DIY

A portrait of a woman in front of a piece of cardboard with holes in it.

How to Recycle Cardboard Into a Creative Photography Backdrop

It's no secret that most photography equipment is expensive and typically highly specialized. But that doesn't always need to be the case. In the above video from Adorama, photographer Gavin Hoey walks viewers through how to create studio portraits using a simple sheet of cardboard and some studio lights.

How to Make a DIY Digital Pinhole Camera with a Body Cap

I was interested in seeing how well a pinhole would work on a small sensor (APS-C) DSLR so I decided to give it a try. All I needed to do was to drill a hole in the spare body cap, darken a piece of aluminum foil with a permanent marker, punch a small hole in it, and then tape it to the front of the body cap.

How to Make Your Own Instant Film

A decade ago, I stumbled upon a page where someone detailed their process for crafting their own instant film, something similar to Polaroid Type55 or the New55. At that time, the instructions seemed too complex for me to tackle, and I never ventured into the world of instant film creation.

Mathieu Stern Camera Obscura

Photographer Turns a Paris Apartment into a Giant Camera

French photographer Mathieu Stern is no stranger to taking photos with unusual cameras. However, his latest camera is perhaps his oddest as he turned Paris apartment into a giant camera obscura and captured a beautiful photo of one of the world's most famous sights, the Eiffel Tower.

Game Boy Camera without the Game Boy

This DIY Game Boy Camera Ditches the Game Boy, Keeps the Camera

The Nintendo Game Boy Camera holds a special place in the hearts of many photographers and gamers. It is an iconic part of photography history and was the first digital camera that many people owned when it hit store shelves in 1998 for about $50. Among the Game Boy Camera's numerous limitations is that it requires a Nintendo Game Boy, although builder Raphael Boichot has something to say about that with his Dashboy Camera project.

How to Record Electrical Discharges with a Digital Camera

The recording of the patterns made by static electricity date back to the invention of the technique in 1777 by Georg Lichtenberg. Since he was the first to observe the patterns they are referred to as Lichtenberg figures.

How I Made a 3D-Printed Film Movie Camera

A couple of years ago I have been occasionally shooting 35mm films with point-and-shoot still cameras while also having the desire to shoot motion picture films.

Malcolm Wilson analog to digital conversion

Photographer Converts Broken Film Camera into a Working Digital One

Photographer Malcolm Wilson recently converted a Yashica Electro 35mm film camera into a digital camera using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and Raspberry Pi HQ camera module. It's a fun twist on analog to digital conversions, and Wilson says his converted camera is one of his favorite cameras to use.

Caffenol: A Guide to Developing B&W Film with Coffee

One of the greatest things about film photography is its friendliness toward do-it-yourself approaches. Want to hack together a working camera out of discount hardware store supplies? All the power to you! Want to shoot on art paper coated in a home-concocted emulsion, contact-printed using authentic techniques from the 1800s? Why not?

How to Build a DIY Camera Trap for Amazing Wildlife Photography

As a wildlife photographer, I'm always looking for ways to capture stunning images of animals in their natural habitats. One technique I've found to be incredibly effective is using a custom-made, DIY, DSLR camera trap, which is a camera setup that is triggered by the movement of an animal.

Yunus Zenichowski scanner camera

Photographer Builds a 489-Megapixel, $160 DIY Scanner Camera

Last year, PetaPixel wrote about photographer Ryan Kojima who built a DIY medium format camera using the CCD sensor from an Epson flatbed scanner. The DIY scanner camera captures massive, detailed 514-megapixel photos. Kojima built his first scanner camera a decade ago, although he recently upgraded it to deliver even better performance.