fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

Submit A Story

Five “hard-to-swallow pills” of why you’re not growing as photographer

Sooner or later during our photographic journey, most of us feel stuck and as if we’re not going anywhere. It feels like we’re not making any progress and that nothing we do makes us better at photography. Sounds familiar?

Pete Coco gives you five reasons why progress just doesn’t seem to happen for you. And in my opinion, these are hard pills to swallow but they’re necessary for our “recovery.” Pete relies on his own experiences and shares some tips on how to overcome these obstacles and become better at photography.

[Read More…]

Photographing the corona discharge of conductive objects looks absolutely awesome

by Leave a Comment

This is a pretty cool technique that definitely needs to come with a health and safety warning. So, don’t try this at home unless you understand how electricity works and how to experiment with it safely. If that’s you, then you’ll love this video from Hyperspace Pirate. Even if it’s not you, watch it anyway because it results in some pretty cool photography!

It’s a process called Kirlian Photography and it’s used to be able to photograph the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharge. It was accidentally discovered by Semyon Kirlian, after whom it was named, in 1939. It’s a similar principle as those “Plasma Globes” that were so popular in the 80s.

[Read More…]

The better you get at photography, the more difficult it becomes – but that’s not a bad thing

by Leave a Comment

I’ll admit that this is something that I haven’t really thought of before, but after having watched this excellent video from aows, I think it explains why I often change the topics I like to shoot. His argument is that the more you do photography, the more images you shoot, and the better you become, the more difficult it becomes. It seems odd, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

The reason it gets harder is that you’re following that advice often told to photographers. Stop competing with other photographers. The only photographer you need to compete with is the photographer you used to be. And this is basically the problem. As you learn more, get better and your work improves, you’re setting your own bar higher. It gets more and more difficult to best yourself.

[Read More…]

How to recreate the lighting setups for six scenes in Stranger Things 4

by Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I find movies and TV shows a great source of inspiration. And I don’t mean the story, but the technical side of things. The blocking, the lighting, the editing, the grade, the music used and more all set the tone for what we’re viewing and it’s fascinating to try to reverse engineer and figure out not only how but why they made the decisions they did.

But here, we’re looking at lighting. And specifically, the lighting for certain scenes from Stranger Things 4. Bangkok-based photographer and filmmaker MIXXPST, along with his friend Gift Lee, decided to have a go at recreating some of the scenes from the popular show as they’re both big fans and I while they’re not pixel-perfect replicas of the originals, they illustrate some of the principles very well.

[Read More…]

Seven big photography struggles and how to solve them

Photography is something all of us here love, and it brings us together here on DIYP. While it’s an amazing hobby or a career, it still still comes with its challenges. They sometimes make our lives difficult or go as far as making us question ourselves and our photography skills.

But you’re not alone. In this video, Mads Peter Iversen shares seven of the biggest struggles a photographer can deal with. He spoke with other creatives like you and me about them, and these are some of the responses he got. And in case you can relate – he also gives you plenty of great advice for overcoming these obstacles and enjoying photography to the max.

[Read More…]

This amazing tiny satellite selfie video was shot using an off-the-shelf GoPro action camera

When we think of satellites, we often think of super high-tech state-of-the-art technology being sent up into space. We generally don’t think of them blasting up off-the-shelf electronics that many of us already have in our homes. Well, that’s exactly what the folks at NanoAvionics did when they attached a GoPro Hero 7 (Yes, not even a Hero 10!) to their MP42 microsatellite to capture selfies in space as it flew over the planet.

At 550km (~341 miles) above the earth’s surface, the GoPro attached to the MP42 capture photos of the satellite over the Coral sea and the Great Barrier Reef – the only living structure visible from space – along the north-east side of Australia. It also shot some excellent (and nowhere near long enough!) 4K video of the trip.

[Read More…]

The story behind how this amazing photograph of the “Fairy Tree” Milky Way was created

by Leave a Comment

Sometimes, you’re sitting on social media, scrolling away and something stops you in your tracks and you just can’t help but sit and stare. That was the case for me with this Milky Way photograph from landscape and commercial photographer Mark Duffy. DIYP reached out to Mark to find out more about it and how it was created.

Mark says that the tree at the centre of this image is known as a Fairy Tree in Ireland. That’s what they call a tree that stands alone in the middle of a field. It’s believed that they bring luck and possess mystical powers. This one though, Mark tells DIYP, is particularly special. He says it’s over 200 years old and perched on top of a 3,000-year-old cairn (an Irish burial tomb) overlooking his hometown of Dundalk and the Cooley Mountains.

[Read More…]

Five tips to get the best video results from low budget 8-bit cameras

by Leave a Comment

We all have to start somewhere and for those who wish to learn how to shoot video, that usually means some pretty low-budget (and often old) equipment. Those newcomers are often teased on social media for not having the latest and greatest gear and made to feel bad about what they own, but don’t let those types of people get to you. You can do some great stuff with some very inexpensive equipment!

Sure, the older and low-budget gear may have some limitations that more expensive or newer gear might not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the shot. You just maybe have to work a little harder for it. And in this video, Nigel Barros walks us through his five gotcha mistakes that often trip up new filmmakers and how to avoid them to get the best video you can from low-budget cameras.

[Read More…]

Is Photoshop ruining photography or is it actually helping it?

This is a topic that I see posted on social media every single day. It’s usually not a discussion of the actual topic, though. More often than not, it’s bundled up in a comment like “This isn’t photography!” or “Fake! You’ve Photoshopped this!”. Yeah, it’s a pretty one-sided conversation a lot of the time. But photographer and educator Blake Rudis explores the topic quite in-depth in this video.

The criticisms of the use of Photoshop in photography often come from the self-proclaimed “purists” who believe that every image has to look how it looks right out of the camera (which still has digital post-processing applied, btw) and there’s very little that seems to dissuade them from their beliefs. But ultimately, does it really matter what other people think about your use (or lack) of Photoshop?

[Read More…]

Wide-angle lenses are not “landscape lenses” – All lenses are landscape lenses

by Leave a Comment

Whenever we turn our hand towards photographing a landscape, I think most of us tend to go for the widest lens we own. Or at least, if not the widest, something pretty wide. It’s a logical and natural choice to make, though. We’re confronted with this beautiful view and we want to be able to capture as much of it as possible. But is it potentially doing more harm than good for your photography?

In this video, Mads Peter Iverson talks about this issue and that we really need to start breaking out of the mindset that we need a wide-angle lens in order to be able to shoot good landscape photography. It’s an interesting discussion that not only discusses the benefits of using longer focal lengths to shoot landscapes but the downfalls of only using wide angle lenses.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts