365 - DPS Assignment / Discuss

asterismos (Dawn) says:

Well folks, its time to switch to a new assignment. Since we have already been doing ghetto lighting for a week now, I thought it would be appropriate to list some more ideas to keep everybody energized here in the second week of ghetto lighting. This assignment adds reflectors to the mix. Since a lot of us are just learning, we might not have fancy equipment to learn with. Here are some DIY ideas to help us learn the concepts, behind using these types of tools, and produce some excellent results. While I can't help anybody with their subject choice (I am having a bit of trouble this week with that myself), I thought these links could at least provide some more ideas for the lighting and reflector part of this assignment.

I have collected a bunch of links to articles about light, reflectors and some other tidbits I found intriguing and relevant. I hope you find this entertaining and an informative read throughout the next week and beyond. I have been amazed at the different kinds of lighting being used by our fellow Digital Photography School Forum Members. I highly suggest browsing through the submitted images for this week to get some ideas for lighting as well as non-traditional backgrounds. Car window shades, tin foil, etc all qualify as reflectors.

This recent article on the tips blog at DPS has a very interesting setup featured. Definitely worth a read. I found many DIY tips for backgrounds which include using a sheet of various colors.

After reading all these great links I have collected here, I was inspired to make some homemade reflectors. This tutorial that I followed is about how to make a reflector for $5. I chose this because it was fast and I already had everything on hand to make them. Here are the reflectors I made in one afternoon (drying time was overnight). I recycled a pizza box for the silver reflector (made with tin-foil) then I recycled a thick, cardboard box for the white reflector (made with 2 layers of white copy/printer paper). I am currently looking around at local discount stores for some kind of gold foil and other interesting reflective materials I can attach to some cardboard.

For those who have thought about how they are going to hold both the camera and the reflector (and will not always have access to something to lean it against) here is a nifty tutorial on how to build your own reflector stand using an old tripod and some misc parts.

When I stumbled upon this tutorial for a California Sunbounce reflector, I realized the author was also a fellow flickr member. His photostream has nice shots of both his gear, interesting homemade accessory solutions, and somewhat homemade studio setups but I want to point out mostly his result shots, which can help give some idea of how different lighting techniques will affect your subject.

Here is an interesting article on diffusers. The tutorial is mostly diffusers for a flash but I thought the ideas and concepts could still be applied to our current alternative lighting requirements. (i.e. think about how you could direct or diffuse your alternative source of light)

Here is a really simple, DIY reflector from DPS, wear a white t-shirt. Also, Double duty lighting for the.......(I say) Frugal!

I thought this was appropriate, hilarious and would get us thinking about everyday solutions around our homes which could make some excellent reflectors. This tutorial was has a bit more involved building process but it is worth a read.

I couldn’t find any relevant tips to help us with this week’s theme here but this is an all around great resource if you are interested in learning (a lot) more about light. For those of you that want to eventually setup your own permanent or portable studio, here is a downloadable PDF which has 22 pages of awesome PVC lighting setup plans for stands, mounts and much more; this is an incredible resource.

Three more relevant links:
20 Night-Time Photography Tips and Techniques
Another Nighttime Photography Tutorial.
3 part Night Photography article
And finally......
Lightning Photography

We greatly encourage discussion here so if anyone ever has any questions or related topics to talk about please feel free to start a topic or join in any ongoing dialogue. We are all here to help and be helped. Keep up the good progress and happy shooting everyone!
Originally posted at 11:01AM, 17 May 2009 PDT (permalink)
asterismos (Dawn) edited this topic 37 months ago.