DJ System Fail – 2015

October 07, 2015

After seeing what Stan and I were able to do last week. Another friend of mine from the old Shelter days (RIP) Cody aka DJ System Fail said he wanted to get some photos done as well.

This shoot was special for a few reasons (and I have a feeling I know what you are going to say "Oh hey, look, another black background shoot" well yes. But more important than that this was my first time working with a full frame mirrorless camera).

My first shoot shot on a truly "professional" piece of equipment. Granted I am borrowing it from my day job, but that's a whole other story. (Also long story short, I'm pretty happy with the results...except that somehow in the middle of shooting it switched from RAW to JPEG and I lost some ability to edit in post.)

The most exciting thing from this shoot is after capturing digital photos. We decided it was time to shoot the final "official" roll of my 52 rolls project. After I develop this roll I will probably need to re-name the blog something to the effect of "The GREATER THAN 52 Rolls Project". Those photos will be developed today, and will probably be hitting the blog the first week in November. So be on the lookout then.

The DIY Backdrop Test 2 (and Build) – Justin – 2015

October 01, 2015

I'm going to take a few moments and walk through the construction of the DIY backdrop project (It's really a lot more simple than you would think). I believe total cost for me was around $22.00, but that included two backdrop stands that I already had.

It all started with this video:

In it there is a section where it mentions the IKEA Tupplur blind.

Originally I wanted to go with a grey one instead, but since there was an open box deal on the large black, I got it instead. I'll probably go back in the near future and pick up the grey one.
After I got it home I removed the spring driven auto-winder (I guess that's the best way to describe the part) and found that there was a 3/4" tube running down the center. That tube just so happened to be the same diameter as my backdrop stand, so I had to run down to home depot and grab some 1/2" electrical conduit (about $2.30 for a 10' section).

They cut it down to size for me, and helped me find some screw on ends that formed an L shape (about another $1.50 each) that I used to mount on top of my backdrop stand.

Short of using a little black spray paint to dull down the silver, the final product looks like this. The diagram approximately (and totally not to scale) looked very similar to the one below.

Using an LED Panel that I borrowed from a friend of mine (and totally need to return, sorry Vivi) to provide a back light to the background, and my studio strobes (modeling light on, with a closed umbrella since the camera I am working with has a different flash mount than I am used to) as my main light. I was able to get some pretty interesting lighting situations. I probably need to look into some various gels to take some of the blue LED tint out, but other than that I am pretty happy.

Justin stepped up to help me out with some more testing of the background, and using what I learned from shooting Stan yesterday, this is what we were able to achieve.

The DIY Backdrop Test 1 – Stan – 2015

September 30, 2015

So I forgot how I met Stan. More than likely probably through another mutual friend. But I could have run into him on the street for all I remember. But we have kept in touch through social media since. During part of my 52 rolls project, while I was looking for people to shoot, Stan stepped up and said that he would be interested in getting some band photos taken.

If you remember from the post about Finite Automata on the Extra blog, I didn't really consider myself a "band photographer" so initially I kinda pushed things off a little more than I normally would. But after the success I found with those, I figured I'd move forward with more.

I put out a call on my social media pages for someone to test an idea I had (found honestly) for a DIY backdrop. Stan was one of the few people that stepped up to the challenge and we decided to snap a few shots.

I still have a few tweaks I'd like to do to the lighting, but overall I was very happy with the results. Let me know what you all think!