My Sony PSP: A place for my Ayu clips :D

[kameraguy]

Hi Guys,

If you remember, I modifed my XBOX to honor Ayumi's Birthday last year. I installed a custom case, as well as made a custom skin for the shell and EvoX operating system. I installed a 250GB HDD and it now contains almost all my Ayu clips and photos:





On Thursday of last week I picked up the Sony PSP. I must say I am loving it. It is now a great way to load up on a few Ayumi clips on the way to work





I hope to get the internet browser and keyboard for it when they are available. Then I can surf this site wherever I am THis is a great little device. If only the memory stick duos were cheaper Hopefully they will make re-writeable UMDs so I can burn some Ayu concerts and keep the quality.

Does anyone else have a PSP?

[~Matt~]

woah that's really great

lucky you!

[PsyGen]

Nice Xbox mod man, looks great

I have a PSP, I imported one since early January. Maybe you could... mod your PSP? Food for thought

[Mirai Noah]

Wow, that's cool! If I ever get a PSP, I'd probably put Ayu stuff on it too.

[kameraguy]

Originally Posted by PsyGen

Nice Xbox mod man, looks great

I have a PSP, I imported one since early January. Maybe you could... mod your PSP? Food for thought

I'm tracking the PSP-Linux project as well as the web browser functionality being provided by the Korea-released PSPs. There will hopefully be a lot of development for the PSP. If it will be available, I am most certainly looking into it

At the moment i'm ordering the MS adapter to convert the duo slot to use full-size mem sticks as they are cheaper.


Logic 3 is making a qwerty USB keyboard/screen protector as well. I hope it won't cost more than the projected $40...I just hope it is imported from the UK soon.

[Qt Mashi]

omg Kameraguy! u freaking rule!
its sooo kool! was thinking of getting a PSP but im too poor~

[hiroko1234]

i have a PSP but it comes with a 32MB Memory Stick Duo only....

[PURIN]

Im thinking about getting the white PSP when it comes out.

Kamera Guy, what digital camera do you use? The pictures you take are really nice. You can PM me if u want Thanks

[selece28]

Yes... yess... yesss...
Please tell us what digital camera did u use to took those picture, its awesome, i wanna be like u :d
From what i see, it has the macro ability, right?
Please tell us, please
Thanks

[kameraguy]

Wow, thanks for the great response guys

Yeah, it suxors the PSP comes witha dinky 32mb card. IMHO memory sticks sucks due to it's high cost compared to even SD and XD, not to mention CF (although I can understand not using CF as it's bigger). For example, a 1gb card for the other formats are usually less than $100 nowadays...

But a memory stick is easily a $100 or more for a gig, and a memstick duo is even worse it seems.

Well, I bought a Sandisk 512mb card which was $90. Not happy about that, but it does allow one complete Ayumi concert (which is around 350mb of good quality) and a few mp3's or miscellaneous clips. But a gb card would be much nicer. They are so hard to come by right now though.

As for the camera I used in these pics, it is a trusty Canon G5 I am not saying it is the best camera....it has some noise which I am not happy about, and the long expsoure is only 15 seconds long, but for everything else it does, I absolutely love it. I used to have a Canon G2, which I really loved, but I needed the higher resolution so I sold it for the G5.

I have gotten some feedback asking if I use photoshop for my pictures. I use a lot of multiple flash and gradient filters. So the colors and exposure is all in-camera. I like to do things the traditional way.

I have to redo this one. I burned out the upper-right and got the white-balance wrong, but here's one of my earlier attempts:



Arigato!!

[PURIN]

Wow
so you dont use any of those professional flashes (those huge white umbrella's)
Everything you did is from the camera?

[kameraguy]

Originally Posted by PURIN

Wow
so you dont use any of those professional flashes (those huge white umbrella's)
Everything you did is from the camera?

Yes, these images are done only with this camera. To be honest, it doesn't matter what camera. As long as it has full manual exposure and you can improvise on the fly, these images are possible.

I have some photos from "behind the scene" in case it helps illustrate how I made these.

What i like to do is construct a background which I can place the object. In this case I have some old networking equipment which I though would give a cool technology feel. I then use some off-camera flashes which are covered with different colored gels to provide a blue and amber lighting effect.



