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What happens to your average starting-out photographer is that by the time you have spent money on all of your camera, lenses, tripod, Photoshop, Lightroom and other camera gear, there is not much money left over for the other stuff that you may need such as backgrounds, imaging tables, backdrops, light tents, reflectors and soft boxes. Well thanks to Cyrill Harnishchmacher and his new book Low Budget Shooting, some relief is on the way.
Low Budget Shooting is the latest in no-nonsense books from the people at Rocky Nook. Filled with full color images and very easy to follow instructions, Low Budget Shooting will show you how to create studio and lighting equipment at a low budget price.
If you have never seen a Rocky Nook book before, they tend to be rather thin and very focused on a specific topic. This book is 63 pages long and divided in to 21 topics that will have you creating your studio in no time. While I won't go into each topic, I will touch the main highlights.
The first six topics reflect on what tools that you will need to put together and what size of studio you will want to build. Most of the tools can be found at your neighborhood retail and hardware stores. Things like presentation boards and tubing as well as aluminum rods are used. You will also collect small helpers such as cable releases, flash brackets and clamps of all sizes. You will also need to determine what size studio you will be creating. From here, the author moves on to backgrounds, where he explains the different types of materials that can be used for backgrounds.
Now it is time to get building. The first item is an imaging table. Using metal rods, he shows you how to build a basic table. Then he moves on to create a seamless back drop for use with the table. He creates a light tent for indoor use as well as an outdoor light tent.
You will learn how to build a light cube, reflectors, diffusers, a flash mounted diffuser frame, softboxes, strip-lights, close-up diffuser and a light brush. Each item has a list of materials and great pictures that not only show you how it is built, but wonderful photographs that show the kind of pictures that can be created with this equipment.
Although there is a certain amount of emphasis on table-top and close-up work, this will provide a jumping off point to creating more elaborate equipment. To see more great photography work and learn how to do close up photography, see Cyrill Harnishchmacher's book "Closeup Shooting. Even if you are not on a budget, Low Budget Shooting will provide plenty of new techniques and ideas to enhance your photography.
