It's Not Like I Didn't Leave Clues...

At first, I thought I might do something simple for April Fool's., like announcing this brand new left-handed Nikon D300.

But April Fool's only comes once a year, so it's certainly worth a little more work than that.
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The clues, for those who may have missed them:

1. MIT student "Justin Phun." (Seriously, folks...)
2. The chip: The NEC 40-108 (4-01-08...)
3. "The diagnostic mode fools the charging circuitry..."
4. " ... it's all about the timing."
5. First commenter: Joe Kingley
6. Second commenter: Allen Gueste. (All in jest...)
7. Third commenter: April.

So, how'd we fake the burnt-up flash, not to mention the fake EXIF info on the lede photo? Hit the jump for more...
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First of all, yesterday's photos linked to big versions instead of the actual Flickr page, so the inevitable "April Fool's" comments would be shielded by at least an extra click. (You can click on the pics here for the actual image w/comments.)

I faked the EXIF info (you guys do so love to extract that stuff) to hide the fact that it actually was shot with a Nikon D70s using the ultra-high-sync hack at a 1/5000th at f/8 of a sec to lower the sky's tone and make the flash look more powerful. In fact, it was only at 1/4 power if I remember correctly.


You can see us at left shooting the pic last Friday at the Southern Short Course. (Thanks, Doug!)

Then I cut-and-pasted the pic onto another shot that was shot at 1/500th at f/32, ISO 200, for good EXIF info. We had to sell this thing as being powerful somehow... (The SSC guys were in on it, of course..)

But what about the nuked flash?

We were in luck, sort of. Sadly, this is what actually can happen when you go to a meetup and shoot on 1/2 power all day. And then you find out someone else was on your PW channel, running many, many more 1/2 power flashes through your SB-800 than the laws of thermodynamics allow.

I added a little color in Photoshop, but the melty fresnel stuff is all too real. Ouch. Still works, tho!

(Thanks again, Doug... and sorry about that SB-800.)

The PC board was tweaked a li'l bit with Photoshop to add an appropriate model number to one of the chips.
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Thanks to those in the know who left comments that did not give away the ruse. But I decided early on to stop moderating once I saw the first enlightened comment pop up.

Speaking of comments, the joke is on me. Blogger's comment list is supposed to have a "next page" button after 200 comments. But that does not seem to be working.

We have already topped that. So to see the comments after #200, you have to go to the comment form and click "newer." Or you can just click here.

In other 4/1 flash-related fun, the folks at PopPhoto interviewed photographer Richard Baresall on his street photography techniques...

Stay sharp next year when April rolls around. I am already thinking...