Scott Riggle Photography

High Contrast Lighting

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:37:44 -0500

Another stab at some high contrast lighting. I find that I like the pictures that are live and not posed. This picture of the Bran, was me setting up the camera ready to take halloween pictures. It was against a green screen and he was making his faces as normal. It's nice to have three live-in models around so I can practice.

Alienbees Foldable Softbox Review

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:59:15 -0400

In my quest to find a softbox for my AlienBees B800, I first combed Ebay for the cheapest one I could find that would fit my light. To my surprise I found a lot of crap out there! Most of it wouldn't fit this light anyway, without some special speedring from AlianBees and that didn't guarantee that they would some softbox from China. Yes I searched and searched the forums for "alternatives" that would fit, but most of the reviews weren't very good.

So comes to the saying, you get what you pay for.... I decided to go save some coin for the big boy! Yes the 47" Foldable Octabox from AlienBees. I wanted something that had a double baffle in it so I could tone that very powerful light. Now I've ordered from AB before, so I knew they were a good company. One drawback that I might have it their website (I'm a web developer). It looks like it was done about 6-7 years ago. The other thing might be the ordering system they have. Just credit cards??? come on! no Paypal? Oh well, maybe one day they'll catch up.

Ok Ok... Now on to the review. I unpack this bad boy from it's nylon case and it was a snap to set up! It has a built in speed ring and you open it up like an umbrella with only one center screw in the center to hold it in. Next is the inner baffle that snaps on with elastic bands with snaps on the end. The outer baffle secures on with velcro and stays in place really good. Lift it up onto the four hooks on your light and it's all set.

So the first thing I notice is that the light stand is bending a little. I'm using the one I ordered for the white umbrella... Oops. Guess I'll need to get me a heavier stand. Overall this is a really great softbox, yes it was around $169.00 far from some of the cheap ones running all over ebay, but I wanted at least one really nice light and modifier. I think I got it.

The outer baffle sits in a little, so you can place a grid or something over the front of it.. How neat. I'm having the wife make be a few things that will go over it (later blog). Some of the pictures from this softbox can be found here.

Butterfly Lighting

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:34:30 -0400

A test in lighting on a dark Sunday night. These were taken with my Alienbees octa softbox with a white reflector underneath. I also used a 50mm fixed canon lens.

Ultimate Gamer

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:04:35 -0400

Now that I've spent a few years learning SLR camera's and what iso and aperture is, I've been giving myself little assignments in photography. This assignment was to one, come up with a poster type picture of my son with all of his gaming gear on. Two, to come up with my own version of the "the look". That high contrast gritty look with special placed lights that makes people look airbrushed. Not that I wish to copy this style and make it my only way of shooting, but to add to my bag of tricks in case I need it later on.

In this picture you will notice the Wii Guitar Hero, Xbox 360, Play Station 2, Wii Controls and a blue game boy in his pocket. Not to mention computer games (not shown). Click thumbnail for larger picture.

New Canon 50D Out

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 13:41:57 -0400

Canon's new EOS 50D bridges the gap between the novice and the seasoned pro with a perfect combination of high-speed and quality. It features an APS-C sized 15.1-megapixel CMOS sensor for tremendous images, new DIGIC 4 Image Processor for fine detail and superior color reproduction, and improved ISO capabilities up to 12800 for uncompromised shooting even in the dimmest situations. It features a refined 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots) monitor, supercharged Live View Function with Face Detection Live mode, plus a number of new automatic Image Correction settings and HDMI output for viewing images on an HDTV. Pick up the EOS 50D and you'll experience true digital inspiration! -canon web site

Check it out

New Web Site

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:04:22 -0400

Welcome to my new web site. It's been awhile since I've rolled out a new site and it's taken some time to make this one. Some of the features you can find here are of course this blog, in which you can post comments to. The gallery separates images into categories and every thumbnail pops up into a large version along with keyboard navigation using left, right arrow keys and the esc key to close.

Stay tuned for more, I'll have photoshop tutorials, RSS feed for the blog and a slide show for the galleries. I even have a client log in for private galleries, for when go pro :)

A special thanks to my wife and kids who put up with me yelling at the laptop because the site wasn't going my way... Yo Adrian... I did it!!