Walkthroughs

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.

Dramatic Portrait Lighting Made Simple

Street portraiture provides the opportunity to capture so much of the urban textures and patterns that give a city its look. The brick walls provide great leading lines as well as murals and large wall art that set a dramatic tone to any image.

From a Thought to a Photograph: A Visual Guide

The first thing I always say to the participants of my photography workshops is to always spend enough time in preparation. I strongly believe that in order to make a good photo, no matter the genre, you have to be prepared as best as you can.

How I Shot This Lunar Eclipse Sequence In Camera, On Film

G’day from Australia, my name is Jason De Freitas (@jase.film on Instagram), and I’m a photographer mostly known for my analog astrophotography. In this article, I’ll describe the process and decisions I went through to take this lunar eclipse multi-exposure sequence on medium format film.

How to Photograph Couples: A Detailed Tutorial

I am a professional wedding, portrait, and fashion photographer, and have almost three decades of experience photographing couples. I created this video to provide lighting, posing and location tips and tricks in a few different scenarios to give photographers some inspiration on how to photograph couples.

Photographing Red Squirrels from a Hide in an Irish Forest

Eurasian red squirrels are diminutive, skulking mammals with an extensive range from Ireland through Siberia to Japan. They are very photogenic and have that cute gene that really shouldn’t be a winner when it comes to evolution.

An Insider’s Guide: How to Photograph a Concert, Start to Finish

I'm often told that being a professional concert photographer is the coolest job in the world. In order to dispel some myths surrounding what I do and also support others who want to get into the profession, I’m going to peel back the curtain of the entire process from preparation to editing.

Action Packed: Photographing Mountain Bikers with the EOS R5

For most photographers, it’s been an interesting past year and my experience is no exception. My regular work shooting for commercial clients and agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area was upended by the Coronavirus pandemic, and keeping busy has meant constantly shifting gears to keep the calendar full.

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 To Make a Photo Trap With a Raspberry Pi and a Sony Alpha

Recently a squirrel noticed our nut box that was waiting to be raided for almost a year now. But as our squirrels here are a bit skittish, I needed to come up with a way to get in close to take nice pictures of them.

How a Wildlife Photographer Rescued Four Baby Red Squirrels

Wildlife photographer Dani Connor was photographing red squirrels in Sweden last year when she discovered four baby orphaned squirrels. In this beautiful 30-minute short film she made, titled The Squirrels & Me, Connor shares how she rescued the baby squirrels and then befriended a family of them.

Morsiple Messages: A Daguerreotype Multiple Exposure Method

In early spring 1839, Paris was abuzz with excitement in connection with a recently published letter, in which the invention of photography was confirmed by reliable sources. The world was now waiting for the French government to work out a deal with its inventor Louis J.M. Daguerre for details of the daguerreotype process to become public. 

Watch Photography Professors Do a Shootout with Kids’ Toy Cameras

Northern Arizona University recently decided to conduct a photography shootout that pitted two of its photography professors against each other. The challenge: to shoot the best graduation portraits they could with toy digital cameras designed for children. You can see how it went down in the 8.5-minute video above.

Shooting Cyberpunk Flapper Girl and Other Photographic Mashups

It’s a rare occasion when I do a team collaboration on a personal shoot. I typically prefer to work directly with the model, having them bring their own wardrobe and arrive with their hair and makeup already done. It not only saves time and is easier to coordinate but I also love the challenge of coming up with a cohesive theme for the shoot, basing my techniques, lighting, and color palette on the items that they brought with them.

Winter Wetlands: Photographing Whooper Swans

A winter wetland has always held a special place in my heart. A unique wildness derived from the winter wildfowl that visit from the remote Arctic landscapes, birds of prey drawn to harry prey during the short, cold days – the nervousness of wildfowl feeding anxiously – ready to take flight as a menacing shadow passes overhead.

Exquisite Geometry: A Wacom and Projector Photo Shoot

This was my first time working with Amber. In preparation for the shoot, I told her the same thing I tell all of my models: bring 4-6 different outfit options and have hair and makeup ready when they arrive.

Daguerrean Dream: A Visual Symphony in 43 Daguerreotype Plates

Having now finalized work on this series, I will attempt to put into words its impetus, as well as how it came to fruition. This will be a lengthy entry, proportional in size to the monumentally significant nature of this work for me, and therefore I shall start from the beginning, as all things have their origins.

How to Photograph Your Own Eye

The world of macro photography is full of fascinating subjects, but eyes and irises have got to be among the most mesmerizing ones. As with most captivating subjects, capturing it can be quite a challenge.

How to Make a LIDAR-Driven Motorized Film Carrier

Despite what some people think about LIDAR for cars, in the near future it is foreseeable that this technology will take its rightful place in our daily lives. Not just for cars but with almost anything and everything. We have already seen Apple’s new iPad and iPhone utilizing this technology. I wanted to see if I could use a LIDAR, in its most fundamental function, on a film carrier that is printed on a 3D printer.

My Last Mocha: An 8×10 Polaroid Passion Project

Brzz, bzzzrrr. The rollers on the vintage Polaroid developer start to suck in the 8×10 Polaroid. Dