Here’s a nifty trick. An innocent little $20 remote that Canon has been selling since long before the 5DmII was even a twinkle in your mamma’s eye, built for nothing more than wirelessly triggering the shutter of generation after generation of Canon SLR’s, has a not so well known feature: starting and stopping video recordings on the 5DmII.

Whosawhatsits? Yeah, that’s right. And it works from a pretty good distance, too.

Not just any remote will work, though. It’s got to be that remote, the RC-5. That’s the one with the 2 second delay button. A very handy and cute idea intended to let the photographer be in the shot with his family for a change, but still give him time to pop the remote into his pocket. Cute, right? Well, cute gets all grown up now that it can also start the video recording mode on the 5DmII and rumor has it, the Canon 7D movie mode as well.

It is line of sight IR, so if you want to trigger it from behind the camera, you’ll have to get all fancy pants and mount a little mini bounce card or mirror if you’re outside. If you’re inside there’s a good chance it’ll just bounce off the walls. Kinda like you are doing now that you found out about this handy dandy, Mayor Clancy!

Same goes for triggering multiple 5D’s at the same time. As long as they can all see the IR signal you’re as golden as Bee Arthur!

There is one catch. I know, I know. There’s always a catch. If you’ve never used a remote with your 5DmII before, there’s a good chance you’ll excitedly tear open your package with the RC-5 remote, power on your camera, and start trying to trigger it. What’s that? It’s not working? Did you get a bad unit? Is the battery dead? Did Nice sell you a load of hokum? Nope. The catch is, you have to hit the AF*Drive button on the top of your camera, then roll the select dial on the back of the camera counter clockwise for two clicks. That’ll put the camera in remote ready mode and put a cute little icon of a remote on the top window just to the right of your ISO setting. Yeah. That’s it. That’s the whole catch. Not such a bad catch really.

Now that you can remotely start and stop the video recording mode on your 5dmII and fancy new 7D what sort of opportunities does that open for you? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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First, let me say Mark Daniel Cade is a great actor who I met several years ago. He has performed in several of my stage plays and likely will be one of the leads in my feature film. This guy has “it” written all over him and he works frequently as a result. I’m very fortunate that we share a mutual respect for each other. So, when I use an image of him for the first What Went Wrong article, I want to make it clear that as you will see, what went wrong has nothing to do with Mark. Mark rocks! Oh, and he knows how to ride a unicycle.

The Idea: I had a meeting with Mark to see if he was interested in playing a particular part in this feature film I’ll directing soon. Most Hollywood meetings start with some small talk, especially if the people involved already have a relationship. Oh, and in Hollywood, everyone already has some sort of relationship with the other people in the room – even if they have to make it up. But Mark and I have been pals for some time so we were chatting about Christmas and I mentioned that my wife had bought me a unicycle. Mark tells me that he used to ride a unicycle. Well, the sparks start flying in my brain hole and I passed out. When I came to I had the idea for what I thought would be a funny and cool looking image: a guy in the middle of a bike race, only he’s on a unicycle. They call it subversion of expectation. It’s one of my favorite techniques for entertaining my audience.

What Worked: You may disagree, but I think the framing, the pose, the lighting (for the most part), and the acting all work well. I shot other angles, but felt this one was closest to my taste for what I like, while at the same time letting the eye discover the unicycle rather than just throwing it too much in your face.

What Went Wrong: Don’t know if you’ll notice it at the 500px resolution, but if you click on the image it will pop out a 1000px version and I think you’ll notice it. This puppy is softer than an overripe tomato on hot asphalt. Did something go wrong with the focus? Nope. I made a total rookie mistake. I was using a flash off camera. My 5DmII only syncs up to 1/200 so as he rode by the camera the movement created a blur. You may be thinking, “I thought flash stops action.” Sure, if you’re ambient is low enough to not expose your moving subject. This was mid afternoon. It was bright. I’m a dope. I almost never take action shots. And when I do, I don’t combine them with off camera flash so I can roll that shutter up to 1/8000 if that bug that lives in my ear tells me to. Also, I didn’t have my Hoodman Loupe with me and I was being lazy by not zooming in to check the focus. What a dope. Anything else? Well, it would have been nice to have a stylist there. I don’t think the shoes work as well as they could and the outfit could have been more extreme, but for a zero budget shoot with only an hour to get everything, not bad. Well, except for the blur. ARGHH! Oh well.

What I’d Try Different Next Time: I don’t think I’ll be making this mistake again (don’t worry, there are plenty more to make). So if I am going to do this same type of shot again, what would I do differently? I’d just have to gang some 580′s (flashes) together to get enough power and use the high speed sync to pull a higher shutter speed. Pain in the butt, for sure, but at least the images would be usable for something other than a What Went Wrong post. Either that or just pose the action so it’s not actually moving. Kinda tricky with a unicycle, but might work.

