If you haven’t seen it, here is the original post about the Smart Optical Slave Flash Trigger (SOSFT) prototype built on an Arduino platform. Since I need to free up the Arduino Duemilanove board for other purposes and want to test the trigger in more practical situations, I decided to build it on a small perfboard I found in RadioShack. Read More…
People love photography related hacks and DIY projects. The most popular ones are related to photography lighting such as light modifiers, special lighting equipments, etc. If you want to sample just some of the things you can do, DIYPhotography.net has a pretty good list of things you can try.
Here are the couple of things I have been playing with lately. If you have noticed reduced posting frequency on this blog, that’s part of the reasons. 
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Posted in DIY & Hacks on February 3rd, 2010. 3 Comments.
It is amazing how creative people can be when it comes to DIY photography lighting equipment. This Gary Fong style flash diffuser costs only a few dollars to make: just a piece of plastic food packaging (where the name comes from) and an elastic band. We don’t know how well it performs against the real deal that costs ~$50 and the durability may be questionable but the results aren’t bad at all.
Posted in DIY & Hacks on January 11th, 2010. No Comments.
Running coaxial PC cable between PC sync ports is a common way of synchronizing flash with the shutter curtain of a camera. However more and more cameras and flashes come without PC sync port. The PC sync port now appears to be a legacy thing left for only the high end cameras. D200 and D300 have it but D40, D60, D80, and D90 do not.
The PC sync port can be very useful for some special cases. For example, this Nikon shooter wanted to use an iTTL flash on camera while still being able to fire his radio slaves.
This can certainly be done. I have talked about it in my earlier post titled Mixing Flash Modes. What he need is a hot shoe adapter that has all the required electrical connections to pass through the signals while adding a PC sync port. If you don’t need to maintain iTTL functionality, this device should work. Otherwise you need something just a few wires more sophisticated. The following is what I found for a little over $12 from eBay. Read More…
Posted in Accessories on January 9th, 2010. No Comments.
Do you have a Nikon flash that is dead because of a broken flash bulb? One obvious path to resurrect it is to send it in for service. If you are handy and really understand how to follow safety procedures, you can save some expensive repair charges by doing it yourself.
It doesn’t appear very difficult.
One guy ordered a replacement bulb for ~$20 (including shipping) directly from Nikon and fixed his Nikon SB-80DX. Another guy fixed his SB-600 with a $8.52 replacement bulb. If you are motivated enough to try it yourself, be really careful! Some safety tips on camera flash capacitor probably help.
Contact Nikon Parts Department
- Phone: 1-310-414-8107
- Fax: 1-310-322-6979
- Hours: 7am – 3pm PST Mon – Fri
Posted in DIY & Hacks on January 5th, 2010. No Comments.
If you are not afraid of wiring up an AC circuit, this constant lighting kit may be a good project for you. All the parts can be obtained from home improvement store. The set built by the author cost him $46.07 including 4 100W equivalent daylight compact fluorescent bulbs (but not the umbrella).
Why do you want constant lighting when you already have strobes or flashes? The nice thing about constant lighting is what-you-see-is-what-you-get, which makes adjustments easy. This is particularly helpful for still life photography when there will be no complaints from subject about a constant bright light making the subject uncomfortable. This will also be a good setup for people who make videos.
Source: Nikonian Forum
Posted in DIY & Hacks on December 23rd, 2009. No Comments.
Lifehacker has just put together a list of great photography hacks. My personal favorites are the following:
- Create Abstract Light Art by Snapping a Camera-Toss Photo – Toss your camera up to capture some intriguing patterns of light. Also check out the Camera Toss blog and the Camear Toss Flickr group.
- DIY Beauty Dish Enhances Your Portraits – We also included the same one in our beauty dish roundup.
- DIY Tilt-Shift Photography Lens – Large format lens + toilet plunger + camera body cap + some drilling, filing, and gluing can save you hundreds on a real tile-and-shift lens. There is now a better one called Plungercam 2.
Your tastes may differ greatly so please check out the entire list and vote for the best at the bottom of the page.
Posted in DIY & Hacks on December 12th, 2009. No Comments.
Want to take strobist photos in wet environments but don’t want to get killed by the high voltage in your Speedlight flash or risk damaging the flash? Check out this DIY waterproof flashbox. With this DIY setup, you should be able to make sure both you and the flash are safe when taking photos in showers, swimming pools, lakes, sea, and in the rain.
What does it take to make one? Looks like not much in term of time required but it isn’t very cheap. You need to get the Otterbox 3500 waterproof case (clear)
If the promises (specs) of the waterproof box is true, you should be able to take this setup safely down to 100ft underwater if you want to, assuming you can trigger the flash somehow.
Check out more pictures of the DIY waterproof flashbox.
Posted in DIY & Hacks on November 28th, 2009. No Comments.
