If you have an old film camera or point and shoot lying around collecting dust, why not put it to some practical use? This quick video will show you how to use the camera's flash to light product shots and portraits on the cheap.
If the tripod thread on the bottom of your camera or favorite accessory breaks, don't go throwing the whole thing away or sending it off for an expensive repair. All you need is about $25 and some DIY know-how to fix it yourself.
Photographer Josh Gladstone of PhotoChemicals made this 11-minute video showing how you can use new Instax instant film on an old Kodak instant camera.
Back in November of 2015, filmmaker Daniel Riley created what he dubbed "the world's brightest flashlight": a 1000W LED panel that pumped out an insane 90000 lumens of light. This week, he took his invention to the skies.
Here's a simple tip that'll come in particularly handy for the smartphone photographers out there: you can use an old phone's LCD screen as a cheap, portable polarizing filter.
London-based DIY computing company Kano has created a new kit for people who would like to assemble and program their own digital camera. It's called the Kano Camera Kit.
The Film Look made this 2-minute video showing how they created customized lens caps to help better identify and keep track of them.
When photographer Ben Money got back in to film photography a couple of years ago, he decided to set up a dedicated darkroom station for himself at home. But because he didn't have a permanent room to use, he ended up create a self-contained rolling darkroom that takes up just 5-square-feet of space in his garage when collapsed.
Faced with a massive bank of windows in a new studio space, YouTube's Koldunov Brothers came up with a creative and customizable "daylight control system" that lets them alter the amount and shape of the light they let in.
Portrait photographers looking to diversify your background options listen up. There's an affordable background material you need to know about, and a great DIY portable background stand you can build for just $25.
I recently built a Trash Cam out of a trash can, large format lens, and Sony a7S II. The project was an attempt to find an inexpensive housing for a large format lens.
If you think a 50mm f/1.2 lens that captures sharp portraits with gorgeous bokeh is hundreds or even thousands of dollars away, think again. If you're willing to get creative, you can have one for just 20 bucks.
SLO is a new 35mm camera that's a bit different from most cameras out there. Every single part in the working camera -- even the lens -- was created using a 3D printer.
This is an incredibly simple idea, but somehow we've never seen it done before. Forget expensive motion controlled timelapse sliders, why not use that old electric toy train you have collecting dust in the attic?
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.
Ever since embarking on a cross-country move last August I’ve been meaning to display some of my cameras and, at last, spurred by a recent PetaPixel post, I finally did.
Unless you have the dough to get a lab scanner, it is a painful process to scan your own film. Luckily one day all the photo labs dumped their Pakon F-135 to the market, and I remember you could get one for ~$250 a pop.
Forget buying a professional rain cover or carting a shower cap with you, if you want to protect your camera from rain and snow on the cheap, this creative quick-and-easy DIY solution will cost you less than $1.
David Clumpner believes in using renewable natural resources. So, in addition to being a professional wedding photographer, he's also an avid hunter, fisherman, and gardener. That explains the camera strap he now brings to weddings: it was custom-made using the skin of a wild bison killed in Gardiner, Montana.
When beautiful vintage photographic technology meets state-of-the-art photo equipment, the results are almost always interesting. Case in point, check out this frankencamera created by graphic designer Arber Marra using his Sony a7S and a 19th century lens he found at a flea market.
The time had come. I’d been trying to justify keeping my X100S and X100T for some time but, in reality, since T had arrived, S had been spending increasingly lengthy spells in the cupboard. So, with a heavy heart, I decided to sell. The obvious route was on eBay, so I cleaned the camera up and took a couple of snaps before preparing my listing.
If you wanna capture quality product photos on the cheap, this short little DIY tutorial is going to be a great resource. In it, you see how an $8 IKEA table turns into a full-fledged product photo booth with just a few modifications and some creative foam board placement.
I know, I know. It’s been done before, but not by me, so I gave ‘er a go. It started when I discovered a blog post online: DIY Foam core 8×10 camera by Cory Norton.
Recently, I had a portrait shoot with the legendary poet, rapper, and actor Saul Williams. It began with a simple stroke of luck: I saw he was scheduled to perform at a local club near my house, and so I did a quick search for the name of his manager. I easily found it and e-mailed them, introducing myself and explained that I would like to take his portrait.
After showing you how to make a tripod using a piece of string, I’m going to go a little more surreal this time by explaining how an old frying pan can be used to get dramatic low angle images.
In one of the most daring (and cost saving) feats of do it yourself engineering we've ever seen, the folks at YouTube channel Indy Mogul managed to recreate a remote-controlled 360° camera rig that normally costs $18,000 for just $650!
Advanced camera stabilizers are becoming cheaper and cheaper these days, but if you're the type of person who enjoys building the things you use, here's a neat tutorial for you. Product Tank released a 7-minute video showing how you can create a DIY stabilizer using LEGO pieces.
Wearable so-called "lifelogging" cameras are a neat way to catalog your day-to-day, but did you know that you can built your own? If you don't want to spend a bunch of money and don't need all the bells and whistles, this DIY Raspberry Pi-powered wearable cam will do the trick.
A little while ago, I was shooting the icebergs on the black sand beach by the Jokulsarlon Glaicer Lagoon, Iceland with a rental EF 24-70mm F2.8L II. Iceland is notorious for being windy, and while I was shooting there was blowing winds carrying ocean spray and water splashes all over me and my camera + lens.
Want to shoot long exposure photos in bright daylight without having to shell out big bucks on a neutral density (ND) filter? Try using a piece of welder's glass -- the kind that protects your eyes while welding. The 13-minute video above by photographer Mathieu Stern provides a nice overview of this photo hack.
Quick, simple, cheap, and useful—you can't ask for much more from a quick photo gear tip, and this quick tip meets all four criteria.
Buying a professional portrait lighting setup like the much-loved Kino Flo lights is just not within everybody's budget, especially if you want LEDs. But you can actually build a reasonable alternative for just a couple hundred bucks and about an hour of manual labor.
Want an easy way to back up your memory card to any external hard drive without having to pull out your main computer? A Raspberry Pi computer can help you do just that.
Flickr generated a lot of bad feelings back in March 2016 by making its Auto-Uploadr app a Pro-only feature. If you're not Pro but would still like the convenience of automatically uploading new photos, you can build a custom gadget that does it for you.
In this article I will show you the basics of how to do dark field and bright field lighting and a quick way to convert any softbox into a striplight using office supplies.
Back in February 2016, skier Nicolas Vuignier captured the worlds imagination with a video shot using his "Centriphone," a plastic glider that lets you swing a camera around your head and have the lens constantly pointed toward you. For their latest music video, Indie pop duo Matt & Kim created their own centriphone... using a wooden coat hanger and some fishing wire.
If you have both an unused rolling toolbox and an ever-growing camera gear collection that needs a better home, here's an idea: you can convert one or more of the toolbox's shelves into padded storage for your cameras, lenses, and accessories.
This strange Raspberry Pi-powered DIY-camera isn't really a camera at all... at least not in the traditional sense. When you press the shutter, instead of showing you the picture you just took, it shows you a similar photo from the Internet instead.
We've shared a number of do-it-yourself camera projects involving Raspberry Pi in the past. If you're interested in trying your hand at one, it's now even cheaper: the ultra affordable $5 Raspberry Pi Zero now has a camera connector.
Looking for a weekend project and have some hardware and software skills? Try building yourself an instant camera using Rapsberry Pi and a thermal receipt printer.
Here's a quick DIY trick that'll come in handy the next time you need to add a filter to a wide angle lens on the cheap. If you can't buy a proper adaptor (or 3D print one), just use some card stock and black tape.
I do a lot of product photography and there are two places I go to when I need to prepare supplies for a shoot: one is the hardware store to get some tiles and the other is our local bookstore/art/office supply store.
The Kodak Brownie Hawkeye was introduced in 1949 in USA and France. It’s a bakelite camera which produces 6cm x 6cm images on 620 film. It came in two different models: Standard and Flash. You can differentiate between the two by the nameplate on the front.
In this article I will describe how to construct a simple reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) setup using an Arduino microprocessor and a 3D printer.
Below is a walk through of how I created ONE image for my portfolio, I will add some of the other images, but I don't have them in my portfolio. This is because this was the start of a series of images and I had set out to come out with only one from each shoot.
This is really neat. Here's a quick, useful DIY tip that'll show you 5 creative ways to add a 1/4" tripod mount to just about any object both destructively and non-destructively.
Shooting the moon has been a little obsession of mine for a very long time (ever since I started photography). I guess it is my love of impossible images, science fiction, and science fact that drove me to want to take photographs of the moon.
When it comes to macro photography, DIY solutions for would-be macro shooters looking to get better results without emptying their wallets abound—from reverse lensing, to DIY macro tubes, to full-blown light boxes. Today, we'll add to that list by showing you how to make a simple DIY flash diffuser.
If you ever need to soften your flash in a pinch, you can go the MacGyver route and fashion a diffuser for yourself using an ordinary piece of paper. They usually cost about $0.01 per sheet, so this is one of the cheapest diffusers you can make.
Here's a neat, simple, and cheap little trick that'll help you get smooth footage when shooting video or a hyperlapse with your DSLR. If you don't have the money or the need to pony up for a serious stabilization system, try using a shopping bag instead!