Do you have any other ideas of what to do different? Think there is more wrong with the image than I’ve pointed out. Let me know in the comments below. My fragile hart can take it. I hope.

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On the back of each card is a detailed lighting diagram along with an explanation of how the shot was made. There are a ton of different ideas and techniques in here to help you learn photography lighting techniques.

How come I got a sneak peak at the cards? Guess who the editor was for the project. Yep, me.

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The set is sort of like a Strobist book or a lighting diagram and tips book with extra flair. It cuts right to the juicy bits and the whole set easily fits in your pocket or camera bag. I love the concept behind these. The intent of the set and of Trade Secrets Cards in general is to educate and inspire. I really think the Strobist Favorites Gallery Volume I is going to do just that.

The set photo lighting tips and tricks lists for $24.95 but the intro price is $19.95. I’m not sure for how long, but as of this posting US shipping is free and international is just $5.95.

Trade Secret Cards have other sets coming out that have nothing to do with photography, but if this set does well there could be a new Strobist Favorites Gallery volume each year and other photography related sets as well.

I’m very proud to be involved with this project. Check it out. I think you’ll like it.

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Well, over on the Make Magazine Blog they’ve got an informative video on how to make your own custom hot glue web shooter. They were kind enough to let me post it here. Enjoy. And although they don’t mention it in the video, I learned the hard way, don’t intensionally shoot the molten threads of hot glue into your face – especially more than once.

And now, for your pleasure, the video:

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Now that’s out of the way….

I said in my Radio Popper review that I was going to have to DIY a solution to the gaffers tape application with the popper, and here it is.

Fortunately this mod is super easy.

What you’ll need: Radiopopper receiver. Drill with 1/8″ drill bit. Scissors. Hot glue gun. Nerves of steel.

Plug in that hot glue gun (have your fire extinguisher ready – legal again).

Take the back off of the Radiopopper as if you were going to put in a fresh battery. You will ONLY be altering this plastic part, NOT the part with the electronics.

Drill a 1/8″ hole positioned like the bottom one you see in this photograph (the top hole is already there – that’s where the optic goes in):

Now drill a hole on the bottom like you see in the middle of the image below:

Take the fiber optic cable that came with your popper and cut a piece about 2 inches long.

Put the shortened cable into the popper like normal. Feed the free end through the top hole. Now bend the cable so it goes out the hole in the bottom. You’re going to have to bend the cable quite a bit, but it should be fine. I did this with 3 receivers and though it took a bit of bullying, I didn’t ruin any of the cables on mine, so you should be okay.

Before you glue anything, hold it up to your flash and shoot off some test fires. If you have the transmitter and everything on and you are holding the fiber optic output over the right part of your flash it should go off. If not, double check everything. Make sure your optic is pushed all the way into the receiver, that they are linked up, etc. All good? Good.

Now you can hot glue that bugger down. You don’t need to have the optic stick out through the bottom of the hole. In fact I set mine back just a touch less than flush and filled it up with the hot glue from the outside. The glue cools down to a translucent white and I think it spreads the light out a smidgen, giving you a bit more leeway with the placement over the eye.

Then I filled it up from the inside to hold it from moving around. In this image you can see how the optic cable comes out of the regular hole and goes into the new hole you drilled, taking the optic back into the case, and then out through the hole you drilled in the back.

Once the glue has completely cooled down, screw your friend closed. It should look something like this.

The optic is now flush with the back side. So you can either put velcro on your flash just above the eye so when you press this puppy on it lines up and still keeps out most of the sunlight, or you can use a velcro strap on your flash (lock it down tight) and stick your popper to that. UPDATE: Turn the flash head around 180 so it is not sitting over the popper. Kevin from Radiopoppers commented below that there is a strong electromagnetic whatsit that comes out of the flash head right above and below the light up part thingy. Therefor he strongly recommends spinning the head around 180 to alleviate any problems it might otherwise cause. Thanks Kevin!

There you go. It takes longer to read how to do it than it takes to do it. But you may want to take your time just the same.

I’ve tried the mod with the 580ex II flashes and the old 580 ex. No problems. In fact, the shots in this article were taken using two Radiopoppers that had already been modified. I don’t have any of the Nikon flashes, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work for those as well since all I did was re rout the light tube.

Now you can use your poppers and just pluck them off when you are done. Isn’t that Nice?

Questions? Comments? Want to lather us with adulation? We don’t mind. Leave a message in the space below.

These images were taken using a
Canon 5D with a Canon 24-105 L
a pair of 580ex II flashes,
and a 12mm extension tube.

