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Welcome
on this new episode of the Inventory of Playerdue Lighting
we take a loot at the Light Blaster
a strobe based projector that came out on the market this year
and it enables us to project images inside our pictures.
Inside the box we have this bag
and under this aspect all the products of this line are well-refined.
Once we open the bag we find
our Light Blaster
and up here we have the user manual
that explains how to set it up and use it for the first time
we also have two types of slides
the first one is the classic slide
used with projectors
this means that we can use the Light Blaster
slides that we may already have at home
or we can build our own slides
using this standard.
Or we have the transparencies
made specifically for the Light Blaster
these are plastic strips
printed with a texture.
The part used by the Light Blaster
is just this little square inside.
We can buy kits of these type of transparencies
boxed and divided by categories
on the Light Blaster's official site
or, always on the Light Blaster's official site,
we can find the template and the instructions
to print our own personalized slides.
The Light Blaster has a curious shape
underneath it we have the screw hole for tripods and stands
and in front of it there's a lens mount for Canon lenses
this means that to use a Light Blaster
we need an extra lens
aside the one we use with our DSLR.
For the owners of Nikon lenses
they can buy from the official site
an adapter to mount Nikon lenses.
On the back there's the compartment
where we'll put our strobe
and on the top there's the slot
with the adapter for the slides
We can use normal slides
and it's important to put them upside down
as this is a projection and the image will be upside down.
Or we can use the official transparencies made for the Light Blaster
and we slide them in this horizontal slot
following the brackets...
...like this...
...there...
Done!
We put the slide inside the adapter
and we just have to put the adapter
inside the slot
and we have put our first slide inside the Light Blaster
And now
we just have
to loose this strap...
...on the back side
this will enable us to secure
our strobe
we put
the strobe here
And it's important to loose it enough, otherwise...
...it's a bit difficult to insert it.
Like this.
now we tighten the strap as strong as we can
and we secured our strobe.
It's important to remember that we will not mount
the strobe and the modifier
on the hot-shoe
but we will mount it on the screw hole of the Light Blaster
Now we just have to mount our lens,
considering we don't need any automatic feature,
we can use vintage lenses
which are lenses without automatic functions,
we mount it like a normal lens on a DSLR.
The only differences is that we will not hear
the click sound we hear usually with a DSLR.
And now our Light Blaster is ready
to project our images inside the pictures.
Alternatively, considering
that we can use any lens,
we can decide to use zoom lenses.
The easy choice, that you may already have
is the standard 18-55mm
but I'm using the 17-85mm
I mount it like I did before
and obviously the modifier becomes a little bulkier
but now we can control the size of the projected image from the Light Blaster.
And this is all we need to know
on how to set up the Light Blaster.
Like I said, from the Light Blaster's official site
we can buy these kits,
the Creative Kits.
And in this case I have
the Creative Kit of the Special Effects category.
In every box of the Creative Kit
we have another adapter
that we can use in the Light Blaster's slot
that way we can have multiple slides ready to be used
and we have the tiny box with the slides
and inside it
we have all the slides
from this category.
In the Creative Kit Special Effects
we'll find mostly
shapes
that we can use
not only as backdrops
but they can be used for example
fill lights, or rim lights
and we'll see that in the second half of this video.
We have all these different shapes
for example we have grids
or this nuclear explosion
that I used during the first tests with the Light Blaster
And this is the Creative Kit Special Effects,
there are quite a lot of transparencies
and we can literally go wild with them.
Here we have the Creative Kit Backdrops
and these transparencies are made specifically as backdrops
we have another adapter
for the slot on the Light Blaster
And inside the box
we have a lot of backdrops
this time they are mostly landscapes
but you can find some abstract ones too
like this one for example
or we even have a backdrop with a picture of Earth
or we have pictures
or painted landscapes,
clouds,
sci-fi backdrops,
and also a picture with a plane,
and so on.
This transparencies enable us
to use a lot of customizable backdrops
now that we had a general overview on what the Light Blaster is and how to assemble it
let's put it to the test and see some of the ways we can use it.
Let's start by using the Light Blaster as a background light.
This time I mounted the 17-85mm lens
to show you the control we have
over the size of the image using the zoom on the lens
and keeping in mind that on the Light Blaster we are using lenses
we must remember to set the focus on the image we are projecting.
A quick way to do it
is to remove the strobe from the Light Blaster
and use a portable torchlight
even if it's a bit dimmer
we can quickly focus the image
without the need of taking several test shots.
