Here’s a cheap, long-lasting DIY option for those of you in need of another backdrop and/or reflector for your studio shoots. Put together by photographer Tiffany Angeles, this short video shows you all of the materials you’ll need to create your own sturdy backdrop/reflector combo in the comfort of your own home. Read more…

A few years ago, photographer Samuel Chapman of The Rocket Factory found himself with an annoying problem on his hands. After purchasing a number of neutral density filters for his DSLR, he found that Nikon’s $2,000 14-24mm lens didn’t have any good way of being used with a filter.

He had already paid hundreds of dollars each for his fancy filters, so he decided to make a makeshift adapter for the 14-24mm lens… using a sponge. The result is a product Chapman calls the “FX Sponge Filter Holder 5000.”
Read more…

It’s fairly well known that not all lenses are created equal. Put that in combination with manufacturing variables and lenses don’t always perfectly align with the camera mount. Generally the differences are minor and for the most part negligible, but I buy old Minolta lenses from eBay and I want to get the best bang for buck out of them.

I started making micro adjustments to my lens/camera combinations when I first got Sony’s a77, and have now micro adjusted all my lenses for the a99 and D3. After reading what the Internet had to offer regarding “micro adjustment” or the “fine tune” functions higher level DSLRs offer, I quickly printed off some charts similar to rulers and taped them to my wall to start making adjustments.
Read more…

Update: The Kickstarter campaign has been cancelled due to a legal threat against Angood.

Remember that beautiful cardboard Hasselblad created by designer Kelly Angood a couple of years ago and released as a PDF template? If you’d like to build your own but don’t want to go through the trouble of printing the design onto cardboard and cutting out the pieces, you’ll be glad to know that Angood is working on launching a do-it-yourself kit for the camera.
Read more…

Here’s a thrifty DIY idea courtesy of Netherlands-based photo enthusiast Rob Gipman. After getting rain on his lens a while ago, Gipman decided to take an unwanted piece of water-resistant fleece and make a do-it-yourself covering for his Canon 100-400mm lens.
Read more…

When I started planning a series titled DreamWorld, one of the first characters that came to me was a dryad: a nature spirit representing our connection with nature. I saw her as a strong, benevolent queen, keeping watch over the woodland creatures and protecting them. The first concept I came up with that made my heart pitter-patter with excitement was the idea of building a huge crown for her from sticks and branches. I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this, but I had a vision. And I have learned over the years that having a vision will pave the way to making it a reality, regardless of if I know how that will come about.
Read more…

The Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized single board computer developed in the UK, just added a visual component to its arsenal. A 5MP CMOS camera, the tiny cam will attach to the mini-computer and allow programmers to use it any way they see fit. And in order to celebrate this new addition to the family, the Raspberry Pi Foundation is sponsoring a little contest for photography-minded programmers as well. Read more…

Big focal length usually translates into big money. If you don’t have thousands to spend on a high-quality far-reaching super-telephoto lens, the fine folks over at Screaming Tree Films came up with this 800mm Frankenlens that’ll only make your wallet around $100 lighter (as opposed to thousands).
Read more…

South East England-based photography student Mark Hilton came up with an ambitious New Year’s resolution this year: he’s in the process of building his own 20×16 “ultra-large-format” camera by hand. It’s a camera that’s designed to expose Ilford Harman Direct Positive paper.
Read more…

When Milan-based engineer and photographer Andrea Biffi needed a constant source of power for his Canon 40D in order to shoot time-lapse photos over many hours, he decided to save some money by going the DIY route. Biffi turned a defunct lithium DSLR battery into a power supply unit that can be used with everything from a wall outlet to a car battery.

You can do the same thing at home, but you’ll need a bit of engineering know-how to accomplish the hack.
Read more…