Yea I know, Halloween is almost a month away, but if you're gonna do something fancy, you'd better start preparing.
Here are three completely safe Halloween photography Hacks.
Between making your own pumpkin, cutting a hole in your body and bringing a full Paparazzi band to the party there is no way you'll get tricked. But, you have to start preparing.
Yesterday I posted a cheat sheet that tried to question the applicability of the Inverse Square Law (ISL) on the way we use portable flashes I called this post The Inverse Square Law Cheat Sheet - Myth Busted.
The post stirred up a great conversation from which I learned about Light, some physics and some in camera processing facts. But mostly I learned that it is great fun to experiment and to share your findings. It definitely helped me get my knowledge to a higher level (at the small price of throwing a way my totally wrong fringy and conventions breaking experiment.
UPDATE: This Experiment is all Wrong. I should hit my head on the same wall I used to measure reflected light off. Some great comments about what went wrong, and great discussion going on - I posted the main points here.
Have you heard about the Inverse Square Law? It's the law that says that light intensity falls the farther you move your light from your subject. It also tells you that if you move your light to be twice as far it will fall by 4 (the square of 2). if you move the light three times as far, it will fall by 9.
We all swear by that law. The only thing is this law does not apply to the way most of us use flashes.
I'm gonna explain this in a beat, but first here is my newest cheat sheet. (I love cheat sheets. If you are as senile as me, you can print them and then pop them up later and look really smart).
Panning is a photographic technique that provides great separation of subject from background.
The technique is very simple in theory, but takes some practice to perfect.
Here is how it works, you set your camera to a relatively low shutter speed. Say 1/80 or 1/40 of a second. Next you find a subject that is moving from one side of the frame to the other. Here comes the tricky part. While keeping the subject in a fixed part of the frame (and you do that by panning the lens from side to side) click the shutter.
If you did every thing correctly, you'll end up with a sharp subject and blurred background. This technique takes a lot of practice with the following focus:
This is why DIYP labs developed several techniques to get panning pictures without ever moving your camera.
UPDATE: Hey this is fun, however (as some commenters indicated), it may be risky to young joint if you're spinning to fast. Holding your loved one under the elbow is safer.
This is by far one of the most fun family projects ever featured on DIYP. (Oh yea, I said this on the title).
We all know what kids like best - spinning. The only thing that kids love even more than spinning is sharing the spinning pleasure with a family member spin Dad till he passes out.
Fortunately for us photogs, spinning creates a great panning like effect. But wait how can you spin and take the image, I mean both hands are holding your precious one.
Reader Mr Din has figure out the secret. Learn how to spin and photograph your kid in 5 easy steps.
Here's a great project for a weekend. The DIY Light Table, courtesy of Félix Ménard (Flickr).
The idea behind the light table is simple. Things look really great if the light is passing through them. As opposed to light being reflected off them. This is why slides look so good, this is why we love vitrage windows in churches.
A light table is the perfect way to inspect slides, negs and to do some really interesting art.
This project by Felix uses an old desktop (from when desktops were actually made from wood and did not have any chips in them), however, a similar project can be made with more temporary means which are great for a weekend project. I'll discuss this towards the end.
Now, this is not a post processing blog, so there aren't many Photoshop tips and tricks here. And if you don't care about those at all fill free to stop reading right here. However, when a Photoshop technique is used to create DIY-print-on-wood look and feel I had to share it. Or rather, Brian Morrell had to share it. Read on to learn how to create wooden/ concrete / paper looks and feel with Photoshop (and some images). Click to continue ›
A few weeks back I was asked by my daughter's kindergarten teacher to come and take everyone's portraits of a kindergarten custom party.
Of course I said yes. Then I hit me. I am scared sick from staying home alone with my daughter and one of her friends, how the heck am I going to manage 35 kids running around?
OK, I'll talk about kids a bit later. Before this let's talk setup.
OK, so we've had about 400 articles on taking pictures. What do you do with all those images?
I know you did not expect me to come up with a dull answer like tag them, upload them to Flickr (though Flickr is great), or put them in an album I know you are expecting something with a little more handy work. No to worry, this project will provide a great show-off with minimal effort.
Here is a neat way to display your images. And Yes - it will require some DIYing. (Are they still saying neat nowadays? I got all my English from watching the A-team). Thank you Dima Tsvetkov for this great tutorial.
The next video by Zack Arias made for Scott Kelby is circulating the web now. As a person who always juggle between photography, family and day job, (and usually feel I don't have enough time to get any of them right) this really helped me focus. Thank you Zack.
More on Zack's blog.
