Sunday, March 29, 2015

Making a DIY Saber Strip + Test Shot

After watching an episode by Zack Arias on his one light tutorials, he introduced the Saberstrip, an alternative to using shoot through umbrellas for photography. The biggest advantage I saw in it was its ability to withstand wind as compared to those umbrellas.

Found  DIY tutorial online and modified it with my own tweaks. Link HERE.

While the website's setup cost US$30, the whole set up I had cost less than $5 (US$3.70?)!!! My tubes were bought off a framing shop I walked pass one day, the uncle had no use for them and thus I managed to convince him to sell it off. I think they can't cost that much if you get it from an art shop either anyway.



The initial test shot was very harsh, and without any form of diffuser, the flash which was technically aimed at the ceiling anyway, kept leaking light upwards which came crashing down and filling the background. Not having a diffuser also meant that light reflected off the saberstrip was harsh and concentrated on certain areas of the body.



I ended up with a last minute tweak cause I was lazy, and made do with a plastic bag wrapped around the thing to reduce light shooting upwards and to allow a more event spread towards the subject.



The results? Yay! 

Can't complain for the price, and I was pretty worried with the catch light but it didn't turn out as bad as I'd hope (of course the plastic bag was huge la).

Glad to have given this experiment a try, Sunday night not wasted. =)

No comments: