Posts Tagged ‘camera tools’

Flash!

May 17th, 2010
8 Comments

I bought a Nikon SB-600 flash unit for my camera nearly a month ago. I’m loving it. I feel like a free woman now that I can take decent photos in low-light situations. When I say low-light, I mean practically pitch black. Really.

Can I brag about it for a minute? I love this thing. Let me show you how awesome this thing is:

I took these photos at my cousin’s house at midnight. Each photo was taken from the same spot on the couch using the same settings. The above shot was taken without a flash of any kind. So sad.

This shot was taken using my pop-up flash. It’s not horrible, but it looks pretty bad. Right? It’s still really dark.

Now this is what I’m talking about!!! The above image was taken using my new flash pointed at the ceiling with a diffuser cap. WOW. Isn’t it nuts the difference between this and the rest of the photos? I love my new toy, I just have to start working out my arms so I can better handle my giant camera/lens/flash set-up.

DIY Camera Flash Sock Project

July 20th, 2009
12 Comments

The second DIY project I’ve done recently is a flash sock. Now, it’s a little silly that I did a DIY for something that costs as little as $10 (some are listed for $30+ which I think is also silly), but I had the materials on hand and I didn’t want to wait for the sock to come in the mail.

flash sock supplies

What I used:

  • For the exterior, diffuser part I used white felt and white plastic from a picnic spread. I’m sure you could fuse plastic bags together and do the same thing. Although, you would want to make sure they were plain plastic bags.
  • For the interior reflective top I used the shiny metal bag from a Pop’s cereal bag
  • I used elastic cording to attach the sock to the flash and white thread to sew it all together.

Flash diffuser sock on pop-up flash

I ended up hand sewing the sock together, which wasn’t hard but a little more time consuming than if I had done it with a sewing machine. Despite the freakish appearance my camera takes when I use the sock, I really like how the photos turn out.  Check it out:

Flash sock photos

The flash sock helps to avoid over-exposure and softens all of the hard edges usually created with the flash. It’s also interesting to observe that my sock warms up the photos ever so slightly. Interesting, hu?!? While my flash sock works on my pop-up flash, the sock idea is really optimized for an external flash.

Do any of you readers have an external flash that you love, or know of one I could get on the cheap? I’ve been thinking of getting one, and would love some pointers from users/camera enthusiasts and not salesman.

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