I also use Apple what.....

But, to be exact, I'm using Apple's application ! LOL

When I upgraded my iTunes, this latest Safari browser also been downloaded together. Is it a better browser than Firefox ? Not so sure. I remember I once used its beta version, and I do find this Safari is not as fast as it claims. And it could not support any Chinese words ! Probably it was the beta version kot. But not for now. This latest version of Safari can browse my Chinese blog with no problem at all.

Anyway, owning an Apple computer is my dream. So, my next target would be an iMac !

But of course, I have to wait for my current computer to kaput first, then I could seek Her Royal Highness, Queen of House's royal approval for the new computer.

Until then, I could only use the Apple applications, which are iTunes, and this Safari. Nothing more then that. What can I do is just wait.....

DIY Project: Softbox

Finally, I've made it ! LOL. I call it SoftBox Ver 2.0 !

SoftBox Ver 2.0

I always wanted to make a "proper soft box" for quite a while. I had browsed through the net, read through lot of sites in the net and I had figured out how to do it, but due to my lazy sickness, I couldn't move my body and mind to ask my hands to work. All the while, I had been using this Soft Box ver 1.0 I made since I got my first flash which was half a year ago.

SoftBox Ver 1.0

This SoftBox Ver 1.0 has served me well. I built two of them in fact, and I did some pretty nice product shots from them. However, this SoftBox Ver 1.0 is not built to be mounted on a light stand. I couldn't set my light angle instead of side light with these soft box. Hence, so I have more freedom in setting out the light, I intro to you my SoftBox Ver 2.0!

May I present to you, my step-by-step how to construct my SoftBox Ver 2.0:


Everything starts with a simple sketch. I'm an engineer, I'm used to do sketches before everything. LOL


Ok, from the sketch, I know roughly how my soft box will look like. Next is the materials. I use the corrugated plastic sheets that can be easily found in Tesco. One piece cost me RM 6.50, and I need 2 pieces. Why corrugated plastic sheets ? Well, it's easy to cut and shape, and it's stronger than the normal cardboard.

The aluminium foil paper is a must, of course. Some cloth tapes, glue and a piece of mahjong paper as the diffuser.

Initially, I wanted a soft box of 540mm x 380mm in sizes which can be easily cut from the corrugated sheets I bought. However, I've done a 540mm x 540mm size softbox instead. Why ? Because I can do it. LOL

Ok, I have all the dimension. Draw out the lines, and carefully cut out the sheets according to the dimensions.


Then, apply glue on each sheets ...


Spread the glue evenly over the surface, and carefully stick the aluminium paper onto it.


Let them aside for drying. Meanwhile, I started to construct and flash head bracket holder. My initial plan was to mount this softbox directly onto the flash head of my Sony F42 flash. Hence, I cut out the corrugated sheets accordance to the dimension of the flash head.

The bracket fit well with the flash head. I'm happy with it. But not later....


By the time I finished the bracket, the softbox sheets were ready to be joined. I put everything together with the cloth tapes.

Inside

Outside

The black colour cloth tapes inside the softbox needed to be covered by aluminium foil paper as well. Some final touch up with the aluminium foil paper would complete the construction of the soft box.

Finally, put the flash head bucket onto the soft box, and secure it with the cloth tapes, layers of cloth tapes.

Completed!

I'm at the final stage of my SoftBox Ver 2.0: the diffuser ! I do find the mahjong paper could diffuse the flash nicely. Hence, I stick a layer of mahjong paper over my softbox, and walla, my SoftBox Ver 2.0 is complete !

So, does it work? See for the result below :


If I do remember, my flash was zoomed at 50mm zoom. You can see with 50mm zoom flash, the flash spill has fill up the entire soft box.


Look at the shadow of the above pic, which was shot using my SoftBox Ver 2.0. The shadow is so soft ! Compare to the bare flash as shown below:


The shadow is hard and sharp.

