DIYPhotography.net

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.

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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.

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Manufactures of cameras and lenses make their equipment to fall into certain quality control standards.

But sometimes that may not be good enough. This DIY lens aligning setup work great, and is usually a sure improvement over the default setting.

If you need something a tad more pro, there is a pre-made accessory you can buy called LensAlign MKII. Click to continue ›

Some of the comments about the freelensing quickie we posted were deeply concerned with dust.

One way to solve the dust issue is to make a small step away from 100% free free lensing. The plunger lens is one way of doing so using a... well... a plunger :)

Another way of freelensing without concern for dust or flare is by building bellows. DC Watch has a nice video tutorial that you can follow along with a template PDF.

And if you feel comfy with slightly broken English, you can follow the instruction on the machine translated post from DC Watch. Click to continue ›

The two films below shows two ways to mount a camera on your bicycle.

The first shows what great results you can get with simply mounting a video capable camera like the Canon 5D Mark II on the front basket.

The second film is a bit more technical and it shots how to build a small and efficient mount for a small camera. (Of course, you can always go for a super quick mount hack for small cameras)

UPDATE: a third video was added that shows modifiying a reflector holder to accept a 1/4 20 screw. Click to continue ›

I do some real estate photography that requires indoor panoramas. Those are kinda hard to take because the small space and proximity of objects really makes any parallax errors show significant distortion on the final picture.

First I bought the Panosaurus (which was HUGE and a bit cumbersome as it support any camera) but it does work. This got me thinking: do I really need a panoramic head that can support any camera at all, or do I just need to support my Lumix GH1 and 9-18mm lens.

After making a few brackets, I decided that this one is going to be focused on ease of manufacturing. Click to continue ›

Neutral density filter reduces the amount of light going into the lens, so you can take long exposures even when the light is bright.

Long exposures blur anything moving, like water, clouds, or people. This can be very useful for making choppy water look smooth, making clouds streak, or getting rid of people at a tourist attraction.

These types of filters usually cost up to $200 (especially on big diameter lenses), but with this simple hack, you can make it for only $5. Click to continue ›

Our friend Destin (whom you may remember from his excellent cheapo high speed tutorial, heck I stalk this guy so much he'd probably called the cops by now), just came up with a quick little video about combining two favorable techniques: freelensing and reverse macro lens.

The idea is simple enough, pop your lens off the camera body, reverse it and hand hold it to get that killer macro. There is an adapter ring you can buy for this but, that would take half the fun off. Click to continue ›

We said it before, macro tubes are nothing more that air wrapped in plastic. This is why we were happy to see another adaptation on the Pringles can that makes macro easy on the budget by Sameer Garde

On closer inspection, though, I understood that is was not a Pringles can, but a baking powder can. That definitely takes points off for edibility. Jump for more macro. Click to continue ›