Do It Yourself

Love music just as much as you love photography? Want an extra music stand? You can make a makeshift …

Photographer and craftaholic Parul Arora sells beautiful Polaroid picture ceramic coasters through her …

QR codes have become an extremely popular way of linking to digital things from the physical world, and more and more businesses are displaying them in order to direct customers to their websites. Photographer David Sykes (whom we previously featured here) decided to take advantage of the craze to promote his new website and blog. Instead of an ordinary QR code, however, he decided to create an 8-foot square model of the code using things such as boots, calculators, briefcases, boomboxes, and champagne bottles. He then photographed the code on film and mailed out limited edition prints.

Want to go beyond using ordinary wrapping paper for your Christmas gifts? You can make some DIY wrapping paper …

Here’s a neat idea for photographic experimentation: create a pinhole camera out of photographic paper by folding it into …

Eve Johnson of Evalicious wanted to turn some old digital photographs into Instax-style …

Talia van der Wel of New Zealand wanted a simple and beautiful way to display instant photos, and came up with the idea of an empty frame in which photos are hung on clothespins from twine. After sharing the idea with her husband, he went and created the frame out of an old wood lattice.

Wanna add some photo-geekery to your Christmas tree this year? Try making custom Christmas ornaments out of strips of …

Wanting a cheap and compact way to carry, protect, and manage his SD cards, Instructables member …

Want a clever way to use your Christmas tree as a photo display? Simply print 1.5-inch photos onto acetate …

Jill Gillen has a fun photo craft idea for customizing any clear hand sanitizer bottles you have sitting around the house: add photographs of trapped family members!

Photographer Matthew Nicholson, the guy behind the amazing Lie-ca paper pinhole …

These photos might look like they were computer generated, but they're actually unmodified photographs. Ron Brinkmann took 6 mirror tiles and made a box with them with the help of some duct tape. He then placed a camera inside and triggered shots using the timer.

Have a habit of losing your lens caps? Add a clip to them to keep them attached to your …

If you have an unwanted silk scarf lying around, you can combine it with some key rings to turn …

If you have a potato chip tube lying around, you can convert the tube into a super simple DIY snoot. All you need to do is cut an opening in the closed end that's the size of your flash head (tip: use some duct tape to prevent it from scratching your flash).

Check out this awesome picture frame: it’s an old french door that was cut in half, stripped, painted, distressed.

In this short video, photographer Allen Mowery shows how you can create a …

Canon's 50mm f/1.8 Mark II is a terrific lens for its price, but its build quality definitely leaves something to be desired. Do a quick search, and you'll find legions of broken-hearted Canonites who had their 'Nifty Fifty' split into two pieces after accidentally bumping or dropping it. Flickr user tastygiant is one such Canonite, but he subsequently discovered an awesome use for the broken lens:

Being a geek, I figured I could use the broken pieces in the future, so I shelved it and bought a new 50mm 1.8 Canon lens. One day, while taking shots around my apartment, I stumbled across the broken lens again and decided to reverse the "barrel assembly" onto the front of my intact 50mm. Everything was blurry of course, but I noticed if I got very close to an object the detail came into view. After adjusting the aperture to around f5.6, I had a clear image.
It's important to note that you should switch to Manual focusing and rotate the focusing ring to "infinity".

Want a super simple macro lens for your phone without shelling out big bucks? You can use 3D printing …

In the past week, two different lens dial camera cases have been announced for iPhoneographers: a Holga …

Last week we featured Jason Hull’s awesome nightlights created out of old (and cheap) vintage cameras. If …

Kevin Klein has a hobby of miniaturizing Victorian technology, and recently he made the world's smallest wet plate camera using 1/32-inch plywood and other wood materials. The camera is only a little bigger than a quarter, and shoots miniature 1/2-inch square plate images.

Caleb Barrett wanted a simple ring light to play around with, so he built himself one for just $20 using built himself a makeshift ring light using eight cheap compact fluorescent light bulbs. The lights are pretty dim and have a horrible color rendering index, but are fun to play around with if you're just looking for something to experiment with.

John Sypal of Tokyo Camera Style spotted a photographer on the streets of Tokyo using this homemade lens created out of a potato chip tube. It captures photos that show the world in a glass-like sphere, with everything else blurred.

We've featured special gloves and mittens designed for photographers before, but what if your camera uses a touchscreen instead of physical controls? Here's a video by Make's Becky Stern showing how you can sew some conductive thread into your glove to make it compatible with capacitive touchscreens.

