DIY Archives - Page 130 of 138

The DIY Gorilla Pod

February 10, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

What do you get when you cross a Nine Cents Tripod with a Pocket Foldable Tripod? A DIY Gorilla Pod.

Reader Alan Muller came up with a great way to combine the two tripods into a new even-better-then-each-of-the-originals tripod, which is very similar to the well known Gorilla Pod.

On his example Alan uses a bottle flash holder, but this Gorilla pod will firmly hold a medium sized point and shoot.

Alan used number 10 wired to make the legs: twisted and then folded and twisted again. This gives the Tripod a firm set of legs.

The wired can then be wrapped with shrink-wrap (fancy) or electrical tape (Ghetto).

At the base of the bottle, Alan used an eye bolt instead of a cap nut (or machine screw) to allow the attachment of a safety line or bungee etc.

Another bolt of ingenuity (pan intended :) was to use washers to separate the tripod’s legs. Those give it stability and make some order in that messy area.

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Seven Stores for The DIY Photographer

January 31, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

About two weeks ago, I asked DIYP readers where are you getting their daily DIY supplies fix. I did this because some of the projects like the flash diffuser and the DIY backdrop had supplies that were not trivial to come across. Image by Alistair Craven

Happily for ~~everyone~~ US residents, it turns out you can get most of the stuff in the store next door or from the web (or in most cases, both). European DIY photography hackers will find it a bit more difficult. (The good news is that LightingMods has a great Euro Strobist list).

No doubt the big two winners were Lowes and Home Depot. It makes perfect sense that DIY lovers will feel right at home at a hardware/DIY store.

Read on for the rest of the list.

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When Color Temperature Does Not Need To Be Precise – Beaker!

January 28, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

Both the Strobist and Rui talk about the virtues of using gels on strobes to create atmosphere in a shot. Either cold blue or hot read. Uber photographer David Tejada uses gels on a regular basis to spice up his shots.

Reader Tony Bell has an interesting idea on color correction gels. Even though they are cheap and available, you can still beat the price, if you are going for Lomo style and Lomo level color accuracy.

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Spice Up Your Home Made Muslin Backdrop

January 26, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

DIYP reader, Jerry, made a great comment on the process of making a tie-dye muslin backdrop.

It appears that Jerry remembers those happy days from when Tie-Dye was in fashion, and hair was the best show you can catch on Broadway.

Jerry tells that back is those days Tie-Dye shirts were the thing to wear and making Tie-Dye shirts was a common art. (Well, Digital cameras were very expensive then – they cost was just about a time travel ticket plus 1000$).

To spice up the color of a fabric, Jerry spiced up the Tie-Dye process. After the dying process has finished, but before removing the cord and hanging out to dry, you place the fabric in a fixer container.

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The DIY Macro Rail

January 21, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by Ken Stewart, a real DIY pioneer. Having recently gotten into macro photography with a set of Raynox close-up lenses, I found myself wanting a macro focusing rail so I could smoothly and precisely vary the distance between my camera and the subject to get the focus right. A quick check of the web showed me that the cheapest Manfrotto slide I could find was $80 (plus tax and shipping, of course), but I figured I could do better with a little ingenuity, and an obligatory trip to Home Depot.

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A Turkey Pan Upgrade And Three Cheap Portrait Setups

January 18, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

WizWow and Just Fab have done it again. In this nice fun little video Don Giannatti shares three lighting techniques.

In this short video, Don Giannatti really packs in some stuff. The first setup is shows how to do a single strobe glamour portrait.

The second setup is an upgrade to the Three Dollar Beauty Dish by Just Fab (you may remember her from the Ghetto Studio post). Just Fab has gone from one time aluminum pans to more sturdy IKEA pans. Don also uses foam core and window sun shield (My guess is five more dollars to the setup).

The last setup is has another mode from a lightshere, an old reflector and some tissue.

It is mighty kind of Don Giannatti to share his unique lighting in this video. You can see the picture and some more explanations on lighting essentials.

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Where Do You Get Your Supplies Fix?

January 17, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

Nuts, Bolts, Dye, Polypropylene, Muslin, PVC. What do all those have in common? They are all supplies for one or more DIY Photography projects.

Some projects are very easy and you can get the stuff for them by digging through your drawers or junk cabinet (If you read this post, you must have one). Other projects require a trip to the store. But which store?

This post is about helping other photographer find what they are looking for and help you find what you are looking for.

The subject of common mails and comments that I receive is asking about where to get the materials for different projects.

Since I do not live in the United States, I don’t always know where to get some of the stuff. DIYP European readers share the same problem; some of the most available supplies in the US are nowhere to be found in Europe.

So, this is where this post comes to the rescue. In the table below, I am going to list some of the more popular projects and the materials that I get allot of questions about. I’d love it if you can help fellow photographers to find some of the stuff. Post the name of your favorite stores, web stores or links to where you get your DIY supplies.

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Pocket Wizard Mounting Device II

January 16, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

One of the things I like most on DIYP is the strong warm community that has build around it. It is more and more often that readers are sending ideas, hacks and modifications that far surpass any ideas that might be having on the late hours of the night.

Reader Joseph A. Sorrentino (flickr) gets the genius-of-the-week award for moding a cable-wrap into a pocket wizard mount device.

Joe has tested several options before going with the cheapest and easiest solution I have seen so far. Here are his thoughts and reasons for designing a whole new Pocket wizard mount from scratch. In my mind all the other alternatives are very good and offer some advantages, but Joe’s mount is the best of class. (Check them all for great mounting ideas.)

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Light up the Floor – A Floor Lit Table Top Studio Project Part Deux

January 12, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

After taking some shots with the Floor Lit Table Top Studio by Nick, It’s time to take it up a notch.

The previous article showed how to take great liquid product shots, though the set up can work for both liquids and solids.

In this part of the tutorial Nick will show a modification of the setup that allows you to add some color effects to the shot. If you like it, stop by Nick’s flickr stream and say “Hi”. In addition to showing your appreciation, you’ll get some great studio images and setup shots. Now for todays exiting twist:

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Light up the Floor – A Floor Lit Table Top Studio Project

January 11, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

I always keep my eye on the strobist flickr pool. It is one of the best places to get your lighting ideas. The other day, I saw a cool Corona shot there made by Nick Wheeler. Nick was so kind to share his lighting technique with DIYP readers. So, the following article is a guest post by Nick Wheeler, If you like this tutorial as much as I did stop by Nick’s flickr stream and say “Hi” (You’ll also get a nice dose of fine images).

Just recently, I became the proud owner of a new dining room table. Not a massively exciting announcement you might think (and you would be right), but what was getting me excited was the fact that it had a frosted glass top. While my significant other was wondering where to put it and what to do with the old table, I was thinking “I wonder what would happen if I stuck a flash underneath it?”

The answer at first was a little disappointing but after a while I was getting some pretty good results, particularly with bottles and containers of liquid. I was finding that with light coming from underneath it was helping light up the liquid and giving it a nice glow. The only problem I was having was the table top itself. The glass was dimpled, not smooth, and while that gave a nice effect, it was not ideal for every shot. The answer of course was a spot of DIY!