Of course, there are some improvements need to be done on my SoftBox Ver 2.0. The first thing is the flash head bracket. Although my design fit pretty well into the flash head, but the soft box weight is not low though. Mounting the soft box onto the flash head and rely solely on the flash leg that is mounted onto the flash stand is not a good idea; the weight of the soft box had caused tension onto the fragile iISO plastic flash leg. Hence, a proper flash bracket is needed. First thing that come into my mind would be a timber bracket. Finding timber is not a problem cause my father is a carpenter. But too bad he is in Penang.... Look like I need to plan a balik kampung trip.

My idea is to make a strong flash bracket that could hold the flash AND the soft box together and then mount on the flash stand, not rellying onto the flash leg only. Look like this is another big project for me, huh? ;)

Next thing to look into is the diffuser of my soft box. The current mahjong paper would give me a colour tempreture of 4,500K with colour filter of M1, as custom set by my A700. I might need to get a proper diffuser. The paper is too thin, and I can easily break it. A white cotton cloth may be a better diffuser; but cotton cloth may take away some flash power and might cause my poor little F42 to work harder.

Ok, I know what to do next. My next project would be a timber flash bracket. In the meantime, I might make a smaller soft box since I have the left over of the corrugated plastic sheets. Smaller soft box means lighter in weight means I do not need a stronger flash bracket.

All right, where is my pen and paper ?

Happy Mid Autumn Festival !

Yes, today is the Mid Autumn Festival, or so call Full Moon Festival. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of Chinese Lunar calender.

Legend says, five thousand years ago, the beautiful Princess Chang Er ate her husband's immortality pills and flew to the Moon. Since then, she stayed on the Moon forever.

The culture of eating the Moon cake only started 700 years ago where Zhu YuanZhang started a rebellion against the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. He slotted the note of rebellion into the Moon cake and distributed to the people, stating the date of the rebellion. He succeeded and overthrown the Mongol Ruler and form the Ming Dynasty, and he proclaimed himself Emperor. He is the father of Emperor Yongle of Ming who send Admiral Zhenghe and visited Malacca in the years of 1400.

It's pity that I can't celebrate this festival with my parents in Penang. Something had stopped me from going back this year. But I could celebrate this festival with my lovely wife, as well as my coming son who is still comfortly staying in his mother's womb.


Anyway, Happy Mid Autumn Festival to all my friends. May the good festival brings good fortune to you all.

OMG ! He is invading my space !!

Without much notice, I do find he has started his invasion into my space ! All of the sudden, these small small things had occupied quite a large area of my house !!

Help ! The little one is coming !!! ^_^

While I started to buying a bigger waist pants, we started to look for a smaller size things for him. Even his pillow is so small that just fit for my fist only!

He is coming, the little monster is coming !!! ^_^

Azuan Pre-wed Shoot Part II

This round, we went to the Heritage Hotel, KTM, Kuala Lumpur.

The hotel is basically a pre-merdeka English colonial type of hotel that attached to the KTM building in Kuala Lumpur. It is not as big as E&O Penang, but good enough to give you a feel of the colonial living style.

I always like the roof top of the old KTM building. Hence, this round, we specially request to go up to the roof top for some shoot. The hotel management say OK, and we head straight up, by the hotel's super old escalator !

The pre-weds are Azrin's brother, Azuan. So, this self proclaim model like to post for a flash testing.

It was about 10.30am in the morning, and the sun light was burning our skin! Shooting without a reflector had caused the face to be deep dark in shadow. So, I pop a flash on it. Overpowering the overwhelming sun with a single flash is not a good idea, hence I set up 2 flashes, the F56 from Azrin's and my F42, both in full power. As you can see from Azrin's pics on top, he is kinda overexposed ! Yes, super overexposed. Hence, we dropped the power to 1/2 both. Just wonder, if I use only one F56 with full power, would I get the same result ? I donnu, because I didn't try it. LOL

Again, with true semangat of photography, our friend Azrin would do what ever to ensure he gets THE right composition. This is what I call "The Good Semangat"!!



