One Light Exercise
The set-up and light boom
A recreation of the set-up which was very simple and basic.
A large sheet of paper [A2] with the back raised up and/or clothes pegged to a support board in my studio/workshop/greenhouse with tomatoes growing the background.
First job was to shield the camera's flash from the subject and probably why it worked was that the cardboard screen reduced the light reaching the slave trigger so that the lower 'focusing pre-flash' didn't trigger the external flash I was using as my 'one light'. If the slave is triggered by the pre-flash the strobe has nothing to light the photograph with a split second later.
The boom is made out of square rectangular hollow aluminium tube. The different sizes of this usually slide inside each other and I've used it to make monopods as well as my lighting tripods/boom.
It's legs are 3'6" extending to 6' and the centre column goes up another 3ft. The boom extends four feet balanced by a weight, a lump of steel secured with a baby clamp.
It folds up and is secured with a couple of leather straps re-cycled . The casting is a pirate casting made from the remants of a lighting stand I found.
The boom fits into the top of the column and balanced by 'weight' shown :-)
Crude but it works AOK :-)
The legs' lock-nuts are just a screw 'riveted' and soldered to a wing-nut. The small bit of the next larger tube provides extra 'meat' for the thread
General view showing sheet of paper held up by pegs to piece of board with tomatoes growing in background of my 'studio' cum workshop cum greenhouse.
Lighting coming from full wall windows to right and behind camera.