More Toys!

 My buddy Scott lent me his flash for the weekend.  It's a Sigma EF-610 DG ST.




The head of the flash is adjustable so that you can direct the light towards the ceiling or a wall in order to reflect/diffuse the light.  It makes a world of difference when compared to using the on-board flash.
  

The first shot is with the flash directed straight at the portrait subject.

The second is using no flash, just the light from the window.

 

In this third shot I reflected the flash light off of the ceiling.

The ability to reflect the light off the ceiling is great for evening out the light in the shot.  I think this would come in really handy on an outdoor shoot on a really sunny day.   Thanks to Scott for lending me his toys!

Pringles Diffuser

An update on the Pringles can diffuser post .  I (okay, my wife!) bought a can of Pringles while grocery shopping tonight.  I quickly transferred the contents into a tupperware container and started cutting and taping. 
 
 

It only took me about 5 minutes, but the thing works pretty well.  Judge for yourself:

 The above shot used the Pringles can and on-board flash.

 The second shot used the flash only.

 This third shot used no flash (so obviously no diffuser either).

The diffuser allowed me to get a bit more focused on the shot, which is really what counts in macro photography.  I still couldn't get a really close up (using the full stack of extension tubes) shot with the lighting, I may need to experiment a bit more with it.  What are your thoughts?

DIY Macro Lighting

Here is a cool article that I found on how to do macro lighting with a Pringles can.  That's right, a Pringles can.  The site itself is a great resource for a photographer on a budget...kind of like me.  I'd mentioned wanting this flash in an earlier post, but that will be a little ways down the road.  Until then, I'll have to pick up a can of Pringles the next time I'm at the grocery store and give the set up a shot. 

Macro Rocks and Grass

Macro example

As promised, the following is an example of what extension tubes do.  I'll leave the more detailed description to the makers of the tubes themselves, Kenko, but essentially the extension tubes allow a camera's lens to focus closer to it's subject.  This has the effect of magnifying the image being taken. 

The extension tube set that I bought has 3 different tubes;  a 12 mm, a 25 mm and a 35mm.  The lens that I've us for this example is a Canon 50 mm, f1.8. 

This first shot (of a pin cushion) uses no extension tubes, just the lens.  I focused as closely as possible on the pin cushion.

 The next shot used only the 12 mm extension tube and was focused as close as possible:

 This one used the 12 mm combined with the 25 mm extension tubes, focused as close as possible:

 On this last shot, I used a combination of the 12 mm, 25 mm and 35 mm extension tubes:

All the way from Hong Kong!

The Kenko extension tubes arrived today!  Not sure what I'm talking about?  Check out this post.

It seemed like a really, really long time that I was waiting for these thing but, in reality, it was only a week and half.  Not too bad for items coming from Hong Kong.  I snapped a few shots to show an example of what the extension tubes can do.  I'm pumped, they work great.  In some upcoming posts I'll show the difference between using a regular lens, then adding one extension tube, then another, then the third.  It's difference is drastic.

                         (Anyone care to guess what the first photo below is of?)

Slowwwww shutter speed in the dark, pt 2

A couple more from the abstract session.....