Grids!

A Grid is something that looks like a honeycomb or screen that is attached to your flash or strobe head. It diffuses the light and makes it weaker. Grids are used to control the light, limit spillage, direct light into a small area (like a snoot or spotlight), and create a greater rate of fall-off (decreases the light hitting the background).

Grids are essential accessories for any lighting system. A grid alters the shape and intensity of the light output from your softbox when it is mounted on a light head. Consider a grid as a painter would a brush, or a sculptor would a knife, or chisel.

Honeycomb grids and "egg crates" are rigid, or semi-rigid. Fabric grids are hand-stitched, and collapse easily for storage or transport. Use of a fabric grid, honeycomb grid, or "egg crate" will result in a narrower spread of light. The spread of light will be determined by the density of the honeycomb mesh, and the distance of the subject from the light.



Here are some online tutorials that I think are great.

DIY cardboard grids for your flash: click here



Examples:

No Grid on Flash:


Using a cardboard Grid on the flash (notice how it looks like a spot light):



Soft Lighting & Grids for Portraiture: click here

Homework Due next Thursday 4/17

Everyone should please bring 10 images that they hope will fit into their final photo book project. More is fine, but at least 10. They can all be from the same shoot. All the shooting needs to be done for you final project in the next 3-4 weeks, so really get going on this! And have fun.

Fieldtrip: AIPAD Photo Show

Today we went to AIPAD in NYC- an amazing photo expo with a vast array of both vintage and contemporary photography. In my opinion the $25 ticket is well worth it- nowhere else will you be able to see such a diverse collection of photography- basically the history of photography in one place.

Show Information

The AIPAD Photography Show New York will run from Thursday, April 10 through Sunday, April 13, 2008, at the Park Avenue Armory at 67th Street in New York City. Show hours will be:
Thursday, April 10 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Friday, April 11 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 12 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The admission is $25 daily and $35 for the run-of-show, and includes a show catalogue. No advance purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the door. For more information, the public can call AIPAD at 202.367.1158 or at newyork@aipad.com

---
AIPAD highlights, 2008:

Abe Morell at Bonni Benrubi
Two of Abelardo Morell’s photographs of Venetian rooms turned into camera obscuras. These look like slide projections but were made by covering the windows with black paper, leaving a pinhole which creates the view on the opposite wall. This always results in an upside down image unless corrected by an intervening lens.


Several original Ansel Adams prints


Sandy Skoglun's new piece




Skoglund's newest piece,Fresh Hybrid,(above) is an installation and photograph that explores the shifting boundaries between life and lifelike by fabricating an artificial landscape. Replacing blades of grass with pipecleaners and bark with wool fibers, the materials strive to transform nature into a cornucopia of human pleasure with ubiquitous soft and fluffy surfaces. As if on a spring day, the sculpted hybrid trees blossom with impossible bounty and cheer in the form of chenille chicks, mass-produced lucky charms that give us a fragile and unsettling glimpse into an imaginary lost innocence.

John Szarkowski(former photo curater of MoMA) at Pace/MacGill



Gustave Le Gray, original salt prints and paper negatives from the 1800's at Daniel Blau

(A paper negative is a negative created on photo-sensitive paper instead of a standard negative film.)

Intro to Still Life

A 4x5 view camera is one of the most commonly used formats in still life photography. In class we did a demo and took this polaroid of pair of sunglasses.



Remember when chooing your 4x5 lenses that the mm don't correspond to those on your 35mm lenses. Here is a conversion chart. We used a 210 lens, which is about the same as using a 60mm lens on your 35mm camera.



To practice a product/advertising shot, we also photographed some Chanel lipstick. Once using a plexi sweep lit from above and below, and once using natural light and reflector.


In this shot, we placed the lipstick on a plexi sweep and put a strobe below and a softbox above. Notice how there are no shadows around the bottom edges of the lipstick case. A long lens (over 100mm) was used at F11. Notice that everything in the frame is in focus because of this.




In this shot we placed the lipstick on a sheet of white paper, right next to a big window. The window lit the subject from the side and a reflector filled in the shadows. A macro lens was used at F4, creating just a small plane to be in focus, highlighting the "chanel" stamp on the lipstick. Notice that small shadows have been cast to the side of the tube, because it sits on paper and is not lit from below like the above image.

Volunteer Opportunity: Face Painting

Fundraiser on the Hofstra campus Relay for Life, April 26th.

Art student needed to volunteer to do face painting for the children during the event. The volunteer will need to provide materials.

If anyone is interested, they can contact Jessica Hochheiser at 516-496-4544 or by email hochheisers@yahoo.com.

Portraits on Black

Last week, we did an in-class demo on shooting portraits on a black background using one softbox, a fill card and a black paper sweep. Here are pictures the students took of each other in class.

Midterm Is This Week!! (3/13)

Individual meetings will be held during the 2nd half of class this week. Please bring:

8 Prints Total (8x10"):
1 Natural Light Print
1 Artificial Light Print
1 headshot
2 prints from the "Colored Light" assignment
1 silhouette shot from the strobe assignment
1 portrait on a white background using strobes
1 fashion shot using strobes