DIYPhotography.net

I got an interesting mail from Alaa Abi Haidar (facebook) today, it tell a short story of a stolen footage and suggests an interesting solution on watermarking videos using shaped bokeh.

Here is the story:

"The clip below was an experimental attempt to automatically watermark clips and stills after one of my fashion clips was edited and broadcasted by one of the commercial regional TV channels in France without my consent and without any credit.

In fact the credit was cut off the original clip. However, for the time being, I prefer not to disclose any information about the TV and the people involved in the process.

Click to continue ›

The folks at the Slanted Lens decided to Get a bit DIYish this weekend and came up with a PVC DIY shoulder rig.

It's a bit different from the designs they are floating around the web and the entire build is about 10$. Basically it's a bunch of PVC parts, a 1/4-20 screw and some optional electrical tape. It looks pretty nice, thought the angle on the shoulder looks a bit weird. Click to continue ›

shooting scenes through windows of moving cars is not a trivial thing. While shooting scenes through a car-window can be done with a green screen, film maker Tom Antos shows another way of doing this without getting a car in a studio. Tom builds a simple rig that can be attached to a car door, and hold a camera.

While the rig is pretty simple to build, it is kinda scary to add acting to the many tasks you face as a driver (or to add driving to the many tasks you face as an actor). Click to continue ›

Andy Pearson wanted to introduce some sliding motion into his Parkour time-lapse footage with Parkour Generations. He already had a Varavon slider and only needed a way to consistently and remotely move the camera on the slider. (So the drill trick ain't gonna work).

Andy took a different direction, using the output of an intervalometer to control the starting and stopping of the slider. While the video quality is not all that great, it packs a huge amount of info on building this type of motion control.

Andy was kind enough to allow us to place the video and tutorial on DIYP. If you have any questions, hit the comments. Click to continue ›

Most of you know that I love sliders and that using a slider in a video shoot is a great way to get more value in your video production.

This next slider from pixelriffic is not the fanciest slider, but it is the kind of slider that you can build for about $20, a trip to home depot and one hour of work. It has no moving parts, and everything about it is off the shelf parts (even the felt is precut).

Definitely something to keep in mind if you get stuck without a slider in a parking lot next to a home depot and only have 1 hour till the shoot starts. Click to continue ›

maker Jacques Productions is a master of building things that a remote controlled. In this video he shares his remote controlled table dolly. The basic ingredients are a receiver unit, a servo, a LiPo battery and a roller-skate.

The thing that surprised me was how smooth the camera movement is. Jacques is actually using the trim function on the remote to get very subtle movement.

Click to continue ›

After posting that last DIY Jib Video we had some complains about the fact that there are better, more functional and easier builds to make.

While we shared some easier/cheaper jibs in the past, we thought that this was more of a full blown job and was worth a share.

Reader Rick pointed out that The Frugal Filmmaker has one of the best DIY crane/jib tutorials out there called the Frugal Crane 2.0. Unlike most DIY jibs it only uses 1 rod. So leveling and control is achieved with a garage door pulley and vinyl coated line. Click to continue ›

THe good folks over at Film Riot have had this up for a while, and it went under the radar. With my recent obsession to jibs I stumbled upon it and thought it was worth sharing.

I love the idea of using a lazy Susan for smooth tilt movement and the fact that it is a huge and sturdy jib with a long motion range. And that it is black.

It seems that it is can take a bit more weight from previous Homedepot jibs we shared, and the cost matches. About $100 instead of the smaller $20 jibs. Click to continue ›

I've been shooting still for quite a long time now, about 18 years. But videos are really new to me. And it turns out that there is a learning curve. While I feel pretty confident about composition, exposure and stuff like this, some aspects are completely new to me.

Being on a shoot a few days ago, I learned a few tips the hard way. Weirdly enough, they all have to more with audio, and the Zoom H1 in specific, than with video. Click to continue ›

Awake in the Woods is a short film by Chad Bredahl. The first thing that I noticed is the extensive use of jib shots. I love jib shots (and jibs), as they are an interesting way to add movement when you tell a story.

Chad made his jib, dubbed the KrotoCrane, at minimal cost - about $20 including the fuel to get to Home Depot. And the results are pretty impressive.

Here is the best part: Chad, being the nice guy that he is, made a couple of videos showing both how to build the KrotoCrane and how to use it we share them right after the jump. Click to continue ›