As we all know, photo gear is pretty expensive. And if you suffer from the so-called Gear Acquisition Syndrome, you’ve probably spent tons of money on gear so far. But, there are some clever ways to buy the gear you want but at significantly lower prices. In this video, Miguel Quiles gives you five clever tricks that will help you save thousands of dollars both on new and used gear.
Make a DIY smartphone slider with a toy car and some household items
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If you want to take slider shots with your smartphone, there are a few DIY options you can make. But in this video, COOPH teaches you how to make an interesting automated DIY slider on a super-low budget. You’ll need a wooden toy car, a kitchen timer, a few household items and only a little bit of time.
Here is a strobe you can buy for $20
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Yes, you read that well – you can buy a speedlight on Amazon for $20. Well, $20.99 to be exact. It’s a third-party flash from a company named Samtian, and you can get it at this price while the deal lasts. It should work with different camera brands: Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus, and Pentax.
Use these $15 LED lights to add a rainbow of color to your shots
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If you’re looking for a super-cheap RGB setup for your photos and videos, here’s an interesting video for you. Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter has found a set of DJ lights for only $15 per piece. They produce a wide range of colors, they’re dimmable and you can also use a controller to set the colors and the brightness. Check out the video to see them in action.
Cheap DIY Photography Gear From the Dollar Store
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I’m generally not a big fan of cheap Chinese crap, but there are occasionally exceptions – especially when it involves re-purposing and adapting inexpensive consumer items for photography.
In this article, I will share a selection of twenty one items ranging from $1 to $4 that I have found at my local Dollar Store that I have used for photography.
Four DIY lighting setups to help lighting a scene for under $150
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Along with buying camera gear, investing in lighting can cost you a lot of money. If you’re just starting out, it can all be a bit too much for your budget to handle. Jay P. Morgan has some budget DIY solutions for creating 3-point lighting setups. He suggests four setups that you can construct yourself on the cheap. Nothing should cost you more than $150.
Photographer: 1, Cheap wedding dress: 0
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If you want a wedding dress that will look magical both on you and in the wedding photos, it can cost a fortune. But, photographer Keow Wee Loong is on a mission to prove that even a cheap wedding dress can look amazing if the photographer can make it that way. So, he bought two cheapest wedding dresses I’ve ever heard of and spent only $20. He took some shots to prove his theory and kindly shared them with DIYP, so you can see the results for yourself.
Would You Ask An Assassin To Work For Free?
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“This is like a small personal thing, I was hoping for favor job”
“This could be really good for your career”
“I might be really successful one day”
“Maybe I’ll need another job and I’ll call you first”
“I’m sorry I’m not some wealthy hedge fund manager with all this disposable income”
If you’re a photographer and you haven’t heard any of these sentences, you must be living in an isolated cabin with no other humans around.
This humorous video makes you realize how ridiculous some requests can be by replacing the photographer/graphic designer/model/any creative freelancer (pick your favorite) with a professional assassin.
The Pros and Cons of using Cheap China Brand Lights
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My first ever off-camera flash was a Nikon sb-24 speedlight (1988), which I got. After a while I bought my first ever Nikon speedlight an sb-600 (it was around $250 back then). I was very happy with it until I wanted to get a studio strobe. There weren’t many choices to pick from here in the Philippines; it’s either you get one that cost around $300 per strobe or you can buy a “kit” with 3 off brand studio lights, light stands and softboxes for around $220. I got the latter.
(As a reference, a 400WS Broncolor Siros 400 which is one fine branded strobe – yet one of the cheaper branded strobes – will set you back $1000. A Cowboystudio 400WS strobe will only cost $150. A Square Perfect 400W/S strobe will only set you back a $100 or so. Those 3 are obviously not comparable strobe)
CHEAP doesn’t always mean bad, I have used these lights for more than 6 years now, and I want to share with you the pros and cons of using cheap off brand lights.
How To Build a $14 Fireproof Housing for $4000 Worth Of Gear
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Robert Capa once said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” And he was not talking about longer lenses, he actually meant moving your feet. But what if you shooting such a blazing inferno that even pyrotechnicians are afraid of.
