July 14, 2011

If you've tried to scan film using an ordinary flatbed scanner as you would a piece of paper, you've probably discovered that it didn't turn out very well. The reason is because film needs to be illuminated from behind, while conventional scanners capture light that's reflected off what they're scanning. Before you give up hope and shell out money for a film scanner, here's some good news: you can build a cheap and simple cardboard adapter that turns any scanner into a film scanner!

Did you know that earlier this year YouTube added a free image stabilization tool to its video editor? It lets you smooth out the jitter in your videos without having to shell out dough for an expensive rig or software solution. The downside is that the stabilization makes your video look like it was shot by a robot.

There's plenty of tutorials online teaching you the "proper" techniques for photographing fireworks, but have you ever tried shooting them "incorrectly" on purpose? When photography enthusiast Pete Rogina took his Canon 5D Mark II out to capture fireworks this past Independence Day, he decided to try "light painting" with the fireworks by shooting them at long exposures without a tripod, waving the camera so that the streaks of light would take on abstract shapes.

Pose is a camera case that doubles as a simple stand. Designed to replace the little bean bags or mini-tripods that many people carry around separately, Pose has an attachment mount built in, and can either be propped up by itself on flat surfaces or wrapped around poles and curved surfaces. The $24 accessory is available for pre-order over at quirky, and will be manufactured if at least 1,000 people join in.

Photographer Mark Matthews of Sydney, Australia spotted the above plaque on a sidewalk that reads, …

At what point does inspiration turn into plagiarism? That's the question that popped up last year when Rhianna was sued by David LaChapelle over scenes found in one of her music videos, and it's the same issue with a lawsuit recently filed by photographer Janine Gordon against photographer Ryan McGinley. Gordon claims that 150 of McGinley's images -- including some used for a Levi's ad campaign -- are "substantially based" on her photos. In the three pairs of disputed images shown above, the …

File this under "awesome ways to show off your photos". Lomographer zakguy had a year's worth of Instax Mini instant photos on his hands and no way to display them, so he created a custom coffee table using his favorite shots! …

Kyle Jones wanted to see what it was like to film from inside a guitar, so he stuck his iPhone inside and started recording. The resulting footage shows the strings vibrating in wacky wave patterns thanks to the rolling shutter effect, which we also saw in the Canon 5D Mark II footage of a bass player shared earlier this year.

sonyalpharumors published the above image today showing what appears to be a pre-production render of an upcoming Sony NEX camera (reportedly the NEX-7). If the image is to be believed, then it looks like Sony is gunning for the customers Fujifilm is trying to capture with its popular X100 -- people who want a retro, rangefinder-style camera with a viewfinder and large sensor. The camera is rumored to have a 24MP APS-C sensor, an electronic viewfinder, manual aperture and shutter speed controls …

Now here's an interesting way to capture the passing of an entire day in a single photograph. It's composed of 24 shots -- one per hour -- with no photo manipulation needed!