Showing posts with label Gadget Infinity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gadget Infinity. Show all posts

DIY: GI Triggers Antenna Mod

After making the "DIY: How to Assemble an Antenna to GI Triggers" and watching the excellent video I had to push myself to make this modification for my triggers.

I always wanted to make this change on mine not that I use them for distance purposes, nor to measure how far can I trigger them without really having the use for them at those far distances but I needed to make this mod for stability purposes.

Everyone knows that Gadget Infinity triggers are very inexpensive and great but they lack reliability in terms of trigger and also because their plastic is somehow very sensible and not has tough has many would think they would be at for 25,00 euros a pack I think they are more than enough when you plan on playing with your flashes off camera.

Take a look at a simple operation that you can make yourself even with a not so good experience on welding, like myself ;)

Cactus Antenna Mod_001

First things first, let's grab our Gadget Infinity Trigger (I will be refering to them here as GI so I won't have to write it down so many times).

Cactus Antenna Mod_002

These are the tools you will be needing for this:

- Knife (to cut the wire).
- Pencil (to wrap the wire and make it curly).
- Philips screw driver
- Piece of wire (I use one from the wrap cables)
- Welding Iron
- GI trigger
- Welding

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Open the GI with the Philips screw driver, you can find the screw near the hot shoe adapter on the bottom part.

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Here is what it looks like when you have open it... don't be afraid this is a simple straight forward task.

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The wire measure more or less 19,5 cm. This was on wrap that I had that was big enough to fit the measures for the antenna. You can find this baby wrapping any cable that comes packed.

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Remove the plastic cover with the knife, this you can measure as much as you feel comfortable with. I just removed enough so I won't get too much wire outside after welding it to the GI.

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Here is the place where you are going to weld. You can see that there is another hole near the F6-616 and some people been using this hole to, but from what I've been reading around the left side one is a more reliable one.

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See why I mentioned the pencil, this would make the wire curly so it fits inside the GI without having to make any holes on the cover.

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This is what it will look like after welding it.

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Before welding be sure to remove the battery, we don't want to blow out anything wouldn't we?

Be sure to put some weld on the cable before you weld it to the hole this would make it much easier to weld and you will not damage anything inside.

Cactus Antenna Mod_011

Here it is the final shot after welding and putting the cable inside. No holes needed on the front cover of the GI, as I said before I was not looking for distance measurements but reliability.

Cactus Antenna Mod_013

Here is a shot from my balcony through my kitchen, living room and the light was at one of the living rooms at the bottom of the house.

I can tell you that the walls here are pretty stiff and has you can see on the above image the GI couldn't get the job done.

Cactus Antenna Mod_012

The same place, or at least almost the same place and now with the mod already done.

It did triggered the GI on the other end of the house as you can see, now I can have more reliability on these inexpensive triggers and hope you will do the same to yours.

Not only you will get less misfiring from the trigger but you will also get more reliability from them even at close range.

I will let you make some distance test, since this was not my main goal when I wanted to make this mod, also as you can see from others I decided to NOT make the hole for the antenna, simply because distance is not one of my goals for the GI.

Enjoy.

Other places to visit:

* GI Cactus V2s Modification Tutorial
* How To Solder
* Increase effective distance
* Gadget Infinity Cactus V2s Trigger Mod
* 4 channel transmitter mod
* Ebay trigger antenna mod
* Cactus "ebay" V2s Trigger mod that looks good and works
* GI Cactus Mod
* Gadget Infinity Mod

DIY: How to Assemble an Antenna to GI Triggers

GI & PW Side-By-Side_005What's inside the package:After posting the "Gadget Infinity & Pocket Wizard Side-By-Side" A lot of you been asking if I have made a transformation on my Gadget Infinity triggers in order for them to have a better range.

My answer, so far, was NO!! until I looked at this great video of how you can attach a 433mhz antenna onto the Gadget Infinity remote flash trigger and increase the range.

Here is the full video.



Thanks to Brad Shearer who were willing to share the video with all of us. Take a moment to look at his website too.

If you do not follow everything and you are more like the reading type then you must check the full detailed Mod at Jeremy Kuster's blog page and you even get a free Mod on how to make an external battery compartment case to fit 2 AA batteries instead of the versus the CR2 3V batteries.

