Photography, flash techniques and a passion for creativity

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Photography with CO2 Mist: Experimental notes

Layla in the mist

Layla in the mist

After seeing CO2 used in so many movies and shows as special effect, I thought of giving it a try myself to create a photo, so I went to a factory of industrial gasses and got a 10Kg bag of CO2 pellets.

CO2 pellets - close up

CO2 pellets – close up

The stuff is quite actually quite difficult to use. First the CO2 pellets sublimate continuously,  so my stock of 10 kg was about the half after 1 evening in the fridge. Second, when poured into water to produce mist, the reaction is strong, but lasts just a few minutes. I was using warm water to get a strong reaction, but it froze quite quickly. Third, the mist is gone almost as fast as it’s produced.
Lesson learnt for next time:

  • Buy more,
  • Use it the same day,
  • Use big can of water relative to the amount of CO2 pellets used,
  • Work fast – prepare the idea, lights and the scene beforehand.

Lights: Used a simple 2-light setup: 600EX-RT bare behind the girl and a second 600EX-RT fitted in a Lastolite Stripbox.

Lame annoying spam

Comment spam is as much of an annoyance like mosquitos in a summer night. I wish I could slap spammers like I do to those damn insects.
At least, mosquitos seem to have more brains than the lame failed scripts spammers are trying to use. They certainly need to learn to program better.

]{Nice|Excellent|Great} {blog|weblog} {here|right here}! {Also|Additionally} your {website|site|website} {a lot|lots|so much|quite a bit|rather a lot|loads} up {fast|very fast}![...]… [...]

Bookmark: Speedlite Flash Duration

Color burst

Color burst

If you are into high speed flash photography, knowing the duration of the flash burst at different power levels is vital to create a setup that will freeze the action of your chosen subject.
I found on this blog an experimental measure of flash duration for different brands and models:
http://www.gock.net/2012/01/flash-durations-small-strobes/

Crafting an image with Pocket Wizard’s AC3 Controller

A dark reflection of Evelyne

A dark reflection of Evelyne


In this tutorial we are going to see how, step-by-step, we can build an image using the AC3 controller. Using the different channels we will be able to setup and enable each light independently, fine tune the light output in e-TTL or manual mode as needed. We will repeat this process until we have completed out setup and then put it all together.
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Ezybox Hotshoe Review

Ezybox Hotshoe Review: Soft and Easy

Ezybox Hotshoe Review: Soft and Easy

I just noticed that the guys at Lastolite have a PDF copy of the Ezybox Hotshoe review I did many moons ago. Next to the product related content, it has also good tips on working on location with speedlites.
Here’s the link from the Lastolite website: Soft and Easy: Ezybox Hotshoe

Free EOS Magazine sampler

EOS Magazine sampler
I’m a regular contributor of EOS Magazine, a great source of information and technique about photography and video with your EOS camera and accessories. When EOS enthusiast see this magazine they get really excited, but you can’t find in the newsstand, as it’s only available on digital or paper subscription.
To give you a glimpse of what EOS Magazine is about, they have put together a sampler of some articles of previous issues.

Have a look (direct download): EOS Magazine sampler

Iceland in Infrared

I have been organizing my “old shoe box” and found a set of my favorite slides from a trip to Iceland in 2002. In the pre-digital era, one of my favorite films was Kodak Ektachrome Infrared “EIR”. This film had a IR-sensitive layer that with the help of specific color filter, could turn the near-infrared radiation of an scene into a colorful image.

Iceland in Infrared

Iceland in Infrared

Good old EIR required special treatment. All EIR color layers are sensitive to the blue spectrum and therefore blue needs to be filtered to avoid a murky image. A yellow #12 filter is perfect for that job as it absorbs most blue radiation, letting the higher part of the light spectrum, towards the red and infrared, pass-through.

Nowadays we have the immediate feedback of the LCD screen of the digital camera but at the time, imagination was your best preview. Learning to visualize an scene in infrared was required to make the most of this -rather expensive- film.
One thing I certainly miss in these digital days was the emotion to go to the lab to pick up your developed slides, place them on the light box and discover the how the infrared light, invisible for the eye, looked in your final image. My heart used to tick faster every time.

Pinhole workshop in Antwerp

The most simple lens is nothing more than a small hole. Pinhole formed the basis of the camera obscura that the precursors of the photography used as a drawing aid. Willing to go back to basics? Ben Mossings, AKA b-a-r-e-n-d is a pro pinhole shooter offering a workshop in Antwerp, next 16/march/2013. For more information and inscriptions: http://www.b-a-r-e-n-d.com/pinhole-workshops

Evelyne



Evelyne, originally uploaded by Gerard Maas.

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The green potion



The green potion, originally uploaded by Gerard Maas.

We were in the woods in the north of France and this bridge was perfect for some spooky image on Halloween night.
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