Canon Remote Switch for £5
You may have seen my previous blog post about light painting and one of the things that I mentioned was the use of a remote shutter switch.
Now to buy one of these from Jessops for a Canon would cost £25 which for a piece of wire that completes a circuit is just plain silly.
So being the enterprising chap I am I made one myself, for the grand total of around £5, and now I intend to show you how I did it in a step by step tutorial.
All that you really need is as follows:
- Soldering Iron + Solder(I already had these but Maplin sell them for £5)
- Switch (£1.79 – Maplin)
- 2.5mm Adapter(£1.99 – Maplin)
- Required length of Speaker Wire
- Pair of old headphones
Should be fairly obvious what you need to do next, but since this is a “How to” I’ll explain.
- First strip both ends of the speaker wire using wire cutters/scissors/teeth.
- Solder the ends of the speaker wire to the switch (There is only 2 contacts so there is no way you could mess this up… I hope)
- Now you’ll be destroying those old headphones, remove the wire and all the plastic housing around the jack.
- If you managed the above step successfully you should now see 2 solder points, solder the other end of the speaker wire here
- Plug the headphone jack into the adapter
- Plug the adapter into your camera and take it for a spin!
The switch I used above is a locking switch which means you press it down and you need to press it again to release, this is perfect for light painting, but if you were going to be shooting portraits you’ll most likely want to replace this with a “push to make switch”
Obviously I’m a Canon shooter but this tutorial may work with other makes.
Painting with light
It’s a well accepted fact that when it comes to photography its all light, and of course that would mean you need to light your subject appropriatly before hitting the shutter release button right? Wrong!
The technique known as Light Painting is not exactly a new concept but since I’ve only just had a chance to play with it I thought I’d tell the world.
Is this the holy grail?
No it is not the wine cup of a deity’s minor it is infact a faberge egg (not a real one obviously).
Here i’ll describe the process for anyone that’s still reading and not just looking at the pictures.
Needed;
Camera (you will need some control over shutter speed, an SLR set to bulb mode is ideal)
Torch or some other way of painting your subject with light
Tripod or something to sit the camera on
Darkness
Optional:
Sweet wrappers etc to color the light (or filters if you have any)
Shutter release cable (this makes things easier)
To capture the image of this angry knife I set up my camera on a tripod and focused on the subject. This can be done manually or by the auto focus of the camera but you must remember to set the camera to manual before taking the shot. (Otherwise the autofocus will constantly hunt in the low light conditions)
Now if your using an slr you’ll want to set the camera to its lowest ISO which in my case is ISO 100, the reason for this is so that we can gradually add the light since the sensor isn’t over sensitive resulting in an over exposed image. You can adjust your aperture to suit your needs I personally shot these at f10.
For your shutter speed you will want to set the camera to bulb as it gives you plenty of time to play with your torch, on my Canon 400d this involves just scrolling right through the shutter speeds and it is at the end. If your camera doesn’t have a bulb setting you can set it to your longest exposure but remember your now working to a deadline.
Now the fun bit grab your torch and turn off the light.
If your operating in bulb mode you will need to keep your finger on the shutter button which is why I suggested the remote control, the alternative is to set the exposure time. Now you can have some fun by painting your subject with light. Start passing your torch over the subject changing the color of your filter when necessary.
This is where practice comes in handy as you’ll not be able to see what you have already lit so you’ll be keeping a mental note of what colour is where.
Once you think your done just release the shutter button and view your results.
This is a great technique for the winter months since it doesnt require any daylight and anything can become interesting with a little time and effort.
