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Hey Westcott, Here’s a Great Way To Tilt The Apollo

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The Westcott Apollo is one of my favorite light modifiers. You’ve seen it featured a ton of times on DIYP. It’s one of the more bought items on the Gear Guide, and we like it so much that we even gave one away a while back.

If you wanna see it in action, check out how Benjamin Von Wong pushed it to the edge with fireworks (or a more traditional shoot by Zack Arias).

Anyhow, the unique softbox-like light with the umbrella ease and strobe-friendliness makes it a great tool to have in your on location lighting box (or bass case).

There is only one small thing which is not perfect about the Apollos, they don’t tilt. Really. If you are shooting with an Apollo on a light stand, you are pretty much limited to having the box point forward or sideways. It is not trivial to have it look 45 degrees down.

Basically, the Apollo gives you two options: Great light, with the strobe very close to the back screen, and almost no tilt. OR, you move the strobe closer to the shaft base (the zipper on the bottom of the Apollo allows this) to tilt, but then you risk hot spots.[Read More…]

Use A Toilet Flange For Elevated Video While Kayaking

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If you ever went Kayaking, you know how hard it is to get a good shot or a video of the trip. You can always hand hold the camera, but it would be very hard to stabilize and will of course take one hand away from the paddle.

One of the high end ways to overcome this lack of free hand is to use a GoPro Helmet Hero, but this will set you back 300$.

Another more frugal way is to use a toilet flange as photographer and kayak paddler Jeremy Richter explains in the post below.[Read More…]

Fully Automated Lego Pinhole Camera

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We’ve our share of Lego cameras before, but I think this is the first time DIYP features a fully automated Lego made pinhole camera.

Lego Enthusiast Bshikin build a camera from Lego parts and added quite a bit of automation using Lego Mindstorms (Lego for building machines). And the code is available via Google Code.

The Camera features include automated exposure meter, automated shutter and mechanical film advance. The Pretty nifty for a few Lego bricks.

[Read More…]

Five Tips On Balancing Photography And Family Trips

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Have you ever gone on a family trip expecting to take great pictures only to discover that the camera either stayed in the bag or that you’ll be sleeping outside the tent with the bears?

Or let me put this differently when you are a photographer going on a trip with the family can be a super cool experience. It can also be a nerve wrecking adventure both for you and your family if not handled correctly.

Here is what I have learned after years of traveling with both my family and my camera. Would love to hear your tips on the comments.[Read More…]

It Takes A Big Camera To Photograph A Big Space Rocket

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If you had a chance to shoot one of America great modern wonders, the Saturn V Rocket, what camera would you use. I mean, that is some respected rocket, being the one that landed me on the moon.

Our pal Destin (whom you may recall as the guy who shoots matches) met with Darren Samuelson, the maker of the Great Big Camera, at the US Space and Rocket Center to shoot the Saturn V with one of the biggest cameras I know.

The camera weighs about 70 pounds and takes in film sheets which are 504 sq inch big. This much films should allow it to photograph a huge amount of details.

The last thing that got my attention was the amount of time spent on measurements, with today’s digital meters, metering is becoming more rare, but I guess that if you are going to expose 504 sq inches, develop and then print it, you wanna make sure you are on the dot.

[Read More…]

Use Your Old Camera As A Desk Lamp

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UPDATE: as promised, here comes the tutorial.

Kirsty from kootoyoo came up with a nifty concept for camera that works backwards. Instead of taking light in, this camera spews light out, making it a tripod mounted desk lamp.

This is pretty much in line with today’s concept of reusing old film cameras as light sources :)

Kirtsy is going to post a tutorial on how to make on of those in the following week, so stay tuned. (Or if you can’t wait you can try soliciting her to selling you one. I hear she loves coffee)[Read More…]

Convert Your Old Camera To A Backdrop Projector In 10 Easy Steps

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If you own one of them 90’s film cameras and stopped using it because digital is so hip right now, you’re gonna dust it off once you’re done reading this tutorial.

In this tutorial photographer Richard Hill is going to explain how to convert your old film camera combined with a strobe into a background generator (which pros also like to call Cookie Projector or a gobo projector).

We featured a strobe based background generator before, which was based on a box and Fresnel lenses. This time around the shades can be way more delicate. Here comes Richard:[Read More…]

Making A Non Destructible, Mobile, Power Efficient, Waterproof Kino Flo System

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Indie films are a never-dry tap of production creativity. And gear not an exception in that regards. In most cases Indie films don’t have the huge budget of Hollywood productions so you think twice before making a call and ordering 1/2 a ton of light.

The Underwater Realm is no different in that regard. In fact it is ground breaking. The movie is set entirely under water which required water proofing and submersing any light, power or camera used.

They are also ground breaking in the fact that they are sharing their production in a weekly video blog. If you are a bit of a maker or a starting away videographer, you’ll get completely sucked in.

This week’s edition is all about creating a submersible Kino Flo. Kino Flo is a light a bit like florescent, only stronger, light balanced and completely flickerless. On the other hand, it is fragile, expensive, and most importantly, it does not like water.[Read More…]

Create A Non-Existing Man Via Light Painting [Not For The Faint Of Heart]

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We have shown screen doing 3D extrusion before using both iPads and iPhones, but this is the first time we are featuring a tutorial that uses a 30″ monitor.

Photographer Zeke Adam (Flickr) agreed to share the secrets behind his non-existing man series, which basically light paints a non existing man. Duh… While Zeke uses high end software like 3D Studio Max and Cinema 4D, similar results can be achieved with free software (like Blender, which we featured before). Some of the steps are too complex to include in this tutorial, but we will refer you to the relevant places to learn or download shortcuts.

It’s all Zeke from now.[Read More…]

Just Can’t Get Enough Shaped Bokeh

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I just love those little nuggets of fun.

While I am not the Black Eyed Peas biggest fan (my daughter is, you should here her scream Pump-it! from the top of her lungs) , it is always a nice surprise to see a shaped bokeh featured in a big, hot-shot video.

After last year’s Shaped Bokeh appearance in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World which for me marked the beginning of this technique being adopted by serious cinematographers, comes Just Can’t Get Enough by The Black Eyed Peas. The video was shot just one week before the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the clip encourages donating towards Japan’s relief efforts.

Watch for second 54. Full of lovely bokeh hearts. If you are shooting DSLR it is very easy to create that effect using an Exacto knife, or using DIYP’s Bokeh Masters Kit. (The video starts 5 seconds before the effect shows).

Switchup.

Switchup![Read More…]

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