DIYPhotography.net

If you're one of those guys who can appreciate both vintage cameras and DIY projects, your jaw may drop permanently when you see this project.

Darren Samuelson, who is building a big camera, is actually building a HUGE camera. A retro style bellows camera.

The camera has a back panel of 14×36", which is so big that it uses X-ray sheets as film.

Construction took about 6 months of work and technical issues ranged from finding film, through building a "medical grade" X-ray table, to supporting the huge bellows.

Click to continue ›

A little while back we introduced an electric DIY which was designed to help reduce the luck factor when going on a stormy night to photograph lighting. It involved quite a bit of hardware and was aimed towards DSLRs that have an external trigger jack.

Turns out there is an easier way for most Canon P&S owners. It is called CHDK. We discussed CHDK before when we showed how to make Hi Res time lapse movies. This time CHDK comes to the rescue with a lighting catching script. Click to continue ›

We all love a good camera toss. Yes we do. What we don't love is broken cameras. On the floor crushed to smithereens.

You can avoid the crush in several ways. My favorite being an hydraulic system pistons with two shock absorbing cushions on each direction. Of course that system is not invented yet, and even if it was, it would probably cost a small fortune. You know hydraulic pistons are sooooo expensive.

Lucky flickr user Robert Couse came up with a cheaper alternative. I, of course, strongly recommends against using it, unless you have an old canon lying around ;)

Enter Gaffers tape, cardboard and an inflatable device. The image is self explanatory. Click to continue ›

In this Tutorial Steve McDermott is going to show you how to take Multiplicity photographs.

Not really sure this is the right name for them, but I like it as it explains exactly what this technique does.

The setup is very simple. It uses the same principle as the computer screen project - transparent objects break light.

As simple as is is, it can give you amazing results. Definitely a fun weekend project. Click to continue ›

Sometimes it seems that everything is against us. Nothing is working. It's as if the rules of the universe themselves were built to set us back. Well, not for Andy Price.

If the image above looks weird, it is because Andy found the perfect way to defy gravity.

With a little fairy dust, a Whiskey bottle and some tubing, Andy DIYed his gravity defying device. Oh, yea, did we say this was not a composite?

Andy Explains: Click to continue ›

Lighting photography is not trivial. You have to wait in the rain, all drenched, setting one long exposure after the other, with the hope that one of open shutter intervals will catch a lighting strike. Well, there is an easier way.

Andras Schaeffer and Viktor Takacs came up with a clever way to capture lighting.

It does take a bit of electronics know how, and a bit of code (all available from Victor's site), but the result is a very intelligent lighting capturer. Think Ghost Busters and that pedal-box thingy. Click to continue ›

Photographer Benjamin Von Wong sent over a couple of vids showing how he shot Triggered Response, A rock band from Montreal.

To go with the rocky band, Ben and Eva Jinn Productions got them completely drenched and splashed. All while keeping both photography gear and band gear safe.

The video is divided into two parts: a behind the scenes which explains the thought and execution of the shoot itself and a quick Photoshop composite primer that explains how the images were combined. vids after the jump. Click to continue ›

If you've been around long enough to know what 8mm films are, good chances you have some family footage somewhere in the attic.

James Miller, Designer and Photographer based in the UK came up with a clever way of converting 8mm footage to "modern" video using a full frame Canon 5D mark II, an old projector, some LEDs, and a broken lens.

The video how-to on Vimeo shows highlights of the build process and the description provides more detailed info.

The real smarts here is projecting the movie directly onto the sensor without a mediating screen (or a bedsheet if you're a regular reader :)

[via petapixel via planet 5D] Click to continue ›

Is it cold and rainy where you are? I mean really cold and rainy. The kind that you don't wanna go out of the house. Here is a project that is both fun to make and play with.

It is a family flavored go fish. If you have small kids they will love you for it, and for the great family time you are going to have playing with it.

My little one had the Chicken Pox last week. She's all good now, but that was a week with almost all productivity coming to a halt, as taking care of a small kid who any wants to itch is a full time job. We did spend a considerable amount of time playing go fish. It is a card game with the goal of making four-of-a-kind-set. (The original game is played with a deck of poker playing cards, but they come with any subject imaginable).

Then My oh-so-clever daughter asked for a family go fish. Who am I to say no to a Chicken Pox stricken kid with a puppy eyes. Click to continue ›

Lying in bed one night reading a Photography eMag on my iPad I was drawn to a photography competition for a Picture in Picture. Instantly and idea shot into my head to use the iPad for a Picture in Picture photo where it appears as if the iPad screen is transparent. I decided that a shot of an apple on the kitchen table would keep the scene easy but also add a bit of reason.

The photo turned out well and after sharing it on Facebook one of my friends presented me with another challenge, to also include an iPhone in the photo giving it a third level. The iPad iPhone Picture in Picture was born.

I decided to make a self-portrait using the iPhone to display my eyes and the iPad to display the majority of my face (or as much of my big head as would fit). Click to continue ›