i've been getting more and more into the work of michael muller, and the other day i came across these three pictures on his website that were obviously lit with a ring flash, but had unique triangular catchlights instead of the typical circle:
it's a cool twist.... i like the asymmetry of it, that the triangle "ring" is wider at the top than it is at the bottom.... it adds an interesting effect to the way the light falls on the subject's face.
so i was thinking about that, and i remembered the cold cathode tubes i bought a while back so i could do some light painting like this. i figured i'd give 'em a shot. i wired it all up, and velcro'ed the tubes into a triangle, shot through it at 1/60th of a second, f 1.8, iso 200, and got some good shots.
my tubes are blue and purple, so i had to desaturate the pictures a lot in order to for them to look decent. plus the tubes aren't as bright as they would be if they were the white ones..... looks like it's time to order some new ones from newegg.... and you can't beat the price, especially compared to my alien bee ring flash (400 american dollars for the abr vs.... maybe 25 dollars for the cathode tubes after shipping and radio shack battery packs and everything). for more information about light painting using cathode tubes, check out diyphotography.
it's not a perfect solution.... it would be more useful if my camera could operate decently at a higher iso.... and i don't think you're ever going to get that weird ring flash "dark halo" around your subject.... that's an idea, setup right up against a wall, see what kind of shadow the triangle throws. hmmm......
setup shot:
