MyPictureDay - Playing with my wand
A few weeks ago I had talked to @irreverent-dan about the light that he was using in his video. I ordered myself one and I have been playing around with it for a little while now. Used it a few post ago for #steemitsandwichcontest. One of those photos was my first #photocontest win.
So today I decided to spend some time indoors and do some beer photography since @irreverent-dan describes himself as a beer-loving photographer and I have seen him entering the #BeerSaturday.
I had a few hiccups along the way. One of which is that I find it hard not to drink the beer as I am photographing it. I really didn't want to wait until I was done.
I was trying to get the head to the top of the glass and had an overflow.... Made a huge mess and ruined the poster board I was using.
Lost Forty is a local brewery here in Arkansas that started back in 2014. The Love Honey brew is a little sweet because of the honey, I think it might have some caramel in there too. Overall it is malty goodness.
The wand is a light bar by Yongnuo, model YN360. It makes life a lot easier than having to mess with speedlights and umbrellas. Which is what I had to use to get photos of the wand itself. I didn't realize how beneficial this light bar would be until I started taking photos with it.
The wand has a few different color settings. RGB where you can mix the rgb led's to the color you want. It also has a set of leds with the 3200k temperature and a set of leds with the 5500k temperature. The wand has bluetooth and can be controlled by an app but I really didn't want to put that app on my phone. So I haven't tested that part of it.
Overall I am very happy with this purchase. The wand itself is lightweight although I did make a mistake when I ordered the batteries. The ones I ordered were the 5000mah and they add some weight. A lot of weight. They are heavier than the wand itself. When I ordered them I thought to myself bigger is always better but now I kind of wish I had just gotten the smaller ones.
For quick shots it is so much easier to use then getting out flashes and umbrellas.
You can check out @irreverent-dan's review of the wand here
Of course my favourite shot is of the disataster, the head overflowing just makes the beer look so creamy and awesome. I love that can design as well. Also have to agree that @irreverent-dan takes the beer beer shots in Steemit-land
Mine too . Definitely a waste of beer but it looks cool, excellent photography.
Thanks for the compliment. I still drank the beer but there just wasn't much left after it settled.
Thanks, as the disaster was happening I just kept shooting. It was quite a mess to clean up though; it just kept flowing and spread all over the table.
Yeah @irreverent-dan's shots are always impressive.
Thanks to Steemit's broken notifications, I almost missed that one :) Resisting the temptation to drink the beer before I've finished photographing it is one of the hardest things for me too! Haha.
Nice beer shots, man, I especially like the overflow one :) I'm also glad that you're using and enjoying your wand. How long does this huge battery last?
The other day I had accidently left it on when I left the house. I had laid it down on the power power button and came back to it about 4 hours later. I went a head and charged it without seeing how long it would last.
After I took shots of the complete six pack I went ahead and started drinking one while shooting the single can.
Have you used the wand for very many portraits?
No that many - I have only taken a few self-portraits so far, and the results are great in my opinion :) What about you?
I really don't do much portraiture so I haven't had a chance to use the wand for that yet.
I really need to figure out something for notifications. Just need to have it send me a text alert or something when I get a reply or mention.
By the way, have you tried using busy.org? To be honest, it has more functionality than Steemit at the moment, and the notifications are working (including mentions and follows).
When I first started with steemit I tried busy but haven't been back to it. There was just so much to learn about steemit. I didn't know that it would give notifications though. I will have to give it another shot.
However I have become fond of the night mode on steemit.
Thank you for the resteem.
You are welcome :)
Yes, as far as I know, there's no night mode on busy.
I played around with it some more today. Created a post with it and found the notifications you were talking about. Kind of a nice feature.
Yes :) I find it strange that Steemit is lacking in features compared to its less popular alternative Busy.
So that's making you busy lately, i'll go for the disaster shot as well :-)
First one, has a creative touch to it. Great colors as well. I like it!
Just a few questions buddy, how much does that cost you? For the battery - any recomended size?
I am glad I chose to include that shot. Think that's going to be everyone's pick.
The beer was about $9.
The wand was about $80 USD and I spent $30 on the batteries. But they have a deal that includes a battery for $95. I was wanting to have an extra battery so I chose to by them separately. @irreverent-dan said his was 2900 mAh and he gets 1.5 - 2 hours from it. Mine are 5000 mAh I left one on the other day by accident and found it on about 4 hours later.
See bigger sounds better right? Well the weight of the 5000 mAh is it's down side. Maybe I am just nitpicking too much.
Hhmm, a bit pricey. But if you say that it can replace the speedlights then that sounds good enough. I guess it can also be used for portrait shots, right? Or even food? ~ RGB light options is awesome for these :-)
Definitely, bigger ## is better. If you plan to do long hour session then that's gonna be great.
Speed lights still have their purpose. That burst of light is brighter. I am not big on portraits so probably not the best judge there. I could see struggling with an outdoor portrait during the day. @irreverent-dan did a self portrait with it and showed off the brightness levels so for indoors where you control the other lighting it could be useful.
As far as food or product photography it worked great for me. That's what I will use it mostly for.
The week before I decided to buy it I struggled with some food photos. I could not set up a light stand because of to much foot traffic and limited space. So I tried to use bounce flash. Those photos sucked. Ended up just scratching them.