DIYPhotography.net

It is not really possible to defy the inverse square law. I know I tried and failed miserably. But you can stretch it.

A better beamer is a device that does just that, it extend the distance the light from your strobe travels. So while the inverse square law is still in effect, it stretches over a greater distance.

Physics bla-bla aside, it means that light coming from your strobe will go further. Some strobes, like the SB900 has an impressive zoom functions that does just that.

Flickr used lonelyhome contrapted a poorman's better beamer using a cheapo Fresnel lens (around $1) and some plastic (I assume cardboard will do too).

The picture is really self explanatory. Click to continue ›

UK based photographer Ian Cornwell needed to take some pictures from the outside of a driving car for a an emergency plumbing service.

it sounds simple, till you factor in the low angle and wide lens. This makes sticking your head out the window and leaning over a really bad options.

It's time for a car rig.

Instead of going for one of the high end car rigs, or even our DIYP's poorman's rig, Ian came up with a clever concept involving three pieces of gear: an industrial suction cup; a super clamp and a ball head. Click to continue ›

Lagging lightstands is a bummer. They don't fit in the bag. They are hard and pointy, and in general they create traction. Lots of traction. If you are just going Bazooka with one stand this is OK. But if you have to carry a few of them... Darn!.

Photographer Peter Miesch was dealing with the same issue and came up with a wonderful lightstand carrying system bag much like the Standbagger that puts an end to the photographer's assistant misery. Of course, if you are like me and you are your own assistant, than the solution is even more wonderful. This project requires some sewing skills, so if words like zigzag stitch and bobbin make you go AUH? ask your grandma for help. Click to continue ›

Photographer Matt Kenney came up with quite a clever way to provide external power to his battery operated strobe (Canon 430EXII).

Instead of building a specialized case with a dedicated battery, or drilling a power socket into the flash, Matt went for the shelf product and used one of them $6, 6V flash lights (about a dollar a volt). I always prefer off the shelf products to making something new, always. Matt then went ahead and equipped it with a 6V rechargeable battery, and a charging jack.

On the strobe side, Matt used wooden batteries to allow the power to flow. IT get a recycle time of 1.2 seconds for full pop (holdya'rhorses SB900 users, it will heat up soon enough).

Matt was kind enough to allow me to share his picture tutorial on DIYP Click to continue ›

The post below shows a simple way to capture video while taking still pictures. Sure, there is some added weight and yea, video will not get a dedicated person and will just "follow along", yet, this is a neat way to achieve video with just one person shooting, This is also a great instructional tool for yourself to see how you interact with your model, what things work and what makes them shrink.

There are two versions for this mod - a dueler which mounts a DSLR with a video camera and a 9Shooter that also has sound attached. From now on it is all Elliot McGucken. Click to continue ›

In this post, Kevin A Crider will show you how to make a DIY Hard Camera Case the size of a suitcase. And yes, you can get a pro, feature rich version for $800, but if you walk to the closest garage sale, you can make a camera hard case for $5 and the price of the foam.

All this project requires is a suitcase that opens in the middle and a sheet of foam. You may use any suit case, but the ones that open in the middle allows us to store equipment on both sides. Click to continue ›

Finally I got around to making a little change on my GI Radio Slave Transmitter set (those are also known as GI Triggers or Poverty Wizards).

I love the triggers dearly, and while there pop rate is not good enough to play Russian Roulette with, it is good enough for most of my usage.

One thing that has been bothering me for ages is the short rage of those triggers. While they work well indoors, they tend to be a little limiting once stepping outside. I looked around and found some great tuts (including a camo one) about extending the GI range. This post will describe how I did it (kinda quick and dirty).

Click to continue ›

I know it sounds like an oxymoron, however, this is one of the best examples of hack'n mod beating the cr*p out of store bought solutions.

Canberra Australia based photographer Jamie Carl, rigged together a great system that will wireless your USB setup (can you use wireless as a verb? not sure). This is so trivial that it just shouts, Why didn't I do this before.

Jamie says this setup helped hum nail a difficult car-rigged setup where he did not know how fast the car will be going, and as a result did not know what shutter speed to use for good motion blur on the road, but no camera blur on the car. Using a wireless USB Carl was able to sit shotgun and adjust the settings on the go. Click to continue ›

Finally, the Bokeh Masters Kit gets mod. I could not be more proud.

It is a simple mode, a modal'e. Yet DIYP's kit is now a proud member of the modifiable products family. Kudos to Guy Tismansky for submitting it. If you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about and see this kit introduction post.

The mod is simple and really takes only 30 seconds to complete, once done it will allow you to easily carry your bokeh discs by attaching the discs wallet to the camera strap. If you already have a kit, simply follow the instructions below. [The image above was taken by Marco_Parc using the bokeh masters kit] Click to continue ›

Weapon stores are a cool place for photogs to hang out in, not necessarily because photographers use firearms (though we are constantly treated as terrorists), but because photogs share some of the same concerns of hunters.

Readers Michael Page just spotted that bullet cases or ("Ammo" boxes) can be used to store batteries on long trips where you have no chargers. Or when you need lots of batteries to stay dry.

Click to continue ›