DIY: Snoots with Color (Part 2)

Snoots with Colors (Part 2)As promised here is the part 2 of this DIY: Snoots with Color project.

I have already spoken about Snoots on a previous post and have made them with straws to create a grid, this time I removed the straws and add some color to them by making a way of putting the gels inside without messing too much with the design of what you already know or have.

A lot of you out there may already have made them based on what you have read on Strobist... GOOD!!, now let's see what are the results for each one of them with a couple of pictures to better illustrate.


Snoots with Colors (Part 2)_01

(L to R) 28cm, the BIGGEST one, produces the smallest light, the 22cm is not so bigger than the 16cm but for some things it could come in handy and the 16cm is the smallest of them all and the most portable.

I tried to put all of them on the same direction and position to the white wall and also tried to put in the same amount of light for comparative purposes between them.

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I moved the strobes a little bit, from the front of the light, so you can better compare the size of each one of them against a white wall.

You also have to take in account that when you are shooting, some object or person, the light will be a little boxed when in close range as you can see from this simple image.

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I now colorized one of them (16cm) with Gold Amber #21 from the Lee filter sample package. Notice that is no white spill on it.

I believe this is one good way to make the snoots having some color without loosing too much your head or trying to pickup something to hold them in front of the snoot at last minute.

Let's colorize another one.

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So from Left to Right we have 28cm with a Velvet Green #735, 22cm with no filter gel and the 16cm with Gold Amber #21.

This is what could be accomplish with the Snoots with Color. You can use them normally with white light coming from the flash and then put in any color you like from the Lee filter gels sample packager.

My Gear - What you wanted to know but were afraid to ask_007

The final shot I created for this was a very simple one using the 3 small strobes so you can get an idea of what I was talking about.

Snoots with Colors (Part 2)

The model was the best money could bought at the time but I think it did a pretty good job concerning that he had to be running back and forward to tune the lights, grab the book, take the picture and smile :)

Last but not least for all you guys here is the setup shot.

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(L to R) SB26 with 16cm snoot, Gold Amber #21 Lee filter gel 1/16 at 85mm to background, Canon 580ex 1/128 at at 105mm pointing at the models face and SB26 with 22cm snoot, 1/64 at 85mm and Velvet Green #73 Lee filter gel pointing at the book. All flashes triggered with Gadget Infinity system and model digitally removed ;)

You can click on the picture to see some Flickr notes I've added to the photo.

Bottom line... In my experience the 28cm snoot really becomes 24cm in size since for it hold on to the flash head you have to put it in 4cm. For this shots this did not happened since I manage to hold it on the flash with no problem, but if you are using it outside on an assignment this can become a problem since the Snoot keeps falling to the flash front.

So, unless you really need it to illuminate something specific, keep it out of your regular gear since the 16cm and 22cm make a great job.

Besides this minor issue it works like charm. The changing of the gels is so quick that the model would not notice it and with a little usage you can even make it with yours eyes shut... or maybe not ;)

Thanks to all for the support and for reading it.

If you missed anything take a look at the first part here goes the link to it:

DIY: Snoots with Color (Part 1)

Stay tune for more cool stuff subscribing the Lighting Mods blog.

DIY: Snoots with Color (Part 1)

Snoots with Colors (Part 1)_01Welcome back to another DIY.

I know that you already missing some DIY here so here goes a great one.

I grabbed David Hobby last year's idea for building a cereal card box snoot at his Strobist blog and decided to take it a step forward towards coloring them.

This will be a two part set with me covering on the first part how to build your snoots, with no effort , from any cereal card box, as if you do not know this already, but this time I'll take you to coloring the lights with them using the Lee filters small pack gels.

They will continue to be the good old carry on, even if you loose one you can get home and make another one, but these one's will be colored.

For those of you who do not know what I'll be talking about take a moment...

STOP!!

... and read some of these example articles that David Hobby wrote before you continue, this way you'll get an idea what is a snoot and what you can accomplish if you build one.

- On Assignment: Spring Arts Guide

- Developing an Idea, Part One

- Developing an Idea, Part 2: Compact Fluorescent Bulb

- DIY Macro Strip Lights

- On Assignment: Blind Snoot Portrait

- On Assignment: Pool Portrait

- On Assignment: Flavored Vodkas

- On Assignment: Simple Wall/Snoot Portrait

AMAZING isn't it ?!!!