The rest of the setup is quite simple
we have a gridded softbox as our key light
and the grid stops the light from hitting the background
that way, the background will be dark.
On camera right you see
a silver reflector
that softens the shadows a bit
on this side of my face.
Let's start by taking our first picture
without the Light Blaster
we'll use this picture as the starting point for our picture
This one is a normal shot
that we could improve by adding a rim light
or a gelled strobe
or by putting some objects on the background... some improvement of this kind.
But what we are going to do
is turn on the Light Blaster
or to be precise the strobe inside the Light Blaster
and we take our first shot
with a sci-fi background
And by simply...
...changing the transparency,
and I've selected three of them for these tests,
we can change slide
and change from a sci-fi background...
...to a country background
For the last transparency in these examples
Instead of a landscape I choose a texture.
This is because we are not limited to use just landscapes or photographs,
as our backdrops
But we can change our background
or even better, add to our background
a texture to make it more interesting.
And this one is a texture of some mixture between metals and electronic circuits.
Let's take a look at it.
Obviously we could change the background of our shot using some software
but it would take a lot of work and if it's not extremely polished,
it's easy to find if there's some kind of digital manipulation
and our product would be more like an artwork than a photo
With the Light Blaster we have a deeper
level of interaction with the ambient
in this case we are using a flat background
but what we could do, using the Light Blaster, is to project images
on top of real elements of the setting
for example in a ruined room
we could add another layer, an image, over the reality
for example some kind of lighting like a texture of flames
or some texture that could add colors to the background.
The level of complexity that
the interaction of light has in the real world
can be hardly achieved in post production
or better said, what can be simulated needs a lot of work.
Let's see with this texture
the control we have over the zoom
of the projected image
until now I was at 24mm
let's set it to 17mm...
The background image is now larger
We must be careful when zooming with some slides
if the slides aren't of the best quality
if they aren't detailed in the smaller parts
the result will be a bit of a grain on the projected image
we must keep in mind not to exaggerate when zooming an image.
If we set it to 85mm
the image will become smaller
and this isn't too useful with backdrops
or textures like this one,
and let's have a look at the picture,
...zooming isn't too useful with this kind of elements
but it can be very fun
to use it with the Special Effects kit
where we have details, crosshairs
symbols and so on
that we can add to our shots.
And now let's see the Light Blaster
not as a background light
but used in a more creative way.
I've chosen two transparencies to show
the Light blaster used as a rim light instead of a background light.
The first slide
is the transparency with the nuclear explosion
that I selected not for the picture but for the colors
that will be projected from this slide
as a rim light we will not see the picture
but we'll have only the colors
this means that we can choose a transparency to be used as a rim light
not based on the projected image but only for the resulting color gradients
that are hard to reproduce using gels.
To get the same result that you will see in a moment
we should use multiple gels, cut them and find a way
to have this kind of gradients between colors.
Let's take a look at the picture...
The setup is very simple,
there's an umbrella with a flash
as our key light
and on the other side we have
just the Light Blaster as a rim light.
We have interesting colors in this picture,
we could change the position of the rim light,
it could light up all of the body,
or just the hair
and clearly we could use other colors choosing some other slide.
The second example
is a slide with a dotted pattern...
...a dotted pattern,
with a gel to add a little bit of blue
considering that the Light Blaster
is not perpendicular
with the surface that will be hit by the light,
these dots will become lines
and the result...
Is a picture where it seems
that we have a window on this side of the frame
so we can give the hint
of a setting outside the composition of our shot
just by using a rim light
or other types of light
that look like they are something else
other than just lights for studio lighting
We can use the Light Blaster also as a fill light
or we could use it as a key light,
used as a main light we get a curious result
with the juxtaposition of elements.
And we must not think that
a type of slide can be used
for example just as a background light
or can be used just to add some detail.
For this episode about the Light Blaster that's all
We will talk more about the Light Blaster during the future episodes of the photography course
and we'll use it in our setups
to give an interesting edge to our shots.
As usual you can send me a mail on
carlo@playerdue.com
or you can visit the official site of Playedue Lighting
www.playerdue.com
and if you want you can register
to Playerdue Lighting's forum
www.playerdue.com/forum
where you'll find
a community of passionate photographers
that will answer your questions
and are waiting to see your pictures.
Thank you again to have watched this episode of the Inventory
and see you soon!