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Trying out the Neewer NK002 camera and lighting mount for desks.

In this article I set up my desk with a new overhead camera mount rig from Neewer, the NK002. I’ve been using a standard monitor arm with additional mounting hardware to hold my camera for years, but I wanted to see how this mount works in my creative computer workspace instead. Keep in mind that they sent me this mount at no cost with the expectation that I produce a few videos about it based on my standard collaboration terms . The were not allowed to give me talking points or preview anything that I created.  Check out the full video on YouTube :  Check it out on Neewer's official shop (not affiliated).   Or through my links:  Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4g3I2GI B&H Photo: https://bhpho.to/3Ce6I1u   As an affiliate of Amazon and B&H, I earn from qualifying purchases!  Unboxing and First Impressions The main box with accessories. The NK002 comes in a big, solid box. It was shipped with dense foam support around the rails to keep everything prote...

Jury-Rigging: Natural Vignetting (Dark Corners)

Why bother using Photoshop to do “artistic vignetting” when it’s as simple as attaching something to your flash unit that distorts and shapes the light? The answer would probably be lazyness, but Photoshop probably can’t produce the such unique lighting as I’ll be showing you below!

First, let’s start off with the result:

The goal was a sharp well lit subject with unique unevenly darkened corners.

Here is a picture of the camera setup:


The light modifier consists of:

  • Cardboard that was shaped around the flash unit on one end and on the other it was tightened more to produce a slight cone effect.
  • Electrical tape wrapped around the cardboard.
  • A silver translucent anti-static bag I had lying around. This was the first thing I could find that I though would work to smooth out the light coming from the flash.
  • A lens hood used backwards to hold the bag in-place as well as to produce a round shaped hole on the end of the modifier.

The camera settings were as follows:

  • Flash in HSS (High Speed Sync) mode
  • Manual mode at f4, ISO 100, 1/800th

On a while cloth background, the result is like this:


The image was edited a bit in Photoshop to bring out contrast in the scene. We can see the setup really vignettes the corners.

Here is a closeup of the modifier:



The modifier was “free as in beer” and quite effective given the goal of the test. 



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