Well, we had great time there in the hotel, and no, I can't show you the result. Client's request. I could only allowed to post public after my client's big day, which fall on January 2009. Kesian to my fellow muslim friend who has to work during the puasa month. However, we had great time, and I can't wait to see the end result. Azrin is doing it, and I'm just a Juru Tukang Tangkap Gambar sahaja. LOL

Read here for Part 1.

Something about Sony's Alpha WL flash...

All we know that Sony Alpha's WL flash uses the pop-up flash as the commander to trigger one or many Sony flashes off camera. Technically speaking, the pop-up flash communicate with our off camera flash using minute burst so short that we can only see the final burst with our naked eyes. Actually the pop-up flash flashes about 5 times sending information to the off camera flash. Hence, we have our very own off camera strobist style photography.

Our alpha system does not use optical slave flash system, or infra-red communication system, but near infra-red system. Hence, sight of view is needed when ever we wish to trigger the Sony off camera flash.

So, ideally, under WL system, the communicating bursts should not contribute onto the final exposure of our photo. However, this is not true at all. The burst do capture onto our photos if the shutter speed is under the high syn speed of the camera body. The highest scyn speed for Sony A100 is 1/160s, and my current A700 is 1/250s.

Exif attached: 1/60s, F4.0, ISO100

The above picture was capture some while ago. Yes, that is my singlet. One F42 was placed on a flash stand at camera right. This shot was shot at shutter speed of 1/60s. The ambient was not possible to be captured at f/4 and ISO 100 combine with the this shutter speed. Hence, I was expecting my pic would be more strobist one flash style. But I was wrong. With the same setting, I covered my pop up flash with my hand, and I got this pic:

Exif attached: 1/60s, F4.0, ISO100

See the big different between these two photos ? The pop-up burst do contribute to the exposure when on WL mode. However, this does not apply IF the shutter speed is at and more 1/250s.

Why not set the shutter speed to 1/250s then ? I would not have such problem. Yeah, correct, I could just set my shutter speed to 1/250s and problem solved. However, if you read through the flash manual book, the GN of the flash will drop when the shutter speed touches 1/250th and faster. I do not what that to be happened. Hence, I'll tried not to turn my shutter speed to 1/250th, but to 1/160th under room condition to save up my flash power.

So, what should I do? Cover the pop-up flash with an exposed film. This film will cut out the burst, but still allow the communication ray out to get in touch with the flash.

See the flash from the pop-up commander ? It bursts ! I shot this with a mirror. Look at the shadow of the flash on the wall. The flash reflect from the mirror comes from the pop-up flash itself! So, by covering the pop-up with a film, I get this :


The flash from the pop-up had reduced in big amount, but still it could let go the command ray to talk to the flash, and the shadow is gone. This is how the film attached to the pop-up :


Pretty un-secure the film is. I just tie the film with a wire. It is so troublesome to do the tying, hence, with the help from my wife, and some Velcro from the DIY shop in Mid Valley, I made myself the WL-pop-up-film-cover.

Very easy to put on, and very secure on the pop-up flash. It does not falls off, and no light leak as well.





The Velcro is neat and hold the film on place without worrying it will displace. Do I worry about the film will be burned ? Well, so far, I've brought it out for many shots, and the film is as good as it was originally. Of course, cosmetic wise, this Velcro-made-film-pop-up-flash-cover does not look good with my camera, but who cares? As long as I got my photos the way that I figured in my mind, and as long as it doesn't burned, I am happy with it. :D

Learn how to flash off-camera, visit www.strobist.com.

I couldn't agree more too !

Quote from Eric Peris :"...If someone does not like your work it is that person's problem not yours. ..." LOL

But, we must believe in our own work. Believe that we had done our very best to produce our work.

So, believe in your work, and believe that's your best work you've done !