One of my friends at Pixel-Mesh took a few household tools and the leftover pizza box from his lunch and fashioned it into a homemade flash snoot that yielded surprisingly good results. A snoot restricts the light and allows you to direct it at a specific location, helping you to eliminate “light spill”
The Tools
Razor knife, builders square, and dark duct tape (it's not a hack without duct tape)
A razor knife, builders square and a roll of dark colored duct tape (you knew duct tape was going to make an appearance somewhere).
Using The Top of The Box
Any flat piece of cardboard will do, but will they also be a pizza scented air freshener?
Cut the outline of the snoot shape and cover the cardboard with a layer of duct tape.
Fold Into the Proper Shape
Tape flat first
Fold into the proper shape and tape it into position.
Then tape into shape
Attach to The Flash
The homemade snoot attached to the flash
If you sized it right it will fit on the flash without taping it.
The Results
With the flash attached to a Canon 5D MKII the results are not bad, not bad at all.
Valentine's Day is a good opportunity to experiment with lighting by candlelight - by Chantel Beam Photography via Flickr
Valentine’s Day presents an opportunity to experiment with a really old-fashioned light source; it’s one of those days a lot of people choose candlelight.
There’s something visceral about fire in the human psyche and candles provide a single, pure pinpoint of fire that is both warm and intimate at the same time. You know you’re a real photo geek when a romantic candlelight dinner inspires you to break out the camera and tripod!
One of the really amazing things about new digital DSLRs is their low light performance. Just a few years ago trying to light exclusively by candlelight meant risking a house fire. Today even APS-C sensors like the Nikon D7000 or Canon 7D (compare) can yield decent results in low light and full frame cameras like the Canon 5D MK II and Nikon D700 (compare) can shoot in extremely low light.
Don’t Worry About Noise
This is one time you can forget about the ISO. Most digital cameras start showing low light artifacts anywhere over ISO 800. But candlelight portraits are one instance when the noise can actually add to a photo, so don’t be afraid to experiment with higher ISOs. If the pictures are too noisy you can always add more candles.
Low light noise can actually add to a candlelight photo - by Miss Baker
Use a Tripod
Trotting out a tripod for some candid shots may not be the most romantic gesture, but it’s still better than hand-holding at slow shutter speeds. Even a gelled fill flash will spoil the effect, so there’s no real option here.
I wouldn’t go any lower than 1/15 of a second with a human subject as it’s hard for anyone to hold that still.
Use Reflectors
A white tablecloth actually works quite well as a natural reflector. A mirror will give you sharper shadows and strong directional lighting. Your standard photographic reflector clamped to a light stand will also come in handy to fill in the deeper shadows.
You can use aluminum foil over a piece of cardboard if you want a more irregular effect. If there’s a whiff of breeze, a flickering candle with an aluminum foil reflector can look like a campfire.
Candles can function equally well as foreground or background lighting - by Walt Stoneburner via Flickr
Experiment
There are two ways you can go with candlelight photos: You can expose for the subject and overexpose the candle flame or you can expose for the candle flames and deliberately under-light the subject.
Try it both ways and try different combinations. You can sometimes use LED or incandescent bulbs as background light if you need more depth.
Do remember that a couple pictures of a special occasion is one thing, but a good photographer also knows when it’s time to hang up the camera and enjoy the moment.
Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster in London, Photo by Brenden Sherratt
One of the biggest mistakes most people make in the pursuit of travel and holiday pictures is overlooking the fabulous in a quest for the trite and cliche. Every photographer in the business has made that mistake at one point in their career, so make a pledge that the pictures you take on holiday this year will be different.
Everyone knows what the Statue of Liberty and the Washington Monument look like. Any photos you could take will probably look just like hundreds of others of the same exact thing. Yes, take one or two, just for the scrapbook value, but don’t stop there. Find a unique angle, a different way of looking at something familiar. Reflection of the Washington Monument in an eye. Photo by Jennuine Captures
When I used to work on a military base the building we were in had a peculiar paint job around the front door. Otherwise, it was just another nondescript government building designed and built by the low bidder. But the front door was distinct. So when I took a picture to remember my time there, I took a picture of the door handle. The handle that I reached for every morning for years and years and eventually came to dread touching. So many emotions all tied to an object that I looked at every day and almost failed to notice.
When you’re on vacation, get a shot of the touristy things, then try to find little details that define your experience. Maybe it’s a unique cab driver, or a street vendor, or some other details that normally get lost in the background clutter.
Faces in Temple Bar, Dublin, Photo by Brenden SherrattI have a friend with a large family who recently was able to get four generations of daughters together for a photo. He took the predictable group photo, then took one of everyone putting just their hands in a circle over a black background. Guess which picture was the most popular?
It’s the details that seem inconsequential today that spark the most vivid memories tomorrow. There was a stand of trees where we used to live, nothing particularly special about them, just trees. One day I fired off a shot just to check exposure levels of that stand of trees and forgot to delete it. It got mixed in with the assignment that day and I ran across it days later processing the pictures for the customer.
A photo of a stand of trees that I almost deleted ended up meaning more to me than I would have thought at the time
To this day that’s one of my favorite shots. Just some trees, but I saw them every time I went outside and, even today, that shot can bring memories of that place flooding back.
So this year, don’t just take the obvious shots. Take pictures of hands, feet, dog toys, crumpled wrapping paper, and the millions of other little details you see but don’t always notice. Instead of just looking at the tourist attraction, look to the left and right, look behind it. Find a unique angle and tell a different story the next time you are on a trip.
101,254 images were submitted to this years World Press Photo Contest, 5,247 photographers from 124 nations entered. Here are some of the winners: World Press Photo of the Year: A woman holds a wounded man, inside a mosque that was being used as a field hospital during the demonstrations against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in Sanaa, Yemen on 15 October 2011 photo by: Samuel Aranda — The New York Times
1st place Spot News: On Revolution Road, photographer by Yuri Kozyrev2nd Prize Sports: Scrum Half, photo by Ray McManus1st place Daily Life: North Korea, photo by Damir Sagolj2nd place, Arts and Entertainment, Dakar Fashion Week, photo by Vincent Boisot1st Prize General News, Mubarak Steps Down, photo by Alex Majoli2nd Prize Spot News, Utoya, photo by Niclas Hammerstrom2nd Prize General News Stories: Tsunami aftermath, photo by Paolo Pellegrin3rd place General News: Japan's Nuclear Refugees, photo by David Guttenfelder2nd prize Nature: Infinity Cave photo by Carsten Peter1st prize Contemporary Issues: Child Brides, photo by Stephanie Sinclair1st prize Contemporary Issues: photo by Brent Stirton
