DIYPhotography.net

Having lost his Nikon 10.5mm lens cap, photographer Stu Carlson used the bottom end of a Dr. pepper bottle to cap his lens.

"The lens cap disappeared and I hate to have my lens unprotected.  So I cut off the end of a Dr. Pepper bottle to use till I could order the right lens cap for it.  Quite by accident I had picked a perfect fit for this lens and since a replacement cap is not cheap and this is and it works and fits so well, I have not bothered to order the replacement cap.

While the bottle seems to provide some nice protection, I doubt that the 10.5mm tastes as good as the original content of the bottle. Click to continue ›

A while back we shared a niec little clip called the Nice Clip. It is a clip that attaches to the lens cap and make it clipabale. It really is one of those smack-me-on-the-head-for-not-thinking-about-this kinda of ideas.

Luckily, its simplicity makes it a good candidate for a DIY version. I guess photographer Sean Ragan thought the same. Using a small lapel clip and heavy duty outdoor mounting tape.

Click to continue ›

It's really cool how cameras can now shoot with acceptable results at super high ISO ratings like 6400. A few years back ISO ratings like this were nothing but a dream. (And before that Fujipress 1600 was the highest I ever used. Never saw a Fujipress 6400)

Alas, when shooting in the dark it is not an easy task to focus. And please forgive me canon users, but if you're a red brand lover, you're pretty much screwed).

Enter Malowz's invention - a strong focus assist that uses $10 in parts from deal extreme. Using a powerful LED and a strong reflector, Malowz build a hot shoe device that projects light to assist in focusing. Click to continue ›

It turns out the in the "old days", when we still had aperture rings on our Nikon lenses, Nikon used to sell a something called a Lens Scope Converter. These lens scope converters were used as an eye piece that can turn any lens into a telescope.

(Imagine harnessing the power of a Nikkor 600mm f/4G for your star gazing pleasure)

Sadly [1], LSC has been discontinued and it can only be found on "second hand" sites like ebay (there is one selling right now, check out listings here). Click to continue ›

This DIY project from Cameron Texter is made after a Lensbaby, but is built completely different. And when we say completely, we mean with tape. It’s made of only parts of an extension tube and macro filters. If you pushed me the wall, I would say that it is similar to the Lensbaby Muse, but even more similar to the original Lensbaby, because of the images having a blue glow around bright whites and silvers in the resulting photographs, and because of the fact that the images aren’t that sharp and have a “dreamy” soft focus look to them. (and they aren't that sharp just as the sea isn't that dry). The concept is similar to the bendy and plunger lenses but uses tape and extension tubes rather than a plunger.

The build is pretty simple. You just have to have the right parts to do this project, Here are the good news - if you are into macro photography, you should have the parts. Click to continue ›

A few weeks back we shared a tutorial on how to convert your old film camera into a background projector (AKA Cookie Projector). Seems like this project grabbed a lot of attention, with one comment that kept coming back over and over: "Why Kill The Poor Camera?"

Even a reference from Strobist seems to hint that if one goes through the agonizing process of un-hinging the back of a camera, they should "use it for good".

Of course the initial intent was to use a camera that is unserviceable (as RC Hill did with the project we featured), yet, there had to be another way, a way that does not involve un-hinging or pliering the back of a camera. And indeed there is. (or actually Are, as there are two solutions found).*

(* no cameras were heart while making this post) Click to continue ›

If you own one of them 90's film cameras and stopped using it because digital is so hip right now, you're gonna dust it off once you're done reading this tutorial.

In this tutorial photographer Richard Hill is going to explain how to convert your old film camera combined with a strobe into a background generator (which pros also like to call Cookie Projector or a gobo projector).

We featured a strobe based background generator before, which was based on a box and Fresnel lenses. This time around the shades can be way more delicate. Here comes Richard: Click to continue ›

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 ›

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 ›