After seeing the LEGO large format camera we featured last year, Norway-based photographer Carl-Frederic Salicath set out to create his own LEGO camera. Rather than go with large format, he decided to build a more complicated Rolleiflex-style twin-lens reflex camera that uses 120 film. Aside from LEGOs, he also used some matte ground glass, a mirror, and lenses taken from a binocular.
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Photography enthusiast Maciej Pietuszynski jumped into tilt-shift photography recently by building a do-it-yourself tilt-shift lens out of an old 50mm f/1.8 prime lens, a shower head, and a rubber glove. The process isn’t for the faint of heart — it involves disassembling the lens. You can see some of the resulting photographs in this Flickr set.
Shower head, rubber glove, 50mm…tilted!!! (via DYIP via MAKE)
Talia van der Wel of New Zealand wanted a simple and beautiful way to display instant photos, and came up with the idea of an empty frame in which photos are hung on clothespins from twine. After sharing the idea with her husband, he went and created the frame out of an old wood lattice.
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Check out this awesome picture frame: it’s an old french door that was cut in half, stripped, painted, distressed. Old windows can make for unique frames as well!
(via Reddit)
Image credit: Photograph by TheContrarian2 and used with permission
Want a super simple macro lens for your phone without shelling out big bucks? You can use 3D printing to assemble your own! Shapeways user Lens42 has created a 3D model for a slide-on iPhone lens — all you need to do is have the 3D model printed for $11 and to attach a $4 glass lens from Surplus Shed (part number L4471) using some superglue. If you have something other than an iPhone but know your way around 3D modeling programs, you make some measurements yourself and have a custom 3D model printed.
3D Printed iPhone slide on Macro Lens [3DFuture]
Last week we featured Jason Hull’s awesome nightlights created out of old (and cheap) vintage cameras. If you’ve been dying to learn how you can make one yourself, today’s your lucky day: Hull has written up a step-by-step tutorial showing how the conversion is done. If you do attempt this project, try to find a broken camera — working ones are happiest when they’re used for photo-making!
Vintage Camera Nightlight [Instructables]
Faking toy camera effects with apps or software is a big fad these days, but Joel Pirela of Blue Ant Studio went a step further: he built his own homemade digital Lomography camera using some walnut wood, hand-polished aluminum frame, parts from a 5-megapixel Vivitar Vivicam, and an Olympus OM series lens.
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For his wedding, designer Matt Frank built this photo booth that looks like a giant Lomo camera. It comprises a Mac running Photo Booth, a monitor for reviewing photos, halogen lighting, and a hacked Easy Button that acts as a shutter release. Frank writes,
I decided to build my own photo booth after trying to rent one from local photography studios. The going rate for a rented photo booth is around $600 in addition to the hourly rate of the attendent to watch over the equipment. As this was not in my wedding budget, and I did not want to deal with an additional vendor, I decided to build my own for under $200. [#]
The total cost for the DIY photobooth came out to about $150. Frank has also written up a step-by-step tutorial on how it was built.
Having sunlight hit your computer screen can be a problem if you’re trying to see colors and details accurately while editing photographs. You can always buy a monitor hood to kill the glare, but if you don’t want to spend money on one, photographer Roger Sacul has come up with good DIY monitor hood you can make yourself using some cardboard (or any other ridged sheet material.
Avoid Sun On Your Screen By Building A DIY Monitor Hood (via Make)
Photographer Tyler Card‘s uber-creative Nikon DSLR costume was the talk of the photo world this past Halloween. If you’ve been wondering how he managed to make a fully functional giant DSLR, you’re in luck: Card has written up an extensive tutorial explaining how it was done:
[...] it really takes pictures, and comes complete with LCD display, pop-up flash, and shutter release button. I built this entire costume in one week, for only $35 dollars (excluding the cost of the camera equipment and laptop), with materials located at any local hardware store.
Fully Functional Camera Costume [Instructables]