What you’ll need:

1. Camera. This can be a digital pocket camera like the Canon SD1000 or the Canon G9 (the G9 already has an ND filter built in, just select it from the menu), or a DSLR – I’m using the Canon 5D.
2. Tripod. You don’t have to use a tripod, but most of what I like from the long exposure is a crisp environment with a blurred element. You’ll really need a tripod for that.
3. The ND filter. If you are using a pocket camera you could just buy the smallest ND filter and hold it in front of the lens, or you could get the feeling with a dark pair of sunglasses. If you like the tool, it’s time to step up and get screwy. My favorite screw on ND filter is the B+W 106 ND 1.8. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE RIGHT SIZE FOR YOUR LENS! The B+W is made in Germany. The quality over a Chinese made ND filter is clear and worth every penny. I like the 106 because it’s dark enough to make a difference (6 stops!), but not so dark that you can’t see through it to frame the exposure.
4. Last, and most important in my book: You need an idea. We’ll get to this below.

The ND filter – How:

• This is pretty straight forward. Make sure the filter is the right size to screw onto your lens, screw it on.
• Look through the viewfinder. DON’T PANIC! It’s supposed to look dark. That’s the point. If it doesn’t look darker, then you put the wrong filter on or it fell off the end of your camera and rolled down the gutter.
• Set your camera to the lowest ISO to start (you can adjust it later to fine tune the effect you’re going after – lower ISO number = longer shutter = more movement blur).
• Mount your camera on the tripod.
• Set your camera to aperture priority (if your camera doesn’t have aperture priority, just cross your fingers, it should still work)
• You may have to focus manually, it depends on the situation. So if your camera isn’t focusing, give it a little help.
• Trigger your shutter either with a cable release or use the self timer. You don’t want to bump that camera. We’re trying to create an allusion for crepes sake!
• Look at the result. Evaluate. Make changes if necessary. Try again.

And now… the WHY!

Using a neutral density filter gives you access to a long exposure in situations you wouldn’t normally. So that’s why you would use an ND filter. Does that leave you wondering why you might want to use a long exposure. Sure, a long exposure can get you a blurry waterfall, blurry people walking around, a blurry bus. And what the world needs now is more pictures of blurry buses!

Take your blurry water/people/bus pictures to practice the technique, but when it gets down to it think about what the blur might mean, what sort of emotion it might evoke. Having locked down sharp image with a blurred element can expand your photo vocabulary. Here are a few examples:

• create a dream like feeling for the viewer
• insinuate the passage of time
• suggest a feeling of uneasiness, off balance-ness
• imply a character’s euphoria

I shot this with a 24-105 at 24mm aperture priority. I put the model in a spot of sun that was peeking through the clouds so the background would be slightly underexposed compared to the foreground. I shot about 20 exposures at different settings adjusting the amount of blur. This one seemed to convey what I was going for best. The idea compositionally was to start your eye on the guy and have it get sucked into the spinning ferris wheel and up to the circle at the top of the needle, then back down again into the ferris wheel. The idea, idea wise was to create a feeling of a man looking for someone. He is panicked that he can’t find them. But I didn’t want to show his face, so how do I convey panic or uneasiness? Whip out the ND and get that wheel spin blurrin’! Does it work? You get to judge that for yourself. But I’m happy that it conveyed the feeling I was looking for.

There are plenty of emotions/reactions a long shutter can help pull out of your audience. Just follow your shutter’s example, slow down, think about what you are trying to say. Can you say it better with blur? Than an ND may be the right tool for you.

Well tire no more! Now you can have someone else do the work for you… someone at The Bolt Depot.

How much does this cost, you ask? Well, just an average of 7-15 cents! And they’ll throw the screw in for free! Wha? Huh?

I had some DIY ideas but couldn’t find short enough 1/4″ screws. Did I let that get me down? Sure I did. But I didn’t give up. Eventualy I found The Bolt Depot and they had what I was looking for and more. The best part is they’ll sell you just one of almost anything they have. You want just one combo round head zinc 1/4 – 20 screw and you only want it to be 3/8 of an inch long? No problem. 7 cents please.

An aisle of nuts and bolts in their warehouse.
(image from boltdepot website)

Look at all those NUTS! And that’s just one aisle.

How do they know where everything is? I imagine computer controlled robots give the orders to well trained muskrats who oversee an army of field mice that skower the hundreds of shelves covered with thousands of containers for the wee little parts I put in my online cart with my stubby little fingers.

The mice then take each type of screw, bolt, or nut and pack them together in a little zip-top baggy. Then all the various baggies (each with a different group of length screws or size bolts or whatever – how am I supposed to know what you are going to order?) are packed in a little box and mailed right off to you. What fun!

They do sell the screws for less money if you buy them by the box of 100, but I just went with 5-10 of each of the types I wanted. My grand total was around $13 plus another $8 or so for shipping. I know. That’s a bit high. But I could have gotten a lot more little shiny screwy bits without the shipping going up much more, I just didn’t need it. Besides, they have to cover all that mice food somehow.

–Z–