Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Photographer's tool for creating studio lighting diagrams available FREE

I am an avid photographer. I shoot mostly studio product or advertising stills. There are times when I want to record how I lit a particular object or set. I often just draw it out on a pad, then lose it, or my notes are not all that legible. Recently a fellow photographer led me to a site that has made this process a lot better, more fun and a lot more usable.



At Online Diagram Creation's web site you can create your own photo studio lighting diagrams and then share them with others. Using the app is easy and there is no need to sign up for the lite version. The also have a community version with a lot more features. For that one, you need to sign up, but it is still free.
I will focus on the lite version here.
Start the diagram creator and start selecting different objects (backgrounds, cameras, persons, lighting sources, lighting modifiers, props, accessories, bouncing and reflecting equipment) from drop down menus. Drag selected object onto grid and position and rotate them in anyway you like. When the diagram is ready it can be saved as JPEG or PNG image. In order to share the diagram with others, get the URL and forward it to others.
photo studio lighting diagrams
The site is still in beta, so there are some bugs to be fixed, and more features are on the way.
Features:
  • Lighting diagram creator.
  • Create and share as many diagrams as you like.
  • Drag and drop interface.
  • Export your diagram to JPEG or PNG.
  • Share diagrams by forwarding URL
  • Free, no sign up needed.
The community based and more advanced version features the following:

Online Lighting Diagram Creator Community

  • New Graphical User Interface
  • Save diagrams to your user profile
  • Share your diagram by contributing to the knowledge database
  • Link to the diagram: detailed version or image link
  • Add a title and description to your saved diagrams
  • Add a result and setup shot to illustrate
  • Requires you to register for an online profile (free)
  • More features to come: notes, more objects, save in different sizes...
  • Free to use
So if you are a photographer that needs to create lighting diagrams, this is the place for you!

No comments:

Post a Comment