Many extreme athletes these days use helmet-mounted HD cameras for photos and videos captured from a first person point of view, but photographer Justin Olsen does things a little differently: he uses a chest-mounted DSLR. Using a custom rig created for him by a local sewing shop, Olsen snaps his unique photos using a 15mm on a Canon 1D Mark III or a 5D Mark II, and a PocketWizard to trigger the shutter wirelessly.

Faking toy camera effects with apps or software is a big fad these days, but Joel Pirela of Blue Ant Studio went a step further: he built his own homemade digital Lomography camera using some walnut wood, hand-polished aluminum frame, parts from a 5-megapixel Vivitar Vivicam, and an Olympus OM series lens.

Photographer Jason Hull has a hobby of taking old cameras from the 1950s …

For his wedding, designer Matt Frank built this photo booth that looks like …

Haven’t found a small camera case that’s stylish enough for your taste? Matt over at …

If you’re looking for a creative way to display your photos (and decorate your home), …

Photographer Jesse Rosten wanted a more efficient and mobile way to do off-camera lighting, so he invented this backpack-style apparatus that he calls "The Strobist Jet Pack". Although it's pretty ridiculous looking (it reminds us of Ghostbusters), it works well for placing lighting equipment in exactly the place needed while still being able to move about.

Flickr user Twin-Reverb made this nifty DIY flash diffuser using a cardboard paper towel tube, a paper towel, and some aluminum foil.

Photographer Tyler Card‘s uber-creative Nikon DSLR costume was the talk of the photo …

Photographer Peter Wirén came up with a super cheap and easy way to record sliding shots using his DSLR. Instead of buying an expensive slider or dolly system, he simply cut the fingers off an old glove and used them as "socks" on his GorillaPod.

When husband and wife photography duo Jodi and Kurt got married last year, they were determined to do something photography-related for the guys' boutonnières. Luckily for them, Kurt's sister Lynn is a brilliant wedding stylist who helped make these one-of-a-kind designs. Kurt's featured an old camera lens, while the best man's was a flower made from film negatives.

Many digital cameras are battery-only, and can’t be directly connected to an outlet for an infinite source of power.

Dutch artist Purr Anders transforms old photographs into beautiful jewelry. After printing the …

Editor's note: Since we featured in back in August, Justin Jensen's Cineskates project has raised nearly half a million dollars. Here's a DIY tutorial by Ed Lewis on how to make your own.

Want to get a nice dolly shot without spending a lot of money? With less than $20 and a GorillaPod you can have an adjustable tripod dolly. You can adjust the angle, the direction, and the radius for circular dolly shots. It's also ridiculously easy to make. With all the supplies and tools, the build time here is less than 10 minutes.

Photographer Chris Keeny came up with a nifty design for a pinhole camera made using an Altoids mint tin. It's pretty fancy too, utilizing a re-loadable film take-up spool that uses a metallic turn key to advance the film.

Want to create a photography-related costume this halloween? Here are some fun costume ideas to give you some ideas. The above is a standard Canon point-and-shoot that has a tiny camera in the lens.

Want a pair of mittens that don’t interfere with your love for photography? If you know how to knit, …

Earlier this month we shared a hugely popular post on transferring a photo onto a block of …

For Halloween this year, photographer Tyler Card decided to made a giant Nikon DSLR costume. Not just any DSLR costume, mind you, but a fully functional one. The camera actually takes pictures when the shutter release button is pressed, and the photograph is displayed on the giant LCD screen on the back. The built-in flash also works, and the camera is even capable of triggering Alienbees strobes.

If you have some translucent film canisters lying around, you can turn them into DIY glow sticks for …

Inspired by Caleb Ungewitter's giant poster project, Andy Beckmann decided to try his hand at making a nicer version. Instead of attaching prints to the wall directly, Beckmann purchased 36 210x297mm wooden boards to mount the prints on (the photo was split into smaller prints using PosteRazor). The result is a more durable and professional looking display that can be easily reused in a different location.

Sending cameras to the edges of space on a weather balloon has become a pretty popular activity as of late, but up to now people were mostly sending up cell phones, compact cameras, and small HD video cameras (e.g. GoPros). While those devices are light and relatively cheap, the quality of images produced isn't the best.

Eddie had a hard time finding a camera strap he liked, so he decided to make his own in the style of some rifle slings he found online. The slings were weaved together using 550 Paracord (parachute cord), which has a breaking weight of 550 pounds. He found some for sale for $7 at his local army-navy store, and weaved together his own rugged DIY camera strap.

Our camera stickers are fun, but for something more personal you can make your own 35mm film …