You’ve probably seen the special keyboard covers for Mac keyboards that show you the Photoshop shortcut each key is used for, but what if you’re looking for something more old school (or don’t have a Mac)? These Photoshop Keyboard Stickers should do the trick. They’re individual vinyl stickers that you individually stick onto each key, allowing you to stay old school and giving your keyboard a very childish look. You can pick up a set for about $8 on Amazon.

Adobe photoshop keyboard stickers (via ilovephotoblogs)

If you need some quick white balancing for whatever reason, and don’t have a white balance card or Expodisc handy, you can try using a standard coffee cup lid. Photographer Steve Bennet always has some lids lying around in his car, and found that they work as rough white balancing tools.

To use, I set the focus to infinity, place the cap over, then set the custom WB. I dont even need to hold it as it fits nicely inside my lens hood, but that is just a lucky coincidence.

Of course, this won’t deliver perfect results that rival professional tools, but if you’re not shooting RAW and need a quick approximation, you might want to give this a shot.

Image credit: Emergency Exposure Disc by Steve Bennet and used with permission

Here’s a quick tip by Vimeo user Braxton McCarthy: use rubber bands when panning and tilting on a tripod to make the movement smoother.

(via Photoxels)

Here’s a quick photo related life hack: if you have a lens filter that just won’t come off, try using a rubber jar opener to do the task. If you don’t have one already in your kitchen, there might be cheap ones at your local dollar store!

(via Pixiq)

Here’s an eye-opening look at the world of food styling and photography, where Elmer’s glue is used for cereal milk, hamburgers are filled with sponges, brownies are sprayed with WD-40, and salad is padded with mashed potatoes. Food stylist Kim Krejca and photographer Rick Gayle discuss some of the tricks and techniques used to make food look as appetizing as possible while keeping it realistic. It’s an episode from Adorama’s How’d They Do That? series of videos.

(via f stoppers)

Next time you’re attend a fireworks display, try shooting your photographs or video out of focus. This video by Danny Cooke is a pretty beautiful look at what you can achieve by doing this. What’s more, if you focus on the spectators in the foreground, it looks like they’re watching bokeh fireworks as well!

(via f stoppers)

A while ago my friend discovered Microsoft’s Bing Cashback program, which provides instant savings for “qualified” purchases. What’s neat is that any eBay purchase made with “Buy It Now” and paid using PayPal qualifies for the savings. After he discovered this, my friend bought Canon 5Ds in bulk on eBay and sold them on craigslist for a profit.

I just bought a used 5D yesterday on eBay for $1200, and instantly saved about $100 using this method. Here it is as a step-by-step tutorial:

1. Search for the Product on Bing

Head on over to Microsoft’s Bing search engine to search for your product.

2. Click the Sponsored eBay Link

In many cases you’ll find the link in the sponsored sites box. If you don’t, just type in something else until you do find an eBay link (i.e. “Canon 5D”). It doesn’t need to be the item you’re looking to purchase. As long as you enter eBay through a sponsored link on Bing you’ll be qualified for cashback.

2. Check the Top of the Page

At this point, there should e a special “Microsoft Cashback” graphic at the top of the page, with the text “Must use Buy It Now and PayPal”. As long as you see this, you’re good to go. If you don’t enter eBay through the sponsored link on Bing, you won’t see this and you won’t be participating in the program.

3. Find Your Item

You can now search for any item you’d like to buy, using eBay just like you normally would. You have 60 minutes to find and buy what you’re looking for before the cashback expires. If it does expire, all you need to do is start over and reenter eBay through Bing. It’s really that easy!

Since the program requires that you Buy It Now, it makes sense to filter by Buy It Now listings, and to sort by price from lowest to highest.

4. Purchase the Item Using Buy It Now

Make sure the special graphic at the top from Step 2 is still visible. If it is, click “Buy It Now” to purchase the item.

5. Check the Review Page

After clicking the “Buy It Now” button, eBay takes you to a confirmation page to allow you to review what you’re getting into. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly, this page will also have a special “Microsoft cashback” box that tells you exactly how much cash you’re going to get back with the purchase. If everything looks right, hit the “Commit to Buy” button to make the purchase final.

6. Pay Using PayPal

Pay for the item like you normally would using PayPal. As long as you pay using PayPal, you’ll get the cashback.

7. Sign Up for the Bing Cashback Program

Once you’ve purchased the item, you’ll receive an eBay message in your account telling you to check your Microsoft Cashback page. If you don’t have one, you can create one at this time. Make sure you create your account through the link provide in the message.

The signup is very fast and simple.

You will soon find the cashback amount show up on your account. Ordinarily, cashback takes 60 days. However, if you sign up for an account beforehand, you can go into your Microsoft Cashback settings and join the “quick cashback program.” This allows you to have the cash sent to your PayPal account very shortly after the purchase (sometimes immediately).

That’s it! What’s great about this program is that you can use it for anything on eBay as long as you use Buy It Now and PayPal. After buying the 5D yesterday, I used the program to purchase a VGA adapter for my MacBook Pro, and saved 8% on that as well in addition to the low 3rd-party price I found on eBay.

Good luck, and leave a comment letting us know how it goes!

If you have multiple lenses and not enough space in your camera bag, carrying an extra lens might require you to stack a lens on top of another in a single lens compartment. The problem is that the bottom of one lens might rub against and scratch the lens below.

Derrick Story over at The Digital Story has a simple do-it-yourself solution to this problem: a Rear Lens Cap Pad. Cutting out a piece of adhesive, padded material and attaching it to the rear lens cap allowed him to rest his 50mm lens on top of a 70-200mm lying horizontally below.

If you’re working with smaller primes, another tip is to attach the rear lens caps of two lenses together, allowing you to securely transport two lenses together. The downside of this method is that your lenses won’t be able to travel separately.

Do you have your own tips or tricks for saving space when hauling your glass around?

Rear Lens Cap Pad for Stacking in Camera Bag (via Wired)

Image credit: Photograph by Derrick Story

If you can’t shoot right-handed, or need to shoot left-handed for some reason (i.e. demonstrating something in a photo with your right hand), you can simply flip your camera over and use your pinky finger to press the shutter. Problem is, this ergonomically unfriendly grip is hard to do, and puts your camera at risk of slipping out of your hand. Instructables member bertus52x11, the same guy behind the PVC pipe camera support, has clever hack that solves this problem.

His solution is to attach a bent aluminum strip to the tripod mount that allows your thumb to grip the camera more firmly. So, if you break your arm like bertus52x11 did, this is a clever way to keep on shooting!

Take photographs with just your left hand (via Lifehacker)