Tuesday, November 3, 2009

I'm Shooting Slides in My Pajamas

Well, not right now, but I have been all week. I just wanted to take a minute and post that I LOVE digital photography. Gone are the days of spending all your money on film to find out that your pictures suck. Gone is the wait. You don't even have to take a straight shot, picasa will help you do that. And copies of slides, what? You can copy a digital image at home for free. You're applying for a show that requires slides? iprintfromhome will help you with that, in lightning speed. Here is an image of my home-made slide shooting kit.

It's been tweaked a little since I took that shot, I put a board under the light box to make it wider, and lowered the backdrop. It's also now permanently up in my office, so all I need to do is bring home my work, plop it on the back drop. My camera is conveniently located next to the computer, I can upload immediately. All while drinking coffee in my pajamas. I used to hate shooting slides! I would of course always do it at the end of the day when I was too tired to take a good shot, spend all my money on it, and not get really great results. When I got my new camera, I started to love shooting slides. I also really like immediacy in my work, so now that I have a permanent slide set up, the instant results keep me really interested and engaged. Here are the things that make my slide set up work: a flo-tone I used to have a large one that got wrinkled when I moved and I ended up ordering a smaller one that is more manageable and appropriate for my work. I can't afford really nice light boxes right now, so I started making them out of white foam. When I started making shinier work I needed more lights, and Vaughn figured out how to rig this one to light from both sides. I just use books or boxes to make it higher. I think I might add a third light because I am getting a little shadow and glare. I also use tungsten bulbs and set the camera on tungsten. This makes things very hot and it is necessary to turn off the lights frequently and let them cool off. Be very careful with this! Seriously!!!! That's all, just a short note on a modern convenience I love.

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