Posts by Author: John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Crash drones as much as you like with Microsoft’s new real world simulator
Feb 17, 2017
John Aldred
There’s been quite a lot of drone fails recently. And no, I’m not talking about GoPro Karmas falling out of the sky. I’m referring to…
How to reduce noise in your photos with no 3rd party plugins in Lightroom and Camera Raw
Feb 17, 2017
John Aldred
There’s plenty of great applications and plugins out there that will help you reduce noise in your images. Some are standalone apps while others are plugins….
Build your own DIY Kino Flo style lights with incandescent bulbs
Feb 16, 2017
John Aldred
There is no doubt that Kino Flo produce some very good lights. But they’re not exactly easy on the wallet. Sure, you can go out…
How to use gridded strip softboxes as your main light source
Feb 16, 2017
John Aldred
When it comes to setting up flash for a portrait, one might usually grab a big octabox or beauty dish. Normally, we wouldn’t consider something…
Build your own 3D printed DIY LED ringlight for your smartphone
Feb 16, 2017
John Aldred
The problem with mobile phones is that if you need lights, you’ve usually got two options. The first is to simply deal with the underpowered,…
How to make a DIY DSLR mount for your microscope
Feb 15, 2017
John Aldred
Looking through microscopes was something that always fascinated me as a kid. It attracted me for the same reasons things like timelapse and ultra slow…
How to get lab quality film scans at home using wet mounts
Feb 15, 2017
John Aldred
One of the trickier aspects of shooting film is being able to share your work. If you have a lab develop your film, you can…
How to shoot great portraits with flash in a tiny space
Feb 15, 2017
John Aldred
We all get short on space sometimes. Perhaps you’re just starting out and don’t have a huge area to shoot in. Maybe you’ve been asked…
How to use complementary backgrounds to make subjects pop
Feb 14, 2017
John Aldred
In the studio, making your subjects stand out from their background is relatively straightforward. Because you have control over everything. You choose what goes behind…
7 tricks and tips to let you get the most out of your smartphone photography
Feb 14, 2017
John Aldred
I use my phone’s camera far more than I would have ever expected a few years ago. Sure, they never really compete with large sensor…