Techno Tuesday's ~ Grizz's Photo Blog

12/20/11
How to clean your DSLR camera.

Dirt is not a friend to your digital SLR camera. It can get into cracks and crevices of the camera body. It can attach itself to the glass of the lens. It can even make its way inside your camera and stick to the glass above the image senor. Dirt can also show up in your images as little black spots. That's why running the camera's built-in image-sensor cleaning process, and giving the rest of the working parts an occasional cleaning, is important.

Instructions

Microfiber cloths
Blower brush
Blower bulb
Static-chargeable brush
Lens-cleaning solution
Photographic solvent with senor-cleaning brush

- 1
  Shoot a test picture of a white sheet of typing paper or a white wall. Examine the resulting picture to see if little black spots appear. If so, you will need to clean dust from your camera's image sensor.
- 2
  Rub the outside of your camera with a microfiber cloth to remove dirt and dust from the body.
- 3
  Remove the lens.
- 4
  Start the camera's image-sensor cleaning process, accessible through the camera menu, if one is available. Check your camera manual for specific instructions.
- 5
  Look inside the camera and find the piece of glass that sits above the image sensor. Turn the camera so the lens opening is pointing down. Blow a stream of air across the glass using the blower bulb to release any remaining dust.
- 6
  Give a few strong shakes to a special static-charged brush and wipe the bristles across the glass inside the camera if some dust or dirt remains.
- 7
  Dampen a special sensor-cleaning brush with the photographic solvent and carefully wipe the glass to remove any grime.
- 8
  Pick up the lens. Blow across the glass or use a blower brush to remove dust from the glass.
- 9
  Wipe the glass with a fresh microfiber cloth to remove fingerprints or smudges. For stubborn spots, apply a few drops of lens-cleaning solution to a fresh cloth and wipe gently.
- 10
  Reattach the lens to the camera body.
- 11
  Take another test picture and check for any remaining black spots in the image.

11/22/11

Came across this starter studio kit today and thought I would share this with you all. Great kit with all you need to get yourself started with a home or mobile studio. Inexpensive, cost less than an average lens but you get all that you need to get shooting .

the 150PT studio kit is available from Photo Tech Inc.here at a base price of $556.00

• COMPACT DELUXE PHOTO STAND
Compact Stand (black enamel) comes with a travel bag and one cross bar attachment can be expanded to a second cross bar. It can hold up to 150" wide backgrounds

• 3-LIGHT 1250W MINI-BOOM KIT
Quality reflector lights -- etched for maximum reflectivity and finished in attractive photographic gloss black enamel. (2- 12" reflector floodlights; 1 - 5" reflector floodlight; 2 - UM-4 umbrella mounts; 2 - 33" white umbrellas; 2 - 500 watt "ECT" 3200*K photoflood lamps; 1 - 250 watt "ECA" 3200*K photoflood lamps; 1 - MB110 mini-boom; 3 - 8' raven top-quality aluminum light stands). All in the "Light Cart" molded case on wheels!

• FILTER HOLDER
the ideal accessory for achieving diffusion, color correction or special color effects with any light - quartz, photoflood or flash. Can also be used to hold polarizing filters or gobos. Mounts on any 3/8 in. to 5/8 in. stand and adjusts to any distance on an accordian arm.

• RAINBOW FILTERS
Contains 1 each: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange and Orchid filters. These popular colors let you throw color accents onto your subject or create background color.

• 1 ROLL of BACKGROUND PAPER 9' x 12 yds (Optional 6 colors: #54green, #11blue, #93white, #37peach, #44 jet black, #39 orange )

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click to enlarge