DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

 

Submit A Story

Stop shooting the same shot over and over again

by 7 Comments

Today we’re going to talk about letting go of your zoom ring, moving your feet and dealing with a habit a lot of us have, me included, the habit of shooting the same safe shot over and over again.

I realize I’m generalizing here, but most photographers have “safe shots”, shots they know how to pull off 10 out of 10 times, shots they know will please the client and shots that will put money in the bank. Now let me be very clear from the get go, this is a good thing. I know that a specific light set up, a specific vibe at the shoot and a specific way of asking questions and talking to the client will get me a specific kind of portrait, that makes people happy. I’m so dang happy that I have those set ups ready to go, because a bunch of times those shots are exactly what the client want, and other times when my head just isn’t working and I’m not feeling it, I can use those setups to make a shoot work. What I don’t like is that I have at various points, and I assume I’ll get there again, been stuck in only shooting these safe shots. It is an easy place to get stuck because you know the shots work, and you know you aren’t risking messing the shoot up. But if you get stuck there, you stop developing your vision, and that is a really bad thing. So, without more intro-ado, let’s get to the point of the thing, stuff that I know have helped me a truckload with getting out of the safe-shot-rut.[Read More…]

Benjamin Von Wong Goes Against Cheapo P&S. Makes It Shoot Beautiful Fire Bursts

by 1 Comment

When we feature Photographer Benjamin Von Wong it is usually when he aces a photoshoot. And usually he uses all sorts of fancy gear to take the shot. From underwater lights to super slo-mo cameras. But when Ben met Kai from DigitalRev he was thrown into the cold water and given an epicly cheap Point & Shoot to create an Epic fire lit portrait.

There were quite a few challenges that Ben went through and conquered and I thought it was worth doing a minute by minute break down of the video with regards to those challenges.[Read More…]

Morning Coffee with an Instagram Wedding Photographer

by 42 Comments

I’m not entirely sure, but it is quite possible that I witnessed a sign of the rapidly approaching Apocalypse this morning. There was no plague of locusts descending from the heavens. No fire. No brimstone. The earth continued rotating on its axis just fine. I’m sure nobody else even noticed. Regardless of its subtlety, it still came at me out of nowhere like a brick to the side of the head.

[Read More…]

5 Free (and 1 Almost Free) Photoshop Alternatives

by 33 Comments

I don’t think there’s a whole lot of debate over the premise that Photoshop has become the gold standard in photo editing software. I’m pretty sure that my earliest use of Photoshop goes back to Version 3 or 4. Now deeply entrenched in CS6, I’ve decided to sit tight for a while. If I actually stopped to think about the relatively small percentage of PS’s full functionality that I actually use on a daily basis, I might also have to stop and ponder why I’m not still using an earlier version. Features have obviously evolved over Photoshop’s lifetime, but much of my workflow remains the same. So, in the absence of some huge development that I just can’t ignore, PSCS6 and I are doing just fine together for the time being. Also, while I see the potential benefits of The Cloud– immediate updates, etc.– there’s still a part of me that remains more than just a little pissed off about the new subscription format. There seems to be a new deal every time I turn around, and nobody seems capable of giving me a straight answer to the question of how much it costs when the discount period comes to an end.

It would seem that I’m not alone.

[Read More…]

How I Offended the World’s Most Popular Photographer

by 44 Comments

The advent of the Internet was a momentous occasion, one which afforded me a litany of new ways to continue doing what I have always done best but now with a much larger audience — open my mouth and say things I probably shouldn’t. I know, shocker. Consider yourself a gem from Heaven if you are unable to testify to having done it at least once. Go ahead, cast the first stone.

As an aspiring photographer, like many artists, I had a tendency to find masters of inspiration and just latch onto them for all I was worth. I would follow their work, I would follow their lives, I would live vicariously through their utter awesomeness. But, as anyone who has idolized anyone can tell you, eventually your idols let you down, sometimes through no intentional fault of their own.

[Read More…]

These Tapestries Are Actually Photos Taken On Woven Film

by 1 Comment

South Korean photographer Seung Hoon Park creates art which I am not really sure how to catalog. While it is definitely photography (and magnificent one indeed), the medium is somewhat… unorthodox.

Seung uses big sheets of interwoven film strips as a medium to expose light onto. In an (understandably) secret process, Seung weave rolls of 8mm and 16mm film into tapestries that are then fed into an 8×10 camera. I am assuming that this entire process is done in total darkness. Seung then travels the world and takes photos of monuments and scenery. The results are stunning to match the effort.[Read More…]

Photos Of A Giant Square Floating In Various Locations

by 3 Comments

Most people when face with a giant square floating in mid space would probably call the Men In Black. Not Benoit Paillé. Canadian photographer Benoit actually creates those weird installations and takes their picture.

Each photo consists of a 1×1 meters big, 300 LEDs panel secretly suspended using fishing wires, and is the only artificial light illuminating the scene. [Read More…]

Boobies & Privates – Should Your Children View Nude Photography Art [NSFW]

by 11 Comments

After reading the title, I am certain you have already formulated an opinion, not only of the subject matter, but of me as the writer. Which is cool. Honestly.

I was raised in a fairly religious home in rural Appalachia. Nothing special, just your typical home where television, carnivals, jewelry, and Sunday afternoon bike rides were sins; where “gosh” and “darn” were considered egregious profanity; and where being rebellious constituted listening to the Rich Mullins or parting your hair on the opposite side (essentially).

The fact that we were sent to a small, private school that taught nearly-identical doctrines didn’t help much, either. In school, topics such as sex, nudity, and human biology were often regarded as evil and frequently accompanied by threats of Hell fires and eternal damnation. To give a little perspective, our tenth-grade biology teacher skipped over the chapters discussing the scientific principles of human reproduction because it was too graphic of a subject for us to discuss in an open forum.[Read More…]

Recent Posts