"This reflector panel holder made of 3/4 inch PVC pipe is handy if you have a spare tripod to use. The tripod provides a stable base that can be adjust for height and tilt angle. Reflector is the collapseable type used for an auto windshield (31 x 38 inches)…"
Continue reading at DIYphotoraphy.net
Via MAKE Blog
"A flexible lighting system is something that I have wanted to play with for a while, but like everything else in photography it seems to be a fairly expensive area to get into, at least when you consider the relative simplicity of a light-bulb.
"Thankfully there are a number of cheap and widely-available or easily-made items that can provide most of the same functionality at a small fraction of the price. For under US$75, this article will show you how to put together a flexible and robust lighting system that is both useful and relatively easy on the hip pocket…"
Continue reading at Shuttertalk
This is well worth a read, the author’s got some really good ideas!
Via MAKE Blog
"To do this, all that is needed is a Polaroid Land camera, some small screwdrivers, and a small sheet of thin metal. These cameras can be found on eBay, or better yet, at yard sales. It will be made into a pinhole camera with several pinholes that can be switched into place, for use in various light conditions etc…"
Read tutorial at Instructables
Via MAKE Blog
Luminous Landscape has just posted an interview with Jack Showalter, president of Hasselblad USA, by fine arts photographer Pete Myers.
"Between sales of Hasselblad scanners and Hasselblad film cameras, as well as our unique position as being a manufacturer of medium format film and digital solutions, I can assure you that film remains extremely important to Hasselblad, despite the fact that the film business is in decline…"
Continue reading at Luminous Landscape
Hot on the heels of their well-received Stylus rotary tool announcement, Dremel have just announced a new 220 Workstation mounting kit that can be used as a drill press, tool holder, and flex shaft holder.
Check it out at Dremel or Amazon
I’ve been wanting a drill press mount for camera building and modifying, and for $45, I’m sold. With this puppy’s help, I’ll finally be able to drill a Holga shutter plate out to get it faster than f/8. Bring on the options for low-light shooting and shallower depth of field!
Via MAKE Blog
Darren of One Stop Under writes:
"Edwin Leong over at CameraHobby.com has done a nice roundup review of several fine art matte inkjet papers from Crane, Legion, and Moab.
"I like the way Edwin has published two sets of results – one titled ‘Technical, Nitpicky and Anal-Retentive Comments’ to keep the pixel peepers happy, and one titled ‘Aesthetic Comments after I Power Slammed the Technician Out of the Way’ for people who just care about how their art actually looks."
Couldn’t have said it better myself (so I didn’t).
Read the roundup at Camera Hobby
Via One Stop Under
"On Wednesday, 2006 March 29, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon’s umbral shadow begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, northern Africa, and central Asia where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbral shadow, which includes the northern two thirds of Africa, Europe, and central Asia…"
Heaps more info, including times and maps, from NASA.
Obviously, this looks like a pretty sweet photographic opportinuty. Bust out your freaky optics, and mind your eyes!
Note to North Americans: we won’t see any of this, so keep your pants on.
Paul Butzi writes in his blog entry, Another Instant Classic from Ted Orland on The Online Photographer:
I had been thinking pretty hard about photography and art when I came across a book that Orland had co-written with David Bayles, Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking. This little book asks (and answers) questions like ‘Why should we make art?’ and ‘Why is it so hard for artists to continue making art?’ When I came across it in 1997 or so, I thought I’d come across one of those happy, synchronistic coincidences—a book that was just right for me came along at the exact moment I was ready for it. Since then, though, I’ve come to realize that it’s a timeless classic—that every artist faces many of the same hurdles, and Bayles and Orland drew on their experience to give us pragmatic, practical ways to not only get started making art we care about but to overcome the hurdles and roadblocks that so often result in our not picking up the camera for months on end.
This is pretty much my exact take on Art & Fear, except that I just discovered it a few months ago. I have since been ramming it down the throat of suggesting it to every artist—be they photographer, potter, dancer, painter, writer, musician, whatever—that I know. I’ve been meaning to do a review of it but haven’t found the time to even try to do it justice.
Ted Orland, co-author of Art & Fear (and noted toy camera photographer), has just come out with a new book, View from the Studio Door: How Artists Find Their Way in an Uncertain World (not available from Amazon until 15 April, 2006, though it seems to be available everywhere else).
He writes, "In The View From The Studio Door I’ve tried to confront many broader issues that stand to either side of that artistic moment of truth.
Issues like:
"These are questions that count, because when it comes to artmaking, theory & practice are always intertwined. Simply put, this is a book of practical philosophy—written by, and for, working artists."
I’m picking up a copy today and will post more once I’ve read it. In the mean time, I do suggest reading Paul Butzi’s comments on it. It’s got all the poop and he says it better than I can.
AlternativePhotography.com have two new how-tos up, one each for woodburytype and ziatype printing.
"The woodbury type/woodbury process by Nicolai Klimaszewski is an interesting take on carving. Read and learn."
"Woodburytype images are made by pouring a translucent mixture of pigments suspended in warm gelatin onto a relief surface, then transferring this pigment layer onto paper. In this case, the thick and thin areas of gelatin, along with the white of the paper produce a wide range of beautiful tones. I state that the tones are beautiful because the thickness and translucency of the pigment layer provides a remarkable kind of color that a conventional flat deposit of ink cannot achieve…"
Continue reading the woodburytype how-to at AlternativePhotography.com
"The Ziatype process is an extract from Christina Z. Anderssons book Alternative Processes Condensed. The article here has been illustrated by Carl Weese‘s beautiful prints."
"The ziatype is a variation of the Pizzighelli POP process that uses lithium palladium chloride (lithium chloropallidite) as the primary metal and ammonium ferric oxalate for the iron compound to produce a continuous tone print. Color and contrast are controlled chemically, unlike other Pizzighelli processes where color and contrast are controlled by humidity…"
Continue reading the ziatype how-to at AlternativePhotography.com
(POP is Printing Out Paper, where the image becomes visible as it is exposed, as opposed to the standard Developing Out Paper, which is exposed and then needs to be bathed in liquid developer before the image becomes visible.)
Excerpt from by "The Pinhole Camera Revisited or The Revenge of the Simple-Minded Engineer", by Kjell Carlsson:
"The image of a point object, the Point Spread Function (PSF),
should be as small as possible to produce a sharp image.
"Geometrical optics approximation: Hole should be as small as possible.
"Fraunhofer diffraction approximation: Hole should be as large as possible.
"No optimum size is found!
"Conclusion: The optimum size is found in a region where neither geometrical optics nor Fraunhofer diffraction is valid!"
For the more mathematically inclined, this paper discusses the preceeding conundrum and has simulated sample images for various pinhole sizes. I can’t follow the math, but I found it an interesting read nonetheless.