The folks over at Syrp have just released plans for one of the most intense, involved, but potentially rewarding DIY projects you could possibly embark on: building your own professional photo studio with no corners, giving the impression of an infinite background—AKA: a cyclorama.
Photographer Brendan Barry has put together a detailed step-by-step tutorial that might help you stay busy while you're stuck inside. In this video, he'll show you how to take and develop photos by turning your bedroom into a camera obscura, and your bathroom into a makeshift darkroom.
You might have heard of the Pixelstick. “Nothing compares” is one of their tag lines. And this is true... at least price-wise. I have always wanted one to at least try out some light painting with it, but the Pixelstick retails for €400 here in Germany and $349 in the United States.
Our friends at SLR Lounge have created a simple little DIY tutorial that can help you add some creative flare to your portraits... literally. In 2 minutes, photographer Pye Jirsa show you how to make what they call a "flare ring" using some simple crafts supplies.
The GameBoy Camera is a cult classic, but finding paper for the GameBoy Printer that it uses is a pain. Fortunately, industrious creator Vaclav Mach engineered a solution that'll let you attach the GameBoy camera to any cheap thermal/receipt printer you can find.
Wet plate photography master Markus Hofstaetter—a frequent guest author on PetaPixel—recently embarked on another photography experiment. Using pebbles of sandarac resin, he made his own Renaissance-era varnish for his finished wet plates.
YouTuber Jordy of Cinecom.net recently put together a list of DIY filmmaking and photography hacks that are proving to be quite popular. In just under 7 minutes, he covers 9 hacks, all of which use cardboard to make the magic happen.
Recently I became—as I’m sure many of you already are—utterly sick of the endless chargers and cables in my studio. It's a mess of wires that always seem to get tangled and it always ends up looking like Medusa on a bad hair day.
Vintage glass shooter and photography YouTuber Mathieu Stern recently got the chance to try Lomography's special LomoMod No.1 cardboard film camera and special liquid-filled lens—an ostensibly "fun" combination that turned out to be a nightmare for Stern, who has dubbed it "the worst camera I ever tested."
Anyone who has had any exposure to still life photography or studio work will know just how expensive backdrops can be. I have a couple from Kate Backdrops company, one of which I use very often, but I've been hankering after a few more.
For his latest project, Iranian photographer and camera maker Alireza Rostami collected 35mm film canisters and used them to construct the bodies of medium format and large format cameras. The project is called "Unity Camera."
I was recently offered a free Pelican case, and she seemed too young to die. She was structurally sound, so I felt some plastic surgery would make her look 10 years younger... and it did.
Professional photographer Karl Taylor has put together a short-but-very-useful tutorial that will show you how you can calibrate your lens autofocus without buying a special calibration chart or tool. All you need are a few household items, your camera, and your tripod.
As we know, wide angle lenses show a larger field of view and therefore make things appear smaller and further away than they are. Which contradicts the concept of macro photography, where we want our subject to be projected onto the sensor at a magnification ratio of at least 1.0x. So how can we combine a wide angle perspective and macro macro-capabilities?
Apple has released the fourth installment in its "Experiments" series, showing off the iPhone 11 Pro's camera with a stunning series of shots on the theme of "Fire & Ice," and then taking us behind the scenes to reveal how each scene was captured.
Self-described "maker" and YouTuber Sean Hodgins of Idle Hands Development recently took on a DIY project that's way beyond most of us mere mortals: he built his very own, working, 1-Kilopixel image sensor. Take that Sony!
Did you know that you can make your own ground glass focusing screen? In his latest video, wet plate photographer Markus Hofstätter shows you exactly how by making a ground glass screen for one of his large format cameras.
After getting his hands on two broken Lubitel twin-lens reflex cameras, Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami found that the shutter mechanisms still worked, so he decided to turn parts from the two cameras into a homemade dual-lens wrist camera for 3D stereoscopic photography.
For my latest project, "we are the dead," I decided to build a room in which to shoot my pictures. I had absolutely no idea how to do this, but there were some facts I needed to consider.
What started off as a quick lighting test in my garage has turned into a full investigation and installation of my own DIY photography ceiling rail system. My shooting space measures 7x10 feet (2x3m) -- not a great space for shooting portraits.
Last year, I used a custom-built setup to shoot a timelapse of an eternal terrarium in my kitchen. Over the course of 10 months, a camera took two photos every hour of the day, while the plants inside the terrarium grew on their own without disturbance.
Photographer Nicholas Sherlock is back at it with his 3D printed creations. After creating a huge 5x macro setup using a 3D printed 300mm extension tube earlier this year, he decided to design and build a special 'rifle-style grip' that would allow him to more easily use that monstrous rig.
Jonathan Lucan of Lucan Productions recently came up with an ingenious "hack" that allowed him to capture "dynamic and innovative shots" that look like they were shot with an FPV drone... except that they weren't. They were captured using a GoPro HERO 6, a 9-foot selfie stick, and a OneWheel.
The glorious colors of summer are fading away, and the windy weather makes outdoor macro photography difficult. In other words, it’s the perfect time to take photography inside and stage creative photos with things around the house.
Want a tabletop wooden backdrop you can use for photographing everything from products to babies? Here's a 10.5-minute video by Erik Tande of DIY done wrong showing how you can make your own for basically zero cost.
Recently I made my own custom-built camera rig for shooting Through-The-Viewfinder videos on a Nikon Z6 through the viewfinder of an old Lomo Lubitel 166. With my setup, I can have the whole camera in the frame but without distracting hands visible. Here's how I did it.
Lomography has released a new DIY medium format cardboard camera called the LomoMod No. 1, and it comes with a really neat "accessory" up its sleeve: a liquid-filled lens module that Lomo is calling "perhaps the wildest and most innovative lens in the world."
Photographer Isaac Alvarez of Unplug Productions is at it again in a video that shows you how to capture striking, professional-grade "ink-watch" photography in your own living room using only the most basic equipment.
Light macro photographs can be tricky. If you are a beginning macro photographer and do not know where to start when it comes to using a speedlight to illuminate your subjects, here is a complete guide to different flash diffusers you can use for macro photos.
If you develop your own film or wet plates, photographer Markus Hofstaetter has a great tip for you. With just a tiny little DIY tweak, you can turn a $5 all-in-one IKEA gadget into the perfect all-in-one Darkroom timer, thermometer and clock.