Wasn't sure where else to put this, so I figured the Lighting forum was as good as any.
I built a wearable light-stand in Steampunk style, to wear to MegaCon and take some decent photos.
Components:
The frame is a military pack frame from the army surplus store.
The large box is a wooden shipping crate that I stained and polyurethaned, the hinges and buckle are a leather belt, cut to fit and pop-riveted to the wood. Plenty of storage space, not easily accessible though.
The small box up top is a tin box from a yard sale. Small storage, very easily accessible.
The roll at the bottom is a piece of 4-inch PVC pipe, wrapped in batting and sewn into a thick fabric sack. Perfect storage for art and prints we bought at the con.
The towers are a curtain rod, I mounted a 1/4x20 threaded stud on top of each.
Each tower has n umbrella adapter, a Cactus V5 receiver and a YN560 flash. A little baggie sewn from the same material as the roll sack to hide the guts.
It's held together with copper pipe straps, pop rivets, leather belts, and copper water tubing.
The lights on the back are decorative.
Total weight (with all three containers empty) is about 26 lbs, but it was probably closer to 35 lbs with all the stuff we had crammed in there by the end of the con, spare batteries, etc.
I struggled a bit without ETTL. Every room in the con is different - in the hallways, the ceilings were low and white, so I could bounce one flash and aim the other flash directly. But in the main convention hall, the ceilings are probably 40ft high, and matte black, so no bounce was possible; in there I just directed both flashes forward. I can reach the controls on the back of the flashes without removing the pack, but I'm not familiar enough with the YN560 controls to do it blind every time. Fortunately, I could remove the umbrella adapters and bring the flashes down without taking the whole pack off, to adjust flash power. Still, I struggled with it all day, every time I moved into a different room I had to make manual adjustments.
Future improvements:
A modifier of some sort on the lights. A small umbrella or softbox on one of the towers, or maybe a wide strip box that incorporates both lights.
ETTL-capable triggers and flashes. ($$$)
External battery packs, stored in one of the boxes. (I got about 250 shots before the batteries in the bounced flash started to die)
Hard leather shoulder guards to distribute the weight better.
More period-correct vest and shirt. I'll probably incorporate the shoulder guards into the vest.
Steampunk.20120219.4944.jpg
by nathancarter, on Flickr
Steampunk.20120219.4951.jpg
by nathancarter, on FlickrAnd some of the results. The lighting is pretty hard - without a modifier up there, it's essentially just a big heavy flash bracket - but since it's off-axis I think it's much more interesting than just a hotshoe flash, or even a standard flash bracket that adds a couple extra inches.
Megacon.20120218.4704.jpg
by nathancarter, on Flickr
Megacon.20120218.4743.jpg
by nathancarter, on Flickr
Megacon.20120218.4820.jpg
by nathancarter, on Flickr
Megacon.20120218.4717.jpg
by nathancarter, on Flickr.. and my wife went as Barbarella, maybe some of you old dudes can appreciate it
Megacon.20120218.4925.jpg
by nathancarter, on FlickrLots more photos from the event in my Flickr set:
http://www.flickr.com …89230519/with/6904637527/