The flashes are triggered by my G5 wirelessly (which is a big reason I love Canon). Before, I used to have to carry large strobes and lots of cable...but no more I also drop in white pieces of cardboard to help fill in some highlights of the foreground and soon-to-be placed PSP.

So with this said, I get a background which looks like this:



As you can see, the blue lighting is a good contrast to the amber background, which is what i was hoping for.

Now, the final step is to place the PSP in this scene. To get the correct exposure, i need to meter the LCD image of the PSP, and then dial-down the intensity of the flashes so that the flash exposure matches the light output of the PSP screen. I also position the PSP screen to avoid reflections from the white-fill cards I placed in front of it:





For the other images I posted above, I used similar techniques to get the results. The trick is to carefully direct the lighting as the PSP is very shiny, and to meter the flash expsoure accurately to match the PSP screen. Doesn't look as cool this way, huh:



I use a lot of paper to provide bounce light to highlight the PSP.

In the second shot, I construct a cardboard structure which i then place a flash on top of, with a slit cut on top covered with white paper to act as a make-shift soft-box. Working with small objects is great because you don't need much material to create a good lighting scenario:




Not to say the G5 isn't a great camera (it is), but I hope these pictures will inspire anyone who would like to take photos like this. It doesn't matter what equipment you have, rather just try different things and be creative with what you have For example, I am using flashes, but you can also use standard clip-lights you plug in to act as a light source. Just do a white balance for them and you have instant lighting equipment. Youc an then get creative with cardboard to make soft-boxes and what not. It's really a matter of your imagination.

[MTRLevolution]

nice photo skills. and i'm loving my psp as well. i need to go out and buy a bigger memory stick, though.

[DarkWanderer]

wow!! I really like what you did with your xbox!! I'm planning to get a psp too and when I do get it, I'll probably put my whole Ayu collection in there too. how long does the battery in psp last? and is there some recharger they give you too? btw, very nice photos

[kameraguy]

Originally Posted by DarkWanderer

wow!! I really like what you did with your xbox!! I'm planning to get a psp too and when I do get it, I'll probably put my whole Ayu collection in there too. how long does the battery in psp last? and is there some recharger they give you too? btw, very nice photos

Yup, the PSP Value Pack comes with a rechargeable battery and AC adapter which charges the unit when it's plugged in. The battery is said to last between 3-5 hours, but it really depends on how you use it. For example, playing movies on memory stick I have gotten almost 4-5 hours use and it still has a bit more power left. But playing games on the disc eats up more power and i've gotten around 3+ consistent hours so far.

Unfortunately there's no internal storage on the PSP except for memory stick. Currently they are just releaseing a 4gb stick, but that will most-likely cost as much as the unit itself, if not more It is not possible to store too many files on the PSP at the same time, but it is easy enough to convert and keep rotating files through it.

For the Xbox mods, it really holds a LOT of stuff. Like I have seven full-length Ayu concerts which are Divx files. They ae about 850mb each, so you can see 250mb goes a long way. It also has around 20 xbox games and other miscellaneous concerts and videos and mp3's. A really excellent upgrade. If you have an xbox, check out the xbox mod sites. The unit begs to be modded, and you won't regret it as it really makes the xbox more useful

[isaac hiew]

Wow.... kinda classy..... well would you mind telling us how you did these stuffs? Can use some guidelines for ourselves!

[kameraguy]

No problem. Is there anything you would like to know in particular?

[Fungu]

wow kamer can you teach me how to do that step by step plz
i want my psp to look like that!

[PsyGen]

Nice pics btw

Yeah, I managed to squeeze 4 from playing Ridge Racers straight (yes, it was a stress test, and the price to pay for it was a migraine).

I also left a song on repeat as a sort of test as well, got about 11-12 hours from it

As for that 4GB classic memory stick, I might get an adaptor for it actually, 4GB on the go would definately be cool

[hana_sanctuary]

Very nice pics^

I doubt my brother would let me take apart his Xbox to modify it, though o.o *le sigh*

Would want a PSP for everything BUT the games, though >.>;;;