Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Spirals, I could talk for hours on end about what they are, their geometrical qualities, or the fact that earth will die without their existence.
But that would be long and boring. Instead, I am going to describe is how to make them. Photographically, that is.
If you thought that light painting is fun, wait to discover, light painting and geometry, it’s even more fun![Read More…]
Jay P. Morgan over at F-stoppers just posted a great video tut showing how to make rain. It is a lot simpler that what I thought. And all it takes is fan head sprayer (like the one from your back yard).
I checked on Amazon, they go as low as $7.30.
This 3:51 video is packed with lighting tips. Aside telling how to light rain, it discusses light placement, modifiers motivation and ambient control. All with examples. For me it just felt like a workshop squeezed into half a coffee break.
RSS folks, click here to watch the video.
J. P. Morgan‘s How To Make A Rain Machine For Video Or Stills via fstoppers.[Read More…]
The idea behind this cheat sheet is simple – it features three settings of strip light.
Those should help you pre-visualize the use of strip lights as part of your lighting setup.
I began working with strip lights not that long ago and I really love them. having a light source that is hard on one axis and soft on the other is a very interesting tool to work with. Not so easy to pre-visualize though, hence the card.[Read More…]
OK, anyone with less than four cables sticking out of their computer USB ports raise your hand? It’s a mess, right?
This little trick comes to bring order where cable chaos once ruled.
Thanks to the aid of Metal Binder Clips. yea, the ones you used to hand Dire Straits posters when you were young. Wait, you did not hang Dire Straits posters? am… well….. hit the jump then.
The idea is simple, cables make a mess, cuz they don’t know where to go. We are going to tell them.
A stack of metal binder clips is the perfect accessory to let each cable know where to go (and where not to go). The pictures is kinda self explanatory. (and iPhone cable, my cards readers cable, the mic and USB cam.
I also use those to direct/mount my set of skype headphones.
When I saw Phil’s Pet on Flickr (on the left. Click for a bigger view) I knew I just had to learn how it was taken. Gladly for us, Trevor agreed to share the setup and production process of this wonderful light painting.
It came as no surprise that this photograph is a very integrative effort. Integrative in the sense that it takes lots of techniques and puts them into one creative vision.
P.S. no birds were harmed during the production.[Read More…]
It would be very pretentious of me to declare that looking at the photographs and diagrams below will teach you how to light. That said, looking at the photographs and setups and trying to understand the motivation behind the lighting will give you a good start when dealing with similar lighting dilemmas.
You can always come back to this post to see how a particular image was lit to make a similar setup or to use it as a stepping stone for your own.[Read More…]
UPDATE: I’ve been taking quite a bash in the comments for not checking the card prior to formatting. Of course you should always check your card. but the idea here is to know which card is empty (or formatted) before putting it in the camera.
Is this CF card filled yet? I remember using a CF card and then placing it backwards in my pocket. but I am not sure it was this card…. I’ll just format it and hope it did not have the engagement session pics…
OK, this is probably not the way you want to tell your used cards from your empty ones. There are many ways to remember if a CF card or a battery are used. You can use different pockets for empty and full; You can place them in different cases; You can put the batteries in different orientation if they are empty; you can use rubber bands, or…..[Read More…]
Boy! Is this the most efficient way to do this? Heck no. But we know that you killed your computer for the DVD lens, so here is a good use for its leftovers.
If you have any camera that uses the 3 pin N3 shutter release socket, then here is a step by step guide to creating a cheap (if not free) basic shutter release for camera’s like the 30D, 5D, 7D, etc.
Technically, nothing bad can happen from accidentally shorting out the wrong pins in the N3 socket, but still, I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur from anyone making use of this information.[Read More…]
One of the more interesting methods used in lightpainting is Light Stencils. We featured a written tutorial for light stencils a while back, and thought a video tut will help to better understand how to make the stencils “box”.
“Surprisingly”, the design is very similar to a DIY softbox, after all both are used to make the light come out from a front screen.
Lighting painting artist group fiz-iks just released their video tut on how to make those boxes, and an eighties inspired movie which demonstrates the power of those boxes. Both after the jump.[Read More…]
DIYP has covered shaped bokeh from any possible angle, this is why I was surprised to see that we actually never did a tutorial on converting a lens cap into a bokeh holder. To rectify this, Nadine Spires shares how to easily make a holder like this.
The idea came from Pompo, where the author used a lens cap to make a rectangular Bokeh shape.
I wanted something that was easy to set up and didn’t interfere with the zoom mechanism of my lens, the natural choice was a lens cap. [Read More…]
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