Weekly Newsletter Archives

Quick Tip: Using Battery Upsizers For External Strobe Power

Jul 3, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 6 Comments

One of the ways to increase the time a strobe or a camera can run for a longer durations, is to use an external battery for power. Some cameras and strobes have a dedicated port for receiving external power, and some don’t. But even if they do, the device that provides power is usually a propitiatory one and only fits one specific device, so the cable to power an SB800 is different than the cable you’d use for, say, a Canon EX strobe (assuming you have both :)

There is a solution to get around this power problem. Use whatever external power you can source with the built in battery chamber, mimicking a battery set. The options we shared before involved crafting a wooden dowel to fit the exact size of a battery, or using uncommon electrical connectors for the same end.

Reader Jake Carvey just shared a cool tip regarding this method with us. One that made me slam my head into the table. Jake suggested using battery upsizers for mimicking the internal batteries, eliminating the need of a wooden dowel. [Read More…]

Animated Video Shot On Breaths At -1ºC

Jul 2, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 10 Comments

This amazing video was not on a regular screen, but on warm breath on a cold night (just in time for Projection Month)

Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth of Wriggles & Robins created an amazing video clip for Travis’s Moving video clip.

This of course requires two separate layers of creativity, one for the animation itself and one for the video clip.[Read More…]

Taking Incredibly Long Time Lapses Is Easier Than You Think (Thanks to Instructions Fairy)

Jul 2, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 7 Comments

Instructable user fpound of kontent films needed to take a really long time lapse. How long? 4 months – to show water changing over a season. While any battery will last for a night time lapse, running for four months is not only battery heavy, but it calls for camera protection against the elements.

[Read More…]

Will Nikon Follow Suit With Raw Video?

Jul 2, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 4 Comments

Ever since Magic Lantern managed to provide HD RAW from practically the entire EOS line, Nikon has been left behind. While off the shelf both the Nikon and Canon prosumer line offer similar video capabilities, videographers have been favoring Canon for ML even before the HD RAW patch.

The latest from news from Vitaliy Kiselev, the developer of the popular Ptool suite for Panasonic GH just shared that he saw an interesting string in the D7100 firmware hinting that… OK, it is just a small hint, but it may suggest that a RAW stream can be pulled off. It can also be a joke string placed by developers. Who knows?.[Read More…]

July Is Projection Month On DIYP

Jul 1, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 1 Comment

Photography is light. Light hits the subject, travels through a lens and hits a sensor or a piece of film, creating an image. Everything else is just there to assist.

However, light can definitely go the reverse way, with the laws of physics enabling a complete reversed path. Light coming from somewhere near the sensor plate, going through a lens and arriving at a screen or a wall re-building an image.

Come to think about it this is almost magical, yet this is how cinema came to be, and how some of our sweetest memories were created.[Read More…]

How To Relieve Your Neck With A Homemade Camera Harness

Jul 1, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 11 Comments

While a camera harness looks somewhat like a lunchbox, it is one of the most comfortable ways to wear a camera. The harness not only takes the weight of your neck (and places it like a backpack on your shoulders and back), it also prevents the camera’s from swinging into each other or other things in front of you. The really nice stuff comes from Lowepro, but if you are willing to get your hands dirty you can make a simple one yourself.

Chiara Sciarone explains just how to make one:[Read More…]

Building A Full Fledged Timelapse Dolly For £150 (- Rails)

Jun 29, 2013 by Guest Author 3 Comments

Many timelapses these days use motorised dollys to add an additional dimension of movement in the footage. They are one of the best ways to create dynamic sequences, adding movement to an otherwise plain timelapse.

The market has exploded over the past few years, and there are now a wealth of commercially available dollies. They price in from around £900, to well over £6000. However, dollies are quite simple by design, and pretty easy to build yourself.

[Read More…]

Crowdfunding A Sunset Timelapse

Jun 28, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 4 Comments

Here is an interesting concept, crowdfunding a sunset timelpase. Artist Jasper Elings created this one minute video of a sunset using pictures he found on Google Images.

With the location of the sun and shore line remaining the same, the effect is that of a setting sun with alternating backgrounds.

We have featured croudsourced photography before, but never to the extent of using photographs from (almost) unknown sources.

Thanks for the tip, Etai.

[Sharing a beautiful sunset | Jasper Elings][Read More…]

Capture One Coupon Code Leaked Making It A Free Downland

Jun 27, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 13 Comments

Capture One by PhaseOne is one of the most glorified RAW processor software in the market. On just about every day, you can buy Capture One Pro for $299 or its little brother, Capture One Express for $99.

Redditor zeta3232 reports that buying Capture One Express 6 from this page and then using coupon code DCM2013 on checkout takes $99 off the purchase making it practically a free download.[Read More…]