Ok, first, for those who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook… literally the same day as my last post (March 2nd), we had a major medical crisis dumped in our laps. My wife went in for a doctor’s appointment that same afternoon for a cough and shoulder pain.. and by 6:30 that evening, we had a very worried doctor on the phone telling us there was a large mass in her chest. Almost 3 weeks later now, and we have found out that it is a lymphoma.. a cancer of the lymph gland. The doctors are telling us that it is “curable,” so we are running with that until we hear otherwise. She had her first chemo treatment this week and is suffering the effects of that.. we’ll hopefully know more soon.

This is why the promised update of my headshot setup has taken so long and why I haven’t posted a picture of the week since then… but I’m trying to get things back to some semblance of normal, so here we go now.

Someone on Twitter asked me to post a picture of the back of the DIY light.. so here it is:

Pretty basic.. the light switch collects the wires from the bath bar through a hole drilled in the back of the flower box.. and connects them up with the power cord. Flip the switch and the lights come on.

Now, here is a shot of the headshot setup I use.. this is shot from where the background usually sits, looking back to where I stand (next to that window):

Again, pretty basic.. one might even call it “ghetto,” but I am a minimalist and a strong believer in using what works. That is an 8 x 3 1/2 foot piece of sheet metal on the floor for a reflector.. a white wall down camera right and pieces of white foam core taped to the back side of my prop shelves on camera left (camera position is from the windows, remember). My DIY light sits on a stool immediately to camera right… this and the window gives the catchlight and dilates the pupils. Above the chair (where the subject sits), are two of those paper lantern lights like you can get at Pier One or Ikea (they are like $5) with daylight white balanced compact fluorescent bulbs. This adds a hair light and helps separation from the background. I will also add a remote flash to go off and light the background from time to time.. depending on the situation.. but not always. The flash only lights the background, so there are no color balance issues.

Here is another shot of the lovely Katharine with this light setup..

EXIF: 1/100s, f/2.8, ISO200, 160mm

Keep experimenting and you may find your own simple setup that works for you. Remember, it doesn’t have to be expensive to be a good light. Light is light. Its what you do with it and how you shape it that matters.

I built this light while watching coverage of Hurricane Ike’s landfall last September… I’ve had several people ask me about my lighting setup lately, so I thought I’d post this to my blog. It has become one of my favorite lights to use lately, so it is important to other setups I will show in the coming days.

I’d been using this light in the studio for a while.. mostly for headshots, but I was thinking that what I really needed was a strip light or two… so instead of paying a couple hundred for one, I thought I’d see what I could do…. so here we go….

a 44 inch wooden flower box $20

6 bulb “Bath Bar” with a chrome backing $19.92

a Wall Switch $6.97

Light duty cord $6.97

6 Daylight Balanced, 100W equiv 5500K temp cf bulbs $6.97 each

Plus misc supplies of spray paint, foil, glue… total came to just under $110 with tax.

I painted it black so it would look a little more finished.. although it probably could have used another coat. The one can of spray paint covered it, but the wood was very pourous… then lined the inside with aluminum foil.

Drilled a hole in the middle of the back to pass the wires from the vanity bar through.. and attached the switch with the power cord at that spot.. being careful to ground the wire properly.

Switch it on…

Lessons learned…

I probably could have used a few cheaper pieces.. light sockets for instance, which would have required more wiring (to each socket), but would also have allowed me the possibility to individually switch the sockets (at a higher cost for a multi-switch)… but I liked the bath bar solution for me in this case.

I probably could have gone with a cheaper switch and cord, too.. but I don’t like to skimp when it comes to electricity.. it makes me nervous. LOL

Paint.. well, I already said I probably should have given it a second coat.. but I was impatient and wanted to get it working.

Oh.. and before you start something like this that requires you to do a quick drill job… make sure your drill is with you and not at the studio.

Samples…

Using a horizontal configuration.. subject on the floor, light below and leaning slightly upward toward her.

The shot from Friday of Katharine was shot with the strip light in the same configuration, only with the commercial light I linked to above as a hair/rim light.. like this:

If this proves popular, I will share more in the future..