Well at least that's what I thought when I read it for the first time... so stop being lazy and gather your stuff to build one here's how:

First I will start with the setup light I used to take all these shots.

Snoots with Colors (Part 1)_02
On camera left, a white umbrella with a Nikon SB26 through it at 1/6 to get a nice bright light.
Camera settings for this was Tv200, Av8.0 and ISO100.

What you will be needing:
- 3 Cereal card boxes ( I got 2 from the same size and another a little bigger).
- Scissors
- Glue
- Ruler
- Pen
- The Flash you will be using for measures and try out later
- Lee filters or any other sample package you have and try out later
- Some patience...

Snoots with Colors (Part 1)_03Snoots with Colors (Part 1)_07

First things first. Draw the measures on the card.

For the 580Ex (L to R) 1cm, 7,3cm, 4,3cm, 7,3cm, 4,3cm
For Nikon SB26 will be 1cm, 7,3cm, 4,5cm, 7,3cm, 4,5cm

And since this will be the small of the three I have chosen the 16cm of height.

Why 16cm and not 13,5cm or 11,656cm? - You may ask

First because it will be easier to carry, second you have to count with at least 2cm for the flash head to enter and be steady (so it will be 14cm) and last but not less important the size of the box since the one I had available was from that size... :)

Well you can make them at any size based on what your needs are. I will come to this on part 2 of this DIY.

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See, on the above picture, that my index fingers are pointing at the card well this is the already made bending part of the box.

When I made the measures I took the available space on the cereal card box to make it fit into the drawings of the snoot, pay attention to this when you build yours or at least choose a box that fits on your drawing measures since this will save at least bending 2 more parts ;)

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This is the picture of the drawing for the snoot 22cm with sizes as above only the height is 22cm.

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And here for the third and last one of the series the MEGA snoot 28cm with sizes as above only the height is 28cm. I always wanted to make and try one of these...

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Now get the scissors and start cutting them out of the cereal card box, nice and easy.

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With the help of the ruler start folding them inside so it will help shaping the box.

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A little glue, on the 1cm part, to hold the box together.

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And "voilá" we got the first cereal snoot assembled, cool, fast and simple. ;)

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On top the 16cm and on bottom the 22cm... now let's work on the BIGGER one and I will post next a side by side of the three so you can get a visual idea.

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Quickly I finished it and here it is a picture of the "CORNFLA" colored cereal box ;)

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Enjoy the three of them align together. See when I meant BIG?

Until here nothing was new (for the people who were building this cereal card box Snoot for some time now).

Next comes the interesting part...

I've been scratching my head for quite a while now and wondering a way to make the cereal card box Snoot hold a gel filter.

- Tried to put some Velcro at the end of the Snoot like I did on the flashes, this way I could attach the same gels I was using on them. Attempted FAIL!!
Simply because this would led me to Velcro all the gel filter colors I would need to use... but then again what if I needed a Ultimate Violet ref.707 color on one snoot and a Velvet Green ref.735 and all this while on location with no way to attach or get some Velcro?

Damn S"#$&, why this had to happen now that I have carried all the stuff I was going to need for the assignment, how could I missed this...!!!

- Tried to make a hole at the end part of the flash like I did on DIY: Lee Filters Flash Adapter, this could make a point, but then again FAILED!!.
This was a good idea except that when you make the hole, on the end part of the Snoot, for the gel to get in it will not stay aligned with the inside flash because the flash diameter would make the Snoot wider than the 4cm gel and the white light will spread mixing it with the colored gel.

- I also tried to make a box wider on one side, where the flash will get in, and on the other side cut it the size of the gel. FAILED!!
The box would not be very stable since it was not holding the light for a steady position and will cause the box not to be completely square, it was having a strange shape and the glue, after some use, would start to come out.

After trashing a couple of boxes trying to figure it out a way of making this to work and spending almost a week testing out...

YUUUPPPIII, I DID IT!!!!!!

Let me show you how simple it is:

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On one side of the box you measure 2cm (this for the 580Ex or you can feel the flash end with the tips of your fingers and measure there) from the end side of the box you will want to use the gel (see image above) then you mark that with a pen.

