The Poor Man's Studio Set Up

I’m a hobbyist photographer and as such can’t afford to dole out hundreds of dollars on studio equipment that I will only use occasionally.  This is when photography becomes an adventure in your own home. I hope to show you how to create studio stock photography with minimal photographic equipment and items that you either have or can get reasonably. The scope of this post will cover the set up, as well as touch on the camera settings necessary to get a good shot.

What you will need

·         A frame that uses two panes of glass instead of a cardboard backing

·         A lone pane of glass at least an 8”x10”

·         Parchment paper

·         Bookends

·         Anti-slip material

·         Laptop

·         Large hardbound book, no more than 1.5” thick

·         Card stock, color of your choice, though I prefer white

o   You can use multiple sheets of plain white paper, it just needs to be opaque

·         A small object to photograph

·         Camera

·         Tripod

·         A flash that can be fired remotely

·         Automatic shutter release. This is optional, though it makes life easier.

The Set Up

The Diffuser

·         Begin by cutting two pieces of parchment paper that will fit in the frame between two panes of glass (pretend you’re framing the parchment paper). This will be your light diffuser.

·         Lay down the anti-slip material and place the bookends on either side with the framed parchment paper. See photo below.

·         Place Flash behind the diffusion and set it as “remote” or “slave”.

o   Due to the numerous brands and models of flashes, we won’t cover how to change this setting. If you are not sure how,  a quick search of the Internet will be your best bet for learning.

o   Take a test shot. See photos below.

The Backlight and Platform

·         Open up your laptop and place it next to your diffuser.

·         Bring up a white image in full screen mode.

o   I would also recommend turning the ‘auto off’ for your screen to ‘never’ so that you don’t lose your screen mid-shoot.

·         Place the hardbound book on top of the keyboard, the card stock or plain paper on top of that, and finally the lone piece of glass.

o   The glass will give the photo a nice studio look.

The Camera

·         The position of the camera is going to be a matter of preference. This is a portion of the adventure that you continually adjust in order to get different perspectives. I prefer to have the camera straight on and slightly higher than the object. See image below.

·         The camera/flash settings for this shot may take a little bit of research on your part. My Nikon equipment allows me to remotely fire flashes using on the on camera flash. If you have a different camera this may require a little more equipment/research. If you use Nikon here are a few links to get you going: Nikon Speedlight PDF YouTube Video instruction

·         If you have all the necessary equipment than there are really only a few choices. Do you want a white background, gray background or a black background?

o   In Manual Mode: Slow shutter speed (1 sec, F20) will get you white,  fast shutter speed (1/60 sec, F22) will get you a black one and gray is somewhere in the middle (it's an adventure, remember, go and find it!). See images below.

Shutter: 1sec Aperture: F22

Shutter: 1/40 sec Aperture: F13

Shutter: 1/60 sec Aperture: F22

·         If you don’t have an automatic shutter it may be difficult to get a clear shot with a slow shutter speed, drop the aperture (i.e. F4) and make the shutter a little faster (i.e. 1/40 sec) and this should help.

·         Bonus: Load up a different backdrop! There are many “out of focus lights” images on the web (Google is your friend here!). Just grab one and make it your backdrop on the laptop. You will have to use the slower shutter speed for the camera’s sensor to pick up the light from the laptop.

·         This is my first tutorial so it’s a little rough around the edges; if you have any questions/critiques/comments feel free to contact me.

Fond Memories & Gravestones

Ever since I can remember, my father has joked that he wanted his gravestone to say “Return to Sender”. He uses this phrase as a play on the Postal term, alluding to our return home to the LORD Jesus. As Christians we often think of returning Home, and leaving this world behind, and I'm glad my dad has a comical outlook, and is able to see death as something good.

This has brought a great deal of laughter, and created lots memories for my family. Looking back, I realized we had neglected to come up with something clever for mom. My intentions here are not to be morbid, and I'm not expecting my parents to die anytime soon, Christians just think a little differently about death as I mentioned earlier. What I did want to do was find a unique and funny way to describe the woman who has brought so much joy and, quite frankly, adventure to our family. I had to give this a great deal of thought, don’t laugh! This is serious!! If it’s going to be on her gravestone it needs to be GOOD!

In 5th Place - “Death, It’s the Real Thing”

This will take a little more brain power on the part of the visitor, as it is a play on the CocaCola slogan, “The Real Thing”. If we were asked to name my mom’s favorite soda, hand’s down it’s Coke! The preference may have migrated slightly to CokeZero, but the flavor of Coke is still the one she seeks.

