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Tag : light

A day at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago

Rockford is only about 1.5-2 hours northwest of Chicago. So it’s kind of sad that in my three years here, I haven’t gone into the city to see the sites even once. The last time I went around Chicago for leisure purposes was in fifth grade when we took a class trip from Kentucky. My girlfriend, Erin, has wanted to show me around the city for some time now. This last week, we were able to get the time to […]

Gridiron Preview 2013: How the shots were made

August was a busy month for photographers at the Rockford Register Star. We were brainstorming and shooting our annual Gridiron preview section. This special section releases on the day of the first high school game each season. Each team in the NIC-10 conference has a page featuring a portrait, a story and other related information. Each year has a theme. Two years ago, the portraits mimicked famous album covers. The layout was reminiscent of the Billboard Top 100 chart. Last […]

Artificial multi-point lighting

If there was one valuable thing about photography that I learned in college, it was the science behind lighting.  Understanding the inverse square law and how multiple lights can affect an image proved to be invaluable to me. While I was at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I had an editor give me the idea of shooting a food set with multi-point lighting. The basic multi-point setup includes three lights. One each to the left and right and one from behind. […]

My DIY beauty dish works like a charm

I got the chance to test my DIY beauty dish this morning. It worked like a charm! I once again had my friend Gavin Culbertson stand in for a few quick portraits. He was standing in the shadow with a sun-lit wall behind him. This picture could be improved with a back light but I only have one Speedlight, a Canon 550EX. I love the circular highlight that shows up in the eyes of the subject. I will need to […]

DIY Beauty dish

Ever since I discovered what a beauty dish was, I’ve wanted one. The problem is that I don’t have any strobes to use one on. My lighting is limited to a single Canon Speedlight (shoe mounted flash). How could I produce the look of a beauty dish with my one Speedlight? Simple. Build a beauty dish to fit. I’m not the most handy of the handymen. Therefore, instead of designing the dish on my own, I Googled other peoples designs […]