DIYPhotography.net

Freelensing is a form of photography where the lens is hand held in front of the body and is not inserted into the bionet. If you ever tried it, it is pretty cool and creates tilt/shift like effect, only with a random aspect to it because you are... well... hand holding the lens. This is why it's called Freelensing.

If you are new to the subject, or just want a refreshment, Luke Roberts has a great introductory tutorial on freelensing (which is where the title sketch was taken from).

One of the harder things to do while freelensing is focusing, you are constantly moving, the camera is moving in relation to the subject, and the lens is moving in relation to the camera. This is where Magic Lantern can help. Magic Lantern is a custom firmware pack for Canon DSLRS which adds features to the camera. Click to continue ›

Rob Gipman submitted this great hack to our Flickr pool. It is a water resistant protective sleeve for the Canon 100-400L lens.

What makes this lens ideal for sleeve protection (aside than the $1459 price tag) is the fact that this lens zooms by retraction rather than by rotation Click to continue ›

Everything is about personalization today. We personalize our iPhone cases (OK, OK, androids too), put decals on laptops and stickers on cameras. One element which was left untouched so far is the lens cap. (not lens cap keepers, those did get personalized).

On the other hand, cheap lens caps are a buck a dozen which makes them the perfect item for personalization.

Assuming you have a CNC machine... Click to continue ›

I think it is safe to say that for thousands of years photographers (me included) have been cleaning lenses by blowing on the lens and then wiping it with a piece of cloth.

Nikon discourages that, saying that breath contains acidic elements that can damage your lens. In reply to a Nikonian who asks "How do I clean the camera lens?" Nikon support replies:

The best way to clean a lens is to use a piece of lint free lens cleaning tissue and a small amount of Lens Cleaning solution. Do not use anything containing abrasives or  solvents, only use Lens Cleaning Solution.

First we recommend taking a small blower brush to blow off or brush away loose dust or debris.

Next, place a drop or two of cleaner on the tissue (never directly onto the lens) and then wipe the lens in a circular motion, beginning in the center and working your way outward, removing any marks or smear.

If the above supplies are not available a clean, dry, soft, lint free cloth can be used to clean the lens. Do not breathe on the lens to fog it for cleaning. There are harmful acids in breath that can damage lens coatings. Just use the blower bulb, then brush, and wipe the lens in a circular spiral from the center outward.

The same method can be used to clean the viewfinder eyepiece of Nikon cameras.

Click to continue ›

About a week ago we featured an unnamed hand crafted Laser crafted beautiful twin lens reflex with a Polaroid back.

I'll be lying if I did not admit that I would love to see a commercial version of this camera. Kevin Kodooka just released a short teaser for the upcoming kit. Maybe via Kickstarter, it definitely has the right vibe for it. (Still no name though).

That said, I doubt it would be a cheap kit. The lenses alone are usually in the range of hundreds over at eBay. Hit the jump for a video and a list of features. Click to continue ›

It was almost a year ago that Maciej Pietuszynski shared a quick and dirty tutorial on creating a tilt lens from an old Nifty-Fifty and a shower head. Surprisingly, the images were spectacular. It was a pleasure to learn that he made a fuller tutorial for our How I Took It contest.

Click to continue ›

Take a long hard look at the this lens. Are you familiar with it? Does it look 'right'?

Click to continue ›

We have just over a month and a week left for our "how I took contest" and I wanted to share one of the great submissions by Evil Flip about creating a built in variable ND filter. It's a bit risky as you'll be hacking near your sensor, but the results are surprisingly good.

I took this picture by using a long exposure and since I wanted to shoot outside I needed an ND filter. I’m more of a video guy and when shooting video with a DSLR you really need an ND filter if you want control over your aperture. Since you’re stuck with a shutter speed of 1/50, shooting outdoors can force you to close your aperture and this doesn’t really give you that nice blurry filmic background. This is why professional video cameras sometimes have an ND-filer build in. And so I figured I’d try to do the same. Click to continue ›

If your camera only has one extra lens, it sometimes makes sense to save on the number of bags on a trip by co-locating the lens in a laptop bag or a day bag.

The thing is, you wanna keep the lens protected. Dedicated camera bags have foam inserts, called dividers, that'll keep your lens safe from bumping against hard materials, but your laptop case will most likely won't have those dividers.

Taryn Fiol of apartment therapy came up with a smart way or protecting a lens (or a strobe for that matter) if you choose to go bag-light.

By using a beer cozy to wrap the lens Taryn was able to protect it from strap hard edges. (and won a makeshift snoot in the process).

Of course, if you want to go all the way to the other extreme, you can, with basic sewing skills, make your own camera bag insert all together.

[Creative Reuse: Keeping Camera Lenses Safe on the Cheap | Apartment Therapy] Click to continue ›

A few days ago we had a tutorial showing how to crack open and IR-ize a Cheapo $28 Canon point and shoot. Today we are upping the stakes doing a similar operation on a Pentax K10D. This installment is more of a story told by Jerry Biehler than a micro-step-by-micro-step tutorial I hope it will inspire you to try new stuff. Of course, you are still running the risk of nuking your camera, and you will definitely void the warranty (if for some weird reason you still have a warranty on your K10D), so know the risk before you get to work. Click to continue ›