In 4th Place - “I Hope You Brought Chocolate”

It is a truth universally acknowledged that women like chocolate. My mom is no exception to this truth, though she takes exception to anything but Dark Chocolate. I remember wrapping a milk chocolate Hershey miniature in  “Special Dark” wrapping, saw the look on her face when she bit into it, and never did that again!

In 3rd Place - “That Looks Like a Buick”

Mom has always hated the plain looking cars these automobile makers turn out year after year. Indeed, they all resemble one another to such a degree that it would seem all car manufacturers purchased the shell from Buick! She has become so accustomed to saying this that when a car commercial came on a few months ago she spoke those very words; I then had to gently inform her that it was in fact a Buick commercial we were watching.

In 2nd Place - “I Hate Game Shows”

Rather self-explanatory I think, she’s never liked Game Shows, I’m right there with her too! If you need more explanation, read the book of Ecclesiastes and substitute “Game Show” everywhere you see the word “Vanity” or “Chasing after the wind”, you’ll get the idea.

In 1st Place - “We Got This Stone on Clearance”

She LOVES clearance shopping. The feeling that you just snagged a great deal is a great feeling! Thankfully, her shopping skills were passed on to, well, Angela at least. The gravestone itself will have to be on clearance! I don’t believe she would let us buy it otherwise.

My parents are in great health, and I don't expect we'll need these words any time soon. Honestly, I loathe the day my parents pass from this world, knowing the pain of loss will be great. I feel like these words will be a suave on the wound. They won’t heal, but they will remind us of the great parents that were hand-picked by God.

It's That Feeling You Get

My favorite feature of a camera isn’t the high light sensitivity, it’s not the intervalometer for time-lapse photos, it’s not even the gorgeous video it takes, but the simple ability to capture moments in time, or memories as they affectionately called.  There isn’t always something special about the photograph, it may not even be taken well, or occasionally out of focus. Though somehow these things don’t seem to matter as much.  The people in the photo, they matter, they mean the world to us.

My singles group at church do service projects, now and again. Recently we’ve been cleaning the common areas of the apartments the church owns. We purchased the apartments to help people trying to get their life back together, and it seems to have positively affected the neighborhood as well, praise the LORD. This Sunday, however, we replaced the wood on a very tired picnic bench at said apartments.

Several of us had forgotten this and were not dresses appropriately, and by not appropriately I mean they were wearing heals! This didn’t stop them, and it made me proud. It was a simple thing we did, and only took about two hours. They laughed we shared though, those will last a lifetime. My camera we being a little temperamental, always wanting to bring the background into focus when it was the foreground I wanted. It might have helped to strap the flash on for fill light. In the end the photos were just decent and I became a little discouraged, then I remembered my epiphany.

It was another Sunday morning a few weeks prior, I was driving to church, my camera in my backpack  (I’m rarely without it), and the LORD spoke to me. It was nothing audible, which was unfortunate as I had some questions for our great King. I have been taking pictures of my family, my friends, and those I love, for some time now, and there is a feeling I get when I take these picture, but up until this point I had not been able to describe it. This is what the LORD told me:

It’s that feeling you get when you know everything is going to be okay, because the people in the picture with you, love you. They loved you then, and now, and if you left, they’d miss you.

So capture your moments, your adventures in this journey we call life. Don’t just photograph what’s attractive or eye-catching, photograph memories, and in the in the end you may just find you like those blurry, over-exposed photos better.

TicTac & The Rollie Pollie

My roommate’s cat, TicTac, isn’t your normal everyday cat; he’ll only eat cat food or cat treats but instincts being what they are, has on the rare occasion, eaten a bug or two. One morning, while sitting down to do my devotional with the Lord, I see him staring intently at the ground. This is not an out-of-the-ordinary occurrence for him, many things fascinate this cat, but as I look closer I see a little pill bug slowly making it way closer toward him. Now earlier I told you he has succumb to feline ferocity and eaten a bug or two, well that’s what I thought was about to happen here. However, he did nothing more than to closely observe the little creature, periodically tapping it with his tiny paw for inspection. I’m not sure what results he was expecting, but the rollie pollie (that’s what I called them growing up) would just stop for a few moments, then resume its endless journey. I half expected him to eat it at one point, but the fascination with this micro-marathoner seemed to prevent him. The moral of the story, sometimes David defeats Goliath, and sometimes Goliath gets bored and lays down in his little box next to the floor heater.