I’m back after the summer period, this week-end I’m trying the Auto-Portrait with all my strobist material.

I will use 2 sources of light,  one for the main light (c) and the second to light the front object (b). The most difficulty part was to get the focus on the right place, I used a third stand light to help me on the focus. I putted it on my place and I made the focus on it and I used the timer to shoot.

For the second light I opened Alf the umbrella, I saw this idea on the website of  Dustin Diaz day 219 (setup) this allow me to manage the concentration of the light on the front object.

Material:

• (a) Manfroto tripod + D200 Nikon
• (b) Umbrella alf closed + Vivitar 282 HV (1/16) + PocketWizard
• (c) Unbrella soft ligh + Vivitar 282 HV (1/4) + PocketWizard
• (d) Background

Setup :

The full material in position

The second ligth to ligth the front object

Test :

Before to come to the final result, I tested several different objects : this 2 examples I like to share with you too.

Test auto portrait with toys finger

Test auto portrait with remote

Result :

I select this picture to be the winner of this shooting for two reasons :

• In my area we are on the period of Mosquitoes and the spray I handle it’s an Anti-Mosquito
• I like the expression of this picture. It’s like the end of the world but it’s only a little battle with the mosquitoes

Final result - click to see the full image

Comments are welcome …

• Learning Food Photography Part1,Part2,Part3 [pixsylated.com], PixSylated’s 3-Part Series On Learning Food Photography
• Joe McNally [www.joemcnally.com/blog/], this is the blog of the famous photographer Joe McNally
• Style: It’s Not What You Shoot. It’s How You Shoot It [www.lighting-essentials.com], Creating a Portfolio: What you shoot vs How you shoot what you shoot. Three exercises to sharpen your attention to style.

Photo idea

• 20 Effective Reflection Photos [digital-photography-school.com], some photo idea about reflexion

Photoshop

• How To Create a Post Apocalyptic Photo Manipulation [psd.tutsplus.com], in this tutorial, they show you how to create a post apocalyptic manipulation using adjustment layers, vector masks, and some special effects. Let’s get started!

• Using Your Camera’s Histogram to Take Better Digital Photographs [psd.tutsplus.com], The histogram is one of the best ways to check for accurate exposure in the camera, and yet it’s underused by many photographers. Use this tutorial to learn to use histograms in-camera and as part of further Photoshop processing.
• Classic Portrait Lighting Styles Part I [http://cameradojo.com],As we continue our series on portrait lighting we now need to look at the different types of classic portrait lighting and see the effect it has on someone so we can decided when to use each type. By choosing the proper lighting for a particular person, we can help them to look their best by making them appear to be thinner or wider or to accent or minimize certain facial features.

this is my second try with my homemade Light Box. For this new picture I took a picture of a dish prepared by my wife, stuffed zucchini (it was very good for the record). I thought it could be a good start with a food picture.

The Zucchini have a green color; I took a plate with almost the same color + a piece of Swedish bread to make the contrast with all the green color.

Material for the shooting

• Ironing board to place your lightbox on
• 2 Flashes in my case Vivita 285HV – for the light
• Pocketwizard Plus II – to trigger the flashes
• Sigma 105 mm 2.8f
• Nikon D200

On the first shoot, I tried several positions of the camera and of the subject, as you can below. At the end I select the position from the top.

105 mm - 1/250 f14

105 mm - 1/250 - f14

Schema of the pictures

Set up from the front

Set up from the left

Set up from top

Final

Zuccini Plate 1

• Stilllifewith, a photo food idea
• foodportfolio, another photo food idea

Technique

• Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed – The Good Kind of Threesome a good course about the Aperture, ISO ect..

Photoshop

• How to Create the James Bond Border Effect, a video photoshop tutorial to help you to add a James Bod effect ..
• Photoshop Curves Tutorial – Video, a video tutorial about the Curve in photoshop

Materials needed for the light-box

• A box
• A sheet of white paper for the background
• A sheet of “Translucide” paper
• Cutter

Now you have the materials, you just have to make holes on the tree faces of your box, the left /right for the light and the top for the shoot (or to add some object / throw object inside). Keep the bottom with the carton to stabilise the box. For the left and right, keep some margin to help you to fix the sheet of “Translucide” paper.

When is done, you can add the background (white paper), fold it to fit the back of the box (make a curve at the bottom). Fix the paper with some tape, not too strongly to allow you to replace it easily.

After you just have to put the Flash (left/right) at 50 cm from the box and the ligth will be send through the “Translucide” paper.

In my case, I change several time the place of the flashes to be able to get some different atmosphere.

Material for the shooting

• A table to put your lightbox
• 2 Flashes in my case Vivita 285HV – fo the ligth
• Pocketwizard Plus II – to trigger the flashes
• Sigma 105 mm 2.8f
• Nikon D200

Schema of pictures

this is the light-box in action

Some results

Tomatoes

Flash McQueen

• 40 Portraits from the Forum , it’s a collection of the 40 portraits from the forum of the LIGHTING ESSENTIALS For Photographers blog, it ’s real amazing portrait. I will keep some idea (photo I like are 2,8,21,22,42).

Photoshop

• Design a Ready to Print Brochure in Photoshop from Psdtuts+; create a print three-fold brochure from scratch using only Photoshop.

In french

• La mesure de la lumière sans faire de calculs, à la main ou avec un flashmètre, on continue la suite des tutoriels gratuit sur la prise de vue en studio.