fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

 

Submit A Story

The Huawei’s P40 Pro anti-shake stabilisation could see the death of smartphone gimbals

by 4 Comments

Huawei announced the much anticipated P40 line of smartphones a couple of days ago. There’s the P40, the P40 Pro and the P40 Pro+. As usual, they contain “Leica” cameras and lenses which this time shoot 4K 60p video, 50-megapixel stills, ISO up to 51,200 and offer up to an insane 7,680fps for shooting slow-motion.

But what’s really impressive, as the above video posted by the YouTuber Mobiler shows, is its stabilisation. The P40 Pro features both optical image stabilisation as well as AI-powered image stabilisation and from watching the video, it looks like it might just make smartphone gimbals obsolete.

[Read More…]

How to make your own developer and fixer from the stuff you have in the kitchen

by 2 Comments

Last week, photographer Brendan Barry showed you how to turn your room into a camera obscura using only the stuff you can find at home. And if any of you decides to take analog photos with your “room camera,” you’ll need developer and fixer for the photographic film. Here’s some good news – you can also make these without leaving your home. In the video below, Brendan will show you how.

[Read More…]

This is my shoestring photography setup for image editing

by 2 Comments

Camera and lenses aren’t the only photographic essentials that cost money. A decent machine with plenty of RAM and fast storage (preferably SSD) and rather expensive serious photography software are must-haves, too.

That’s at least how the conventional photographic wisdom goes. It may be so if you are making a living with your photography. But you don’t have to throw your hard-earned money into the bottomless pit of photography, if you are willing to look away from “industry standards” and “de facto” tools.

[Read More…]

Thanks to the lockdown, the iconic zebra crossing from “Abbey Road” finally gets a fresh coat of paint

by Leave a Comment

Even if you’re not a fan of The Beatles, I doubt that you don’t know the image from the cover of their album Abbey Road. Both the album and its cover image are iconic, so the crosswalk has been attracting thousands of tourists. Due to the current lockdown, there are almost no people in the streets, so the famous zebra crossing is finally getting a fresh coat of paint.

[Read More…]

This is how Photoshop’s “Divide” blend mode works and how to use it to remove colour casts

by Leave a Comment

Photoshop has a whole bunch of different blend modes but knowing what they all do… Well, even many of the most advanced Photoshop users don’t know what they all do. That not knowing could be holding you back, though. And this video is a perfect example as to why.

I’ve been using Photoshop since about Version 3.0 (yes, I’m that old), but I don’t recall ever once using the “Divide” blending mode. After watching this video from Unmesh at PiXimperfect, though, I wish I’d started looking into it years ago. Unmesh starts by showing how it works in a practical sense, and then explains the underlying maths behind it to help you understand how it does what it does.

[Read More…]

Laowa is developing six new f/0.95 lenses for Sony FE – but the first won’t be here until 2021

by Leave a Comment

Laowa announced back in January that a new series of super-fast f/0.95 “Argus” lenses would be coming at some point, although there were no real clues as to what they might be. At first it was thought that they would be available for different mirrorless and DSLR systems, both full-frame and APS-C.

Fuji Addict suggested that the first might fall somewhere between 20-35mm. We still don’t know what the focal length might be, but now Sony Alpha Rumours reports that there will be six lenses coming for full-frame Sony E mount, although the first probably won’t be available until 2021.

[Read More…]

Apple is giving away three months of Final Cut Pro X for free

by Leave a Comment

The coronavirus has put around 1/3 of the world’s population in isolation, and many individuals and companies are trying to make it easier for everyone. So, after Adobe CC apps and whole Affinity suite, there’s now something for Mac users as well. Apple has extended the trial period of Final Cut Pro X, so you can now get three months of its video editing software for free.

[Read More…]

Draganfly is developing “Pandemic Drones” that can detect fever, coughing and other health aspects

by Leave a Comment

US drone manufacturer Draganfly has announced that they’re developing a drone system that can act as a “global early warning system” for signs of a pandemic. Its camera can detect signs of a fever, detect coughs and even breathing and heart rates through the use of deep learning AI.

You might not have heard of Draganfly, but they say that they’re the oldest commercial drone manufacturer in the world, with their first being sold in 1999. But they don’t make consumer drones like companies such as DJI. Their focus is more on the industrial, commercial and research sectors.

[Read More…]

How to shoot and stitch a Milky Way panorama in Lightroom

by 1 Comment

In this article, I will share how I shot a Milky Way panorama, and how I later stitched the images in Lightroom. But, first some background.

Last summer we spent our vacation in Tuscany, Italy. Spending almost a week on a wine farm in Italy didn’t create any standing ovations initially. Then it struck me that the Milky Way season had just started in southern Europe. Once this was established, I started envisioning how cool it would be to shoot the Milky Way core, and perhaps even a few panoramas. My only concern was light pollution. Would it be possible to capture what I envisioned at the location we stayed at, or would I have to spend hours in a car to find a decent spot?

It turned out that this small wine farm where we stayed, just outside Castellina in Chianti, was perfect. On our second evening, I headed out when it was dark enough for night photography.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts