howitwasmade

How I Made a 3D-Printed Film Movie Camera

A couple of years ago I have been occasionally shooting 35mm films with point-and-shoot still cameras while also having the desire to shoot motion picture films.

How Photo Mechanic Was Born at Super Bowl XXXII in 1998

It was Sunday morning January 25th, 1998, and I was in The Associated Press’s trailer in the parking lot at Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego. Last-minute preparations were underway for coverage of Super Bowl XXXII between the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos – Favre vs Elway. Perfect!

How I Bring My Sketches to Life as Conceptual Photo Art

For a digital artist like me, getting those unique ideas for my images is one of the most important things. I see the ideas in my dreams, when I read a magazine, when I’m out for a walk, or pretty much anywhere. I have learned that ideas are everywhere if you just allow yourself to see them.

How I Converted My Afghan Box Camera Into a 4×5 Slide Projector

I have been shooting 4x5 color transparencies or commonly known as color slide film for many years but the best that I could enjoy them was to put them on the light table and viewing them through a loupe. Unlike my 35mm and 120 slides, I have never seen them projected big simply it is not easy to locate a 4×5 slide projector.

Building a 16×20 Camera with a Giant Aerial Lens and Cardboard

A few years ago I built an ultra-large-format (ULF) camera that is 24 inches by 24 inches. While it was a pretty huge camera, it was a simple build it was just two square standards, one for the front and one from the back that were connected by a big bellow.

How I Created a Magical Bear Photo

Two years ago in September, I was traveling in Kuusamo, Finland, and I had the opportunity to go see and photograph wild bears. We left our cars and started walking to the bear-watching hut with a small group. I felt nervous and it felt like a long walk in the woods, hearing all the little noises around us.

These Before-and-After Images Reveal What Goes Into My Photo Art

As a digital artist, I create images that are optical illusions, interesting concepts, and fantasy worlds. For this, I have to have tools to achieve my visions and this is where my retouching background comes into play.

An Inside Look at How the Fujifilm GFX 100 Was Born

Last month, Fujifilm announced the GFX 100, a game-changing 102-megapixel medium format mirrorless camera. cinema5D has released a 2-part documentary that gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how this monster of a camera came to be.

Recreating the First Color Photo Ever Made

In the "Olden Days," professional science was still in its infancy. People who trained in science and practiced science were using every ounce of creativity and imagination at their disposal to discover the nature of the world. They were scrappy and inventive. In this article, I will outline a modern replication of the experiment that produced the first color photograph ever made.

Making MAYA, the Only Darkroom Timer You’ll Ever Need

MAYA is a darkroom timer project that was born out of necessity when my old darkroom timer had started to malfunction. It has become a pretty successful crowdfunding campaign so far, exceeding 300% of its initial goal with a few days left to go.

Apple’s New iPad Pro Ads Were Shot and Made Entirely on the iPad Pro

Apple recently released a new series of ads for the iPad Pro that shows how the tablet computer opens the doors to new ways of doing things. What's neat is that Apple is "eating its own dog food": as the 2-minute behind-the-scenes video above reveals, the ads were shot, edited, animated, designed, and composed entirely on the iPad Pro.

Making a Conceptual Photo of the Man Who Controls Day and Night

Swedish photographer and retoucher Erik Johansson has created a new conceptual photo titled "Daybreaker," which shows the man in charge of controlling the transitions between day and night. Johansson is also sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how he put both day and night into one photo.

‘Turn the Blind Eye’: How I Turned a Concept Photo Idea Into Reality

I’m not an environmental activist. I’m more or less a regular dude who hates taking out biowaste, still drives a diesel because it's cheaper, and recycles plastic because my wife tells me to. I enjoy our Finnish lake views, clean air, and peaceful sunsets, but rarely thought about losing them... until recently.

Yes, Nikon Designs Its Own Sensors

Sony has been receiving attention and praise in recent years for the quality of its sensors and the fact that it produces sensors for other heavyweight camera companies, including Nikon. But even though some of Nikon's CMOS sensors may be manufactured in Sony factories, Nikon actually spends a considerable amount of resources designing those high-end sensors.

How I Created a 16-Gigapixel Photo of Quito, Ecuador

A few years ago, I flew out to Ecuador to create a high-resolution image of the capital city of Quito. The final image turned out to be 16 gigapixels in size and at a printed size of over 25 meters (~82 feet), it allows people see jaw-dropping detail even when viewed from a few inches away.

How We Made a Mobile Darkroom for a Homemade 16×20″ Camera

In December 2015, Shane Arsenault and I had started talking about a joint photography project with the purpose of using his 16”x20” Bellows Camera on a larger scale, which would give us the freedom to work outside a conventional studio space.

I Built the Largest Natural Light Wet Plate Studio in the US in Over a Century

There are fewer than 1,000 wet plate collodion artists practicing around the world, and as far as I know, I am the only one in the state of North Dakota. 5 years ago, I didn't own a camera and knew nothing about photography. I saw a wet plate online and I was immediately drawn to it, and thus my journey began.

Creating a Surreal Photo of a Man on a Ladder Crossing Water and Sky

Erik Johansson is a Swedish photographer who creates surreal scenes with his camera and Photoshop. His latest work is titled All Above the Sky. It shows a man climbing a ladder and poking his head above the sky, only to find himself looking up out of the waters nearby. Above is a 1-minute behind-the-scenes video that shows how it was created.

Building an 8×10 Large Format Camera Entirely By Hand

Photographer Dieter Schneider started building cameras about five years ago, and last year he fashioned a 4x5 camera using a CNC Machine. This year he took things to yet another level, creating an 8x10 large format camera entirely by hand without using computer-aided machinery. You can watch the entire build process in the 35-minute video above.

A Before and After Look at the Magic of a Photoshop Artist

Photographer and visual artist Antti Karppinen has been reimagining photos using Photoshop for over 23 years now. Here's a before-and-after look at how Karppinen is able to take plain portraits (shot in studios, garages, and outdoors) and turn them into dreamlike images.

This Lightning Photo is 5.45 Gigapixels

Gigapixel photos and lightning photos are generally created two different ways. One requires a mosaic of photos stitched together, and the other is usually a wide-angle view that's exposed at the moment of a lightning strike. That's what makes photographer Dan Piech's image "The Hand of Zeus" so amazing: it's a 5.449-gigapixel photo of a lightning strike in New York City.

Creating Surreal Photo-Manipulations That Distort Outdoor Spaces

Photo artist Erik Johansson was commissioned by Clinea, a Swiss company leading in the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy, to create something a little different. Johansson shot the images in Prague and Austria this year, creating beautiful photo manipulations that capture the essence of such a company.

This Guy Made His Own 90mm f/2.8 Lens from Scratch

Plenty of photographers these days try their hands at making their own cameras, but Swedish photographer, inventor, and camera maker Mats Wernersson recently did something a little more unusual: he made his own 90mm f/2.8 lens from scratch.

The LG G6’s Wallpaper is Actually a Photo

The new LG G6 smartphone ships with an artsy wallpaper that looks like a stylized number 6. A neat fact about the image is that it's not a computer rendered artwork: it took two months to create and shoot the photos.

I Flew to Europe to Create ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Photos for My Daughter

It was late, dark and eerie as I drove through the Swiss alps in my tiny rental car. I could barely see the road and was stuck in between two semi trucks. I should have been fearing for my life, but all I could think about was how excited my 3-year-old daughter, Nellee, would be after seeing what I was creating for her.

This Large Format Camera Was Built with Garage Scraps and a DSLR

I recently built my own DIY large format camera using scraps. The idea of this camera started with vintage profile spotlight that I wanted to restore, only to discover that some of the internal lens elements were shattered. The only lens element that was undamaged was the front element. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that this element can project an image circle big enough to cover an 8x10 area.

Before & After: How One Popular Photographer Edits His Photos

Photographer Peter Stewart is an internationally published photographer who's also popular on photo sharing sites, boasting tens of thousands of followers and millions of views on 500px, Flickr, and Instagram. Here's an eye-opening series of his before-and-after post-processing comparisons.

I Made a Photo Mosaic by Shooting 1,000 Portraits

My name is Chaim Perl, and I'm a NYC-based photographer who specializes in large group portraits. If it's difficult to shoot, I like it. In this post, I'll share how I created a photo mosaic by shooting 1,000 portraits.

Making an Alice in Wonderland Portrait with 12 Hours of Photoshop

After my Star Wars photo-manipulation went viral, I was contacted by a fellow in Hong Kong who wanted to surprise his wife with a bit of Wonderland. He gave me some photos of him and his bride, and then graciously gave me artistic freedom to create the photo above.

Creating a Composite Car Photo Using a Parking Lot Snapshot

A couple of days ago, photographer and retoucher Clint Davis shared a guest post about how he created composite photos for a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4x4 brochure. Turkish photographer and retoucher Burak Erzincanli was also recently commissioned to create a composite with a Mercedes Sprinter.

How Nikon Film SLRs Were Made in the 1990s

Want to see how Nikon SLR cameras were made two decades ago? Back in 1998, the Japanese TV show "The Making" -- an international predecessor of How It's Made -- aired this 15-minute-long segment showing how Nikon manufactured its F70 film SLR (known as the N70 in the US), which was first introduced in 1994.

This is How Photoshop Artist Erik Johansson Creates His Mind-Bending Images

Swedish photographer and retoucher Erik Johansson is well known for his mind-bending photo-manipulations and optical illusions, which are all made with careful photography and Photoshopping. If you're wondering how the images are actually created, Johansson has been regularly release behind-the-scenes videos showing his techniques.