Here’s a tutorial on how to capture an exploding water balloon in the precise moment the balloon pops, while the water still holds the shape of a balloon. I didn’t want to invest any money in laser barriers or something similar, so I built a very simple mechanism. It doesn’t give me perfect timing, but it produces acceptable results.
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Newer Leica lenses have a special lens code on the mount flange of each lens that informs the camera of what’s mounted on it, and allows lens-related EXIF data to be embedded inside photographs. If you have an older Leica lens or a third-party lens on your hands, you might not have this special code, but did you know that you can apply the code manually to a code-less lens using black and white paint?

La Vida Leica! has published a tutorial showing how simple the process is: it only takes around $15 and 15 minutes to do.
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Winter can be a dull season for macro photographers. Many of the usual subjects are desolate, lifeless or invisible. However, there is one subject that’s often in abundance outdoors (depending on where you live): snowflakes. There have been many strategies for photographing these ice crystals over the past century, but the simple stage of an old mitten is ideal.
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Some people have been asking for tips on how to do star trails. There seems to be a few misconceptions and a few different methods. Here’s a tutorial on my personal technique.
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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…

Photographs printed onto wood are hangable, durable, and sustainable. The technique I use at Wood Craft Photos involves printing the image onto a special film, preparing a wood panel with custom gel medium, and then combining, leaving the wood grain in the light colored areas of the image showing through.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how you can use this process yourself for beautiful wood prints.
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Smiling naturally in photos is a challenge for many people. Even if you avoid the all-too-common “say cheese” mistake, that’s still no guarantee that you’ll come off looking good. So here’s a fully little video that offers some useful tips for those of us who (like Chandler) can’t seem to look even remotely natural when a camera is pointing our way.

The tips from start to finish include: say a word that ends in “uh” instead of “cheese,” laugh while the photo is being taken, lift the tip of your tongue up behind your front teeth, and relax your face (with the exception of your mouth and the corners of your eyes). Happy natural smiling!

(via Laughing Squid)

The vast majority of my photographic work is environmental portraiture, corporate and editorial photography, and interiors, some of my commercial photography does include product photos. Quite honestly, some of this stuff is pretty straightforward, take a nice representative image of the product on a clean white backdrop so it integrates onto a website (also white) seamlessly. Sometimes a client gives me a bit more artistic license, and sometimes I get to do a shoot that’s just for me.
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Freelensing. It’s been around for a while. It’s essentially the “poor man’s tilt shift.” All the technique requires is disconnecting a lens from the camera body and floating it around in front of your sensor to shift the focal plane in weird directions. It takes practice to get accurate with it, but overall the technique is pretty straightforward.

I wanted to take it a bit further.
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There’s no end to the fun and creativity you can pour into a great light painting session. And the more techniques you have in your photographer’s utility belt the more interesting and professional your light painting can become.

In recent weeks we’ve shown you how to add 3D objects to your light painting, how to create light-painting rain, and how combining bullet time photography and light painting can yield some pretty awesome results. Now it’s time to put the old saying to rest and create smoke — without a fire.
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