Advice needed for a studio set up please

teaser trailer time:
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Get a manual flash... some cheap triggers a cheap stand and reversable umbrella...

I use YN560 (brilliant and cheap as chips manual flash) & Pentax AF240z flashes...
YN04II triggers (20quid) (but have a set of cactus V4's with extra reciver on the way)...

I don't have any stands or modifiers at this point but reckon I'll start with this... http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/p-49470-jacobs-digital-westcott-43-collapsible-um...
At the moment I just 'place' the flashes where I can (on top of cars/vans in gutters on walls, shelves, my 6foot friends hands etc)

Watch Zack Arias'OneLight'DVD (I found it on pirate bay)and then practice every chance you get... It was recommended to me a couple of days ago and it's brillinant... explained lots of things I thought I understood and didn't...
His workshops on youtube aren't too bad a watch either...

Way I see it is... You'll buy gear anyway... just build it up slowly and work with what you've got til you can't get anymore out of it... then get something else...

start with a paintcan stand... take an empty paintcan, screw a 6 foot 1x2 into it, fill it with gravel or rocks or cement... instant stand..... use clamps to attach lights or reflectors.

take a putty knife, screw a mini ball head and flash shoe adaptor to the handle and you got a very flexible means of mounting a flash to any bookshelf, door frame or window frame..

new video..
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here is another cheap light modifier:
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one more light modifier..
note :
fiberglass mat from the auto repair section of the hardware store can be used in place of furnace filters with really hot lights..
it is wood and can burn, so keep it far enough from the lights that it doesn't get too hot.
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Hi Don, why don't you use an aluminium covered bubble wrap type of material instead of messing about with all that fibreglass? DIY version link
4mm = 55mm polystyrene.

The quilt version is amazing!

because shooting video requires constant light sources, and the most affordable option is halogen, which is also hot. 500-800 watts is hot enough to melt that bubble foil. I will be using that bubble foil in a how to, for use with flash though, and also for how to make cheap reflectors....

the furnace filters on the other hand are usually made of fiberglass combined with the aluminum screen material (acts as a heat sink) can actually take a lot of heat... a 300 watt halogen work lamp from 18 or more, inches away and it is safe for a couple hours use.

I'll go over that in more detail next week on part 2 when I show how to use it.. it is a shoot through softbox, as opposed to a reflector.

Sorry Don, I meant behind the plasterboard in the timber framing
They use it in external walls on blocks of flats here.

It's very handy for reflectors as well
Be careful using it around lamps it will keep the heat in.

I have a piece in the car boot when I go to the supermarket I put it over the carrier bags to keep them cool in hot weather

Oh, I think the fiberglass is a higher r value... it is 4 inches thick.... around here the fiberglass is pretty standard and the bubble foil is expensive as well... below ground they use bubble foil or spray foam.... as it acts as a vapour barrier.... but mostly, the framing a fiberglass was installed by the previous owner, so all I had to do was fix a few spots, and put up the vapour barrier and sheet rock...

Don, you are a dead ringer for Carlos in Desperate Housewives. Are you one and the same? We should be told.

I'm pretty sure he's taller than me, and I still got few chipped/cracked teeth, from my martial arts/bouncer days.. so he prolly has a nicer smile... lol!

another video

That was cool!

Thank you... my goal is to have the studio painted by monday......... and a grand opening sometime next week...
I will then be airing videos weekly on the building process, and after that more videos on photo and video related stuff...

Nice video Don, but the viewer is left wondering what's going on when your twin brother suddenly appears in half the frame applying scrim? It's explained about 10 secs later, but it needs to be before the excerpt appears?