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Pay attention to the above picture because you will want to make the cut on the clean part of the box, do not make it on the 1cm glued part since this will be more complicated to slide the filter gel afterwards.

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Next, remove the flash from the snoot and make a clean cut from top to bottom.
DO NOT cut any inside parts of the box except the one mentioned!!

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See how it will look like after you inserted my old Lee filter gel that I generally use for testing purposes.

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View from another side.
Here you can actually see how the hole of the gel filter tip will keeps out after inserting the all filter gel. This option is very good in case you need to change it quickly with another one or none.

And you may ask at this point... Will it work? - YES IT WILL WORK!!!

Pay attention to the next image.

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Here you can see it working and with this technique you can even adjust the filter to cover the all flash head since the filter gel will be very near the flash and you can push it inside for better adjustment.

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Here is a quick simple example with a blue Lee filter gel put in giving you a complete blue color.

After we've finished cutting and gluing everything is time to give a cover to our boxes.
We do not want our fellow photographers to think we are not professionals or people on the street looking at us with a weirdo look ;)

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So 30cm (more or less) of Gaffer tape will be enough for a complete turn around the snoot so it will look very professional.
Start on the part of the Snoot that does not have the hole and leave that for last... this will be explained why a couple of steps further.

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Do it like this smoothly so it would not turn in with any wrinkles...
The wrinkles you see on the image are the joined pieces of tape.

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This should be the last part to add tape since you CANNOT cover the hole with tape.

I repeat you CANNOT cover the hole with tape!!

Because if you do you will damage the filters since the Gaffer tape's glue will be passed onto the filter as soon as you put in through the hole... so once again DO NOT cover the hole with tape!!

Cut a little piece of tape and cover around the hole like you see on the image.

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Here are the final trio with some tape on them. Doesn't they look like a professional tool, or whatever that means.

Now that you make it this far also take a look at my best "selling" DIY: Black Straws Snoot Grid (Part 1) and DIY: Black Straws Snoot Grid (Part 2).

You can also apply this color example filter insertion to the Black Straws Snoot Grid. The only thing you need to add to it's construction is the small hole on the side so that the gels could get in and color the straws.

On the Black Straws Snoot Grid you can make them with different color straws but, from my point of view, the only issue is that you will have to stick with that color and again carry a lot of this things on your bag when you decided that Loving Amber ref.176 was the right color... get it?!!!

Hope this could help you guys out as much as it is helping me on the field.

Stay tuned for the DIY: Snoots with Color (Part 2) in a couple of days where you can see an example on how you could use this to make your photos shine as well as the effect of each one of them.

Greetings to all,

Rui

Snoots with Colors (Part2)

Light Painting

Light Painting_01Hey I was sleepless tonight so I decided to put my gear up and make a long time assignment a real thing.

I always wanted to try the Light Painting but never had any time to do it, there is always something that comes up, and once again this stays behind.

After seeing a lot of new videos and it's setup on the Strobist, about this issue, I decided to try my Homemade one.

This is a simple way to make that you really wanna try it out and maybe later on make some more complicated ones like seen here.

What I've used:

- Canon Flash 580Ex
- Black Straws Snoot (Get one yourself Part1 and Part2)
- Book Light Science and Magic UK (or other of your choice)
- MagLite flashlight
- Camera and Lens
- Monopod and Tripod for the Flash
- Gadget Infinity Triggers (Flash and Camera)
- Remote camera release button

Light Painting_02

First of all the setup shot.

Canon 580Ex with Black Straws Snoot to the left pointing a little down to the book (105mm,1/128). Camera ISO 100, Tv 200, Av 22, sorry if the book came out burned but the room was too dark to be illuminated besides my wife was a sleep.

Light Painting_03

A closer look at the Black Straws Snoot Grid pointing at the book to get the light effect on the book and in the table.

Light Painting_04

I started to paint with the flash light around the book and in front of it also, do not point the light directly into the lens or you could blow a couple of shots :)

The flames are made with a small MagLite flashlight covered with my thumb and index fingers that gave it a reddish tone, then moving along the book to create the effect.

Nothing special just use your head and create some amazing stuff with this simple setup.

Enjoy,

Rui