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Frame Your Pictures To Smell Good

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It was this time of the year when my wife decided I need a new scent. It happens every now and then. This is a fundamental difference about the two of us. It takes me so long to get use to a new fragrance that I rarely want to make a switch. Wify, however, want a refreshing hubby twice a year, so fragrance shopping we go.

This year’s winner is Adventure By Davidoff. Not sure she liked the fragrance as much as she liked the fact that Ewan McGregor was on the cover sleeve of the box.

Good thing he was too. He reminded me of an exercise we used to do on my photo club. (Really, you don’t have to do it with Ewan McGregor, but it adds so much more fun to the exercise that you really don’t want any other model).

As you may have guessed from the title of this post this exercise is all about framing.

You will need a camera, and a cardboard box. Ewan McGregor is optional, but hard to resist.[Read More…]

Fencing For Background

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As many of you know, I moved to a new place a few months back. (And took down a ten ton wall when doing so). Now remember that story about Thomas Sawyer and the fence?

It starts as Tom got a punishment to whitewash his fence on Saturday. Bummer. However, Tom finds a clever way to both avoid the task and profit from it. He pretends that this whitewashing is so much fun that his friends want to take part in the mission. But our clever Tom, he charges his friends to whitewash the fence. How cool is that?

Anyhow, my story is kinda similar. I got the task from my wife, which is similar. But in my story none of friends paid me to build the fence and there’s a very nice dinner involved.

While putting is fence up is definitely DIY, you must be asking yourself what it has to do with photography. Find out after the jump.[Read More…]

Creative Gel Cheat Sheet + Giveaway

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After reviewing the Rosco Strobist gel collection, I just had to take it for an intense spin.

Since one of the main uses I see for this kit is the ability to color objects and backgrounds for creative effects, I did a little matrix of colors. (I am a computer geek, I know).

As with all the other cheat sheets on the site, I will go through the idea, the setup and end with a creative commons statement. Unlike the other cheat sheets, we are also going to have a Rosco Strobist gel collection giveaway. That stuff is near the end of the post.

[Read More…]

The DIY Photography Holiday Gift Guide

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This time of the year is gift time all around and it is not just gifts under the Christmas tree. There’s Hanukkah for and Eid El Adha and Ōmisoka and the list goes on.

Yep, it is gift time. I tried to make the list as frugal as possible, this is a DIY centric blog after all…

As for the image at the beginning of the post, I really didn’t want to put any specific holiday picture, so I am declaring my own holiday – the R2D2 day of glory, celebrated by geeks, me included, all over the world. It is a tradition of this holiday to buy photography related gifts.

[Read More…]

Photography: Real Fire Rocks / Photoshop Fire Sucks

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How did I manage not to burn the house down??

Well, first, my wife was not at home, LOL… and second, with the remote trigger in one hand, and an extinguisher in the other… just in case!! ;O))

This is what Filipe Batista had to say when I wondered how he took that shot. The extinguisher bit is enough to hint that no Photoshop was used to create the fire and as they say it the magic industry. Don’t worry, that fire is harmless. Unless you touch it.

Filipe was kind enough to share the secretes behind this fire spectacle with DIYP readers:

[Read More…]

Portrait Photography In The Eyes Of 5 Years Olds

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I had the honor and the pleasure to give a talk at my daughter’s kindergarten on Friday. We recently moved to a new place and once the kindergarten teacher heard I was a photographer, she asked me to come down and talk a bit with the kids about what I do.

Of course I said yes. I also offered to take some portraits of the kids and stuff – just for funzees. I asked the teacher to tell the kids to bring a favorite toy or set of clothes. It was amazing to hear what 5 year-olds think about photography and I am going to share some of this discussion here.

[Read More…]

Create Wonderful Worlds Using Soap Bubbles

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Mrs. H. should have known better than to push Steve Hermitage (Flickr) into doing the dishes.

What started out as an innocent dish washing exercise ended as a lab for shooting tiny worlds of soap, and revenge taken against a Tia Maria glass.

This is just too good of a project not to share. It is a ton of fun and the setup is very simple as Steve explains in his setup shot (after the jump).

[Read More…]

BMK – A Mystery Project (I Can Tell You, But Then I’ll Have To Kill You)

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Over the past year I’ve been involved with a great project – it is about to launch soon. If you are a regular reader here, you may recognize the effect.

We’re gonna launch in about two weeks, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, here are some sample shot that may (or may not) be related to this awesomeness.

Sorry for exposing those. I had no choice. They have my kids.

Hit the jump for some images. Stay tuned. More to come…

Visit this set for more bokeh secret images. Tag a Paw to send your love.

[Read More…]

Playing With Matches – A Burning Tutorial (A Photography Project)

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It might be just me, but I love fire. I did a little survey and 5 out of 5 photogs I checked with are little pyros too. Maybe it is part of the requirements of the trade. And maybe we’re all still small kids who get a buzz from a little fire.

This is why I decided to create a small startup guide for shooting matches – feel free to add/comment and improve. The more ideas we throw into this, the better this guide will be.

[Read More…]

3 Cool Photography Halloween Hacks

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Yea I know, Halloween is almost a month away, but if you’re gonna do something fancy, you’d better start preparing.

Here are three completely safe Halloween photography Hacks.

Between making your own pumpkin, cutting a hole in your body and bringing a full Paparazzi band to the party there is no way you’ll get tricked. But, you have to start preparing.

[Read More…]

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