fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

Submit A Story

Here is a room you can never fully light with one light

In photography, light is everything. After all, that’s the key part of its very name. When taking photos indoors, there are many setups you can make with just one light. And did you know that, in theory, almost every room will be lit no matter where you place the light?

However, here’s something I’m sure you’ll find interesting. When there are mirrors on the walls, any room shape will be fully lit but one. It’s called the Penrose unilluminable room, and in his video, Steve Mould talks about this interesting phenomenon.

[Read More…]

How to create accidental Renaissance photos with light and composition

Hashtag #accidentalrenaissance has over 17,000 posts on Instagram. And even though it’s often a joke or a meme, I believe all of us have also seen some pretty amazing photos that look like Renaissance paintings. But what is it that makes them remind us of the works of master painters? Chroma says that composition and light are the keys. In this video, they break them down so you can take “accidental Renaissance” photos – on purpose.

[Read More…]

Light bows out of the smartphone camera industry

by Leave a Comment

It’s been an interesting journey for Light, the company that brought us that crazy 16-lens camera five years ago. It garnered a lot of hype when it was first announced, and once word got out that the company had secured $30mil in funding and the Light L16 camera was going to see a big storage increase, a lot of people got excited. It wasn’t until 2017 that they actually started shipping, but the reception was somewhat cold.

In 2018, it seemed Light was teaming up with a company (which turned out to be Nokia) to make smartphones, and in 2019 they announced partnerships with both Xiaomi and Sony. Now, Light has announced they are “no longer operating in the smartphone industry”. Exactly what this means for Light’s future is unclear.

[Read More…]

New Sony patent shows a lens that lets you focus after you take the shot

by 11 Comments

Sony Alpha Rumours just spotted a patent (although they didn’t link to it so we can all have a read) showing a new “light field” lens for the Sony E Mount. Sony teamed up with the folks at Light (of Light L16 fame) just over a year ago with a deal that, at the time, appeared to primarily focus on Light’s multi-camera technology in smartphones.

It seems that this technology might be also coming to Sony mirrorless bodies, though, thanks to a new lens design.

[Read More…]

Five types of natural light you should know to capture beautiful wildlife images

by 6 Comments

In this article, you will learn what different types of natural lights are available and how to use them to create stunning images of wildlife and nature.

Why my wildlife images look boring and dull? I don’t find the “WOW” factor in my pictures.

My images are sharp, and exposure is ok, but I don’t find them interesting, what’s the reason?

Does this sound familiar to you? Do you have these types of questions?

Well, it’s time to look for the most essential element in your images – light!

[Read More…]

This brain-melting video explains why our cameras see in RGB – just like our eyes

by 2 Comments

When we’re kids, in school, we’re taught that the primary colours are red, yellow and blue. But this isn’t entirely accurate when it comes to light. Pure white sunlight is made up of a whole spectrum of colours, with the primaries actually being red, green and blue. Our cameras with Bayer filter arrays on the sensor see RGB. Our monitors also display RGB.

But have you ever wondered how we’re able to get so many different colours from just three? And why just blasting red, green and blue LEDs at an object doesn’t always give you true white light? This fascinating video from Technology Connections isn’t really specific to photography, but light in general, and how red, green and blue affects our (and our camera’s) perception of colour.

[Read More…]

Researchers at Harvard have created a tiny polarisation camera for a Shrimp’s eye view of the world

by 1 Comment

Weird cameras are just the best, aren’t they? And they don’t get much weirder than this. Researchers at Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have published a paper detailing a tiny camera that sees the world the way a shrimp and some insects see it. That is, in polarised light.

Polarisation is essentially the directions in which light waves travel. And this polarisation camera shows us those directions in a rainbow of colours, with the visible light removed. The technology’s been around for a while, although not at this sort of small scale. It opens up a lot of new applications for using such cameras.

[Read More…]

Understanding light – an introduction

by Leave a Comment

This article aims to look at how we as photographers ‘understand’ light. It may seem obvious to many of you, but to a vast majority of us, it’s simply not quite that easy. But what does it truly mean to understand light? Do we really need to understand light to take great photos? The simple answer is no…. but I guarantee it will help.

[Read More…]

5 modifiers for photographers on the move

by 1 Comment

A little while ago I was teaching one of my lighting workshops and one of the attendees was looking to implement some of the set-ups I was sharing into his workflow. Seems simple enough right? Well it turns out this photographer was a Formula 1 trackside shooter that needed to get portraits of drivers and crew. As you may well imagine, there is limited time to setup a photoshoot in a busy pit-lane on race-day, so he was after lighting modifiers that would be suitable for his slightly more ‘run-and-gun’ portraits.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts