anyone feels like being a very patient friend and model either tonight, or tomorrow night, give me call or shoot me an email.
photoshoots
I have two photoshoots this weekend: Joel and Emily’s engagement photos, and a very cool shoot with “Rachelle”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/titania_kitty/. Hence, the desperate need for the softbox. I’m very excited about the shoot with Rachelle. I think that the idea we have is great. I’ve run it by a few people and they all think it will work really well. The hardest part will be that it is a studio shot and my studio experience is quite limited. So, I’m trying to get in as much practice as possible between now and then.
There are still a few things I need for this shoot. Namely, something to put on the ground, a big metal trash can, a strech of chain-link fence, and something to hold the fence up. If any of you have any of this stuff lying around your house that you’d like to donate or lend, please let me know.
softboxes
I decided to build my own “softbox”:http://www.profoto.com/product_category.php?catId=103 out of PVC. This went pretty well. Then I decided to build a light stand to hold it up with. That’s where it started getting complicated.
The box weighs about 5 lbs — maybe 10 — and the light adds another 3 lbs to that. The problem is, all the weight hangs on one side of the pole so, no matter what I build, it wants to tip over. Last night, after talking to “Tony”:http://livejournal.com/~joiesyguy/ I realized that it’s not possible to hang such a weight on one side of a standing pole without having ridiculously wide legs — at least wider than the box itself.
So, with advice from Tony, I’ve realized there is only two ways to do this: a) build a frame that fits entirely around the softbox that sits on the ground and it tall enough to be useful (5′ ish), or counter-weight the light pole by placing sandbags or water weights on the feet that are on the opposite side of the light box itself.
Without bothering with the physics of levers to determine how much weight I really need, I figure 2 or 3 times the weight of the box itself should be enough (if someone has this kind of physics knowledge on hand, let me know, and I’ll give you the exact measurements so you can figure it out for me).
So now I’m debating whether to go the frame route, or the light pole route. If I go the light pole route, I’m trying to decide if it would be cheaper to go buy a mic stand from a music store and adapt it to my needs, or build it out of PVC.
chiggers
Last Sunday, Jess and I went to my parents house for Father’s day. Around 5:00pm, my dad and I decided to go out to the Bear Creek Park Trail, this little walking trail near a creek, and take some pictures. The “chiggers”:http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/arthopo/chiggers/ didn’t like that I was there at all, and the mosquitoes weren’t too happy about it either.
As far as I know, I’ve never had a chigger bite before. Let me tell you, they hurt… bad. Jess counted about 15 mosquito bites across my back, and I have at least 15 chigger bites on each ankle. My back itches like crazy and my ankles burn like fire. My dad said he got bit up a little too, but, by the sound of it, not as bad as me.
