Befriending the light.

Several weeks ago I had coffee & conversation with Rob from Rob Hammer Photography. We talked about making it in these hard times. Lately Rob's been shooting a lot for Denver Magazine. Go Rob!



Tonight we hung out at his place drank some PBR and worked on lighting techniques. Rob has a personal project of goofy faces. So I lent my goatee & look to the project.

I in turn got to shot rob on his white seamless & started using some of the light modifiers and crazy ideas I've had running through my noodle.



Here I used my DarkSphere (a lightsphere wrapped in Cinefoil with a 20 degree grid) as a spot. Plus Rob had a nice cardboard snoot that only lit his eyes.

Rob & Emily are great people & I appreciate them opening up their home & Rob sharing his equipment with me.

DIY: Chimera Frame

After taking Andrew Clark's workshops I realized it'd be good to buy a reflector to help bounce the light back in for fill or as a quick backdrop for a head shot. I couldn't find black on one side and white on the other that I liked until I came across the 42 inch Chimera black and white panel reflector. So I bought a panel with NO FRAME....

Then I remembered David Tejada used one of these Chimera panels for a soft box/window in his Small Strobes Big Results workshop. It turned his SB-800 into a giant soft light modifier. After FaceBooking with him about it and if the frame was really necessary. I picked up the 42 inch Chimera 1/2 grid cloth too with NO FRAME.

There I was set..... but since neither one comes with a frame . You have to buy it separate and its over $100. So for just under $15 I made my own collapsible frame out of lite weight PVC pipe wrapped in black gaffers tape. I even made a video of me making it.
(watch me make a fool out of myself)













These were shot with one SB-800 through the 42" Chimera cloth about and hour after sunset. (we rode dirtbikes for to long)






















I thought it needed something extra, so I shot this with the same SB-800 through the 42" Chimera cloth and added one SB-26 on camera right. One stop hotter.












(this is the set up of the Chimera Frame, just imagine the SB-26 just out of frame)