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How to build a full YouTube studio on a single light stand

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One of the big excuses I hear for people who want to do YouTube but don’t is that they don’t have the room. There’s just not enough space where they live to be able to set up lights and cameras and microphones and everything else. Well, Caleb Pike to the rescue!

In this video, Caleb shows us how we can create a complete recording setup for YouTube which includes the camera, light, microphone and other doohickies on just a single light stand in order to be able to shoot whenever we want, wherever we want, and have it take up as little space as possible.

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How to make a cheap DIY bullet time rig with a lazy susan and some drawer slides

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It’s 20 years since The Matrix was released (don’t you feel old?), but the bullet time effect is still incredibly popular. I don’t know what the deal is with the title they gave for this video, but The King of Random just put up this video covering how they made their bullet time slow motion camera rig using a handful of off-the-shelf components. It’s a simple design, but very effective, producing some fantastic final results.

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This wooden DIY camera rig is about as frugal as it gets

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When push comes to shove, the kinds of DIY solutions people come up with to solve photography and filmmaking problems really can be amazing. Take camera rigs, for example. DSLRs aren’t exactly the most ergonomic of devices when it comes to shooting video. But camera rigs can be very expensive, even relatively modest ones. So what can you do?

For Ghana-based filmmaker Abass Safian, the answer was obvious. Make his own. And that’s exactly what he did with a few pieces of wood, some basic tools, and a little time. It’s a great looking DIY rig and probably does the job as well as some of the commercial options.

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Use a light stand with a boom arm to make an easy overhead camera rig

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There are so many different ways to mount a camera for overhead shots. But it always surprises me both how many people don’t know how they can do it, and whenever a video shows another method. We’ve posted about plenty of DIY options in the past for building fancy rigs, but this one utilises gear you probably already have.

Peter McKinnon’s recent video taking apart his Canon 1DX Mark II required an overhead shot. He wanted to be able to show the camera what he could see while he was doing it. So, he came up with this solution. All you need is a light stand, a boom arm, and a ball head.

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New GorillaPod “octopus” lets you mount all you need for “pro smartphone videos”

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GorillaPod has a new member of their family of flexible tripods. JOBY has announced GorillaPod Mobile Rig, aimed particularly at smartphone filmmakers. This rig has the same flexible design, but with an extra pair of “arms” in addition to the three legs. So, it lets you mount the additional accessories for a better smartphone video or vlog.

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This custom DIY shoulder rig will turn your camera into a video making monster for $200

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If you shoot video with DSLR or mirrorless cameras and you want to get serious, you really should consider a shoulder rig. They basically turn your camera from being Bruce Banner into The Hulk. You get so much more stability, capability and control. They’re more versatile and dynamic than a tripod or even a monopod. But they’re also often expensive.

Filmmaker, Tom Antos put together his own DIY rig to turn his Sony A6500 into the perfect shoulder mounted camera. As well as giving you the steadiness and manoeuvrability of a much larger camera,  they also help to overcome the shortcomings of smaller DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Like, decent quality audio, lighting, larger screens and battery life.

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Watch: How to build the ultimate selfie stick

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Selfie sticks are so 2014. And because of this, Ted Forbes has created the ultimate selfie stick for all the super-narcissistic souls out there. He named it Stork Mach 1, and it’s made for taking photos, video and live-streaming. In light or dark, in any climate, you can point that camera towards you and click. Now that’s a selfie stick!

Of course, this whole concept is a result of a joke. He created this ultimate selfie-stick as a “sister” to his smaller rig Sparrow M1. However, you can still get something useful out of this video and learn how to build a rig for mobile photography and videography.

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Build your own custom vlogging rig to fit any camera setup

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Vlogging has seen a massive boom over the last couple of years. But, there still aren’t really any perfect options out there when it comes to the gear used and how to set it up. Everything seems to have a compromise. You get touch screen, but no 4K. 4K but no touch screen. Or you get both, but the AF can’t keep up. Or you get everything you want, but you can’t see the camera’s LCD and have no idea how your framing is.

There’s all kinds of different workarounds out there to make life a little easier. Some options, though, aren’t quite as versatile as others. Switching from a mounted camera to handheld (or vice versa) can be a pain. In this video from DSLR Video Shooter, Caleb Pike shows us how to build out own vlogging rig that can be easily adapted to almost any setup.

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How to build your own overhead camera rig

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Whether on Youtube or elsewhere, we’ve all seen the overhead camera shot. While it might seem fairly straightforward, the process is actually quite a doozy to set up, especially if you want to ensure you have proper and even lighting.

Thankfully, for anyone wanting to build their own, Caleb Pike from DSLR Video Shooter has released a video showing how he built his overhead camera rig for shooting hands-on and other product shots.[Read More…]

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