DIYPhotography.net

If you went to college around the same time that I did, you may have caught the last few professors that did not use power point for slides. Instead they used an ancient device called overhead projector which took letter (or A4) sized transparencies.

They were a behemoth of a device, capable of throwing an image across a huge auditorium. And a size to match. So did the heat produced and the noise from the fan. But in the hands of the skilled professor with a few markers those projectors were an efficient tool in hammering infinitesimal math into our plugged heads.

Those devices are obsolete now. Power point presentations and DLP projectors took their place. This is why hacking one into a pattern projector feels a whole lot better than killing an SLR. This is exactly what flickr user haristobald (blog) did and worked into a super heroes series. A strobe replaced the powerful lamp to throw a superhero icon on a wall, ceiling or even a person. Click to continue ›

In my kid-days from long ago, I liked to bang on things with my toy hammer and play with a pretend saw. As a kid today it is no different except that it means hot glue, Velcro, duct tape, drill bits, hack saws, wing nuts, lock washers, and so on.

My goal was to design a strip light mod for small hot shoe flashes with limited power. Instead of light-eating grids and inner diffusers found a way to use the edges of the box to cut down spill, and a reflector inside helps distribute the light more evenly. This allowed me to eliminate the inner diffuser, which soaks up the light output. I can now shoot with this strip light about 2 to 4 feet away using ¼ power!

Finally it was finished and I asked my reluctant model if she'd pose. Judy came out wearing my vest because it was cold. I really liked the pictures that came out.

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If I recall correctly, it was Archimedes who said "Give me enough gaff tape and I will move the world".

So we are not going to move the world today, but we are going to control light with nothing more than gaffer's tape. Hit the jump for more info. Click to continue ›

Portable light box comes in handy for most product photography work. We did feature a cardboard light tent way back, but it was not collapsible. How can we say no to collapsible. With collapsibility in mind Kumaran Alagesan went and made a tent for $5. Click to continue ›

One of the downsides of using a small strobe is that you don't get the nice modeling light like the big studio guns.

That means that you have to pre-visualize your light. If you are new to strobes this may not be trivial even on a bare strobe, but throw some modifiers in (e.g. a softbox or an umbrella) and it get even harder. This is why a modeling light is can be your best friend as you make your first steps into the modifiers world. In this tutorial I will explain how you can add a modeling light to a strobe using a DIY Double Flash Bracket, but any double flash bracket will do. Click to continue ›

Photographer and design student Hunter Frerich came up with this really cool DIY for building a small circular soft box. It kinda resembles one of the first projects on DIYP (which is the one that actually pushed me to start the site) but is waaaaay nicer and probably gives way better light. It kinda resembles the Honl Traveller8, but exchanges the high $$ for sewing skills.

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I guess that snoots are one of those things that you can make out of almost any substance. As a kid, I used to listed to Dennis Leary and he had a similar notion on bongs (you can listed to this very NSFW, rude and strong languaged track here).

Of course being the shy and straighter than ruler guy that I am I would not even know a bong if I saw one, but I would recognize a good snoot idea.

If you're asking, "a snoot, what is it good for"? check out Strobist's Ultra-Hard Light post. Click to continue ›

A few days back we posted a video by The Underwater Realm that shows how to build and use an air cannon to create a false explosion.

It turns out that that though the folks at Realms are super busy making an Indie film, they manage to find the time to tip the indie film community (and photographers in general) with some awesome tips (see their undestructible LED strip for example).

This time around Eve Hazelton shares a great tutorial on how to use household lights to create some awesome lighting either for the big screen or for stills.

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One of the things I remember most from my visit to new york city is the tour I took around Chinatown. Specifically I remember sitting in one of the local places ordering food which I did not know the name of nor its ingredients.

It was some kind of soup and it was delicious. Till this very day I am not sure what was that floating eyeball but I enjoyed it very much.

A short walk after my wife and i (really it was just my wife) bought a whole set of china dishes. This was the part where I dosed off. If I had seen the DIY video below I may have been more interested, as it shows how to build a beauty dish with stuff you find in Chinatown and an Lastolite Ezybox bracket (for mounting).

I wonder if someone would pick up the glove and add this BD to the DIY beauty dish stand off.

The Chinatown Special: The Best DIY Beauty Dish via slrlounge Click to continue ›

Photographer Allen Mowery made a (yet another) simple Lightsphere from some stuff he found around the house (Velcro and bubble wrap vinyl drawer liner). As the comparison above shows, the results are as good as the original thing. The oh-so-simple how to video after the jump. Click to continue ›