DIYPhotography.net

As you probably know DIYP has a small feish for shaped boekh (we even made a kit).

Mike Pan was interested to see if a similar effect can be computer generated. well, it can using blender and cycles. Here is what Mike has to say about it.

It all started with the release of Cycles - a new GPU based (read: Fast) path-tracing (read: Nice) rendering engine for the 3D software Blender. For people unfamiliar with the concept, a rendering engine is a software that turns a computer generated 3D scene into a final picture. A rendering engine has to calculates lights, shadows, surface materials and all the intricate details that make up a believable virtual world. Most rendering engines uses all kind of tricks and shortcuts to simulate surfaces and lighting, whereas Cycles rendering is purely based on the physics of light, which means it is very easy to get photo-realistic renderings like this: Click to continue ›

Recently I treated myself to the Manfrotto 131DDB Double Head Support (USA) / (AUS) which allows me to mount both my camera and a laptop on the same tripod, for when I'm shooting tethered.

Now all I needed was a platform for my notebook; but all I could find available were platforms for laptops. Too big for what I needed and I also wanted something a little more secure so that my notebook would not be easily knocked over. Click to continue ›

If you shoot any dSLR video, you probably already know that some scenes reacquire shifting focus between several planes. This is a great way to tell a story.

For example, think about a shot where you see a person eating at the front of the frame, then, the focus changes and you see a sign that says "Dont feed the monkeys" or "No people allowed behind this line" or any other thing that adds to the story.

Here is the thing, though, it is not trivial to shift the focus between those two planes without a focus rack or a follow focus. Those usually come with a marking wheel where you can mark each plane of focus and easily return to it while shooting. That's the up side, there are about 600 downsides if you are not shooting video regularly.

Michael The Mentor came up with a poorman's solution to focus racking using arrow post its. Click to continue ›

Sometimes you'd wanna mount a camera next to the driver. This gives you a great POV as the shotgun passenger.

For stills you may wanna do this if you want to catch the dial going up to 88 MHP without breaking the law or shopping the speed in.

But I find this technique to be more relevant for videographers that want to use the shotgun POV as part of their story telling.

While a Gorillapod may be an option for smaller cameras, big cameras need more support. In this tutorial, Boris Georgiev is going to show us how to build a very simple and cheap shotgun mount. Click to continue ›

If you were not impressed with the La Guillotine DIY camera, we are taking another stub with the KDS-POTO2. KDS-POTO2 is a camera designed and produced by kit da studio – It is quite an awesome camera for a DIY camera, however, one step requires laser cutting. Totally worth it f you ask me.

Here is what this camera is capable of: It supports various lenses (yes the very first DIYLR - in this tut: a wide lens scavenged from a Konica WaiWai camera and a pinhole), Interchangeable 120/135 (regular) back, Bulb and normal shutter modes and a frame counter. Yea baby. It is totally DIYed!

In this post, I will show you how to make one of those babies. Click to continue ›

Here is a hack we have never explored before, film development. If you ever been to a darkroom (and I mean the real ones, not those that come with a wacom tablet) you know that have a certain... hmmmmm... smell to them. The good guys over at make show us how to develop film in an even more stenchier way (if you can say that) using coffee and vitamin C.

Click to continue ›

If having a C-Loop (or the C-Loop DIY version) is not great by itself (which we think it is) you can make it even greater by complementing it with a Glide Strap. When you use a Glide Strap (or any of the other gliding systems) you can quickly move from carrying position to shooting position.

You can do this because gliding mechanism allows the camera to slide without the need for the strap to move.

Yes, you guessed it, Cameron Texter made his own DIY glide strap, and he'll share his contraption after the jump. Click to continue ›

Here is a project perfect for father's day.

I know how everybody loves a good duct tape wallet. But come on... We are photographers. Duct tape? Not in this class. We use the real thing - Gaffers Tape. And we use it wisely - to child-proof light stands, to make them invisible and to make lighting modifiers.

It would only make sense that a present for the one who raised you so well would be made from original photographic Gaffers tape.

Click to continue ›

The C-loop, R-Strap and Sun Sniper are three systems designed to change the way you carry your camera around.

They all share a similar idea - the strap goes inside the tripod screw. Of course, this probably makes the camera designers pull their hairs as they invested so much time in making those little two 'ears' that the normal strap goes on.

Anyhow, using a system like the C-Loop really changes the way you carry your camera around - something we have discussed before - it is way more comfortable that any "regular" strap.

In this tutorial Cameron Texter will show you how to make a DIY C-Loop for your camera. (warning, this is for a point and shoot, not sure I would trust this DIY with my Nikon D300 + the 24-70 2.8) Click to continue ›

If you wanna freshen up on the shaped bokeh technique, Makezine has an thorough  video tutorial covered by a text article that you can follow through off-line. DIYP has a kit that takes the work out, but it always amazes me how quickly you can make one of those to win a another effect in your box o' tricks.

If you are still having questions after watching the vid, (yea, you never know just how big that hole should be....) there are some great tips on the Removing The Mystery From The Heart Shaped Bokeh tutorial.

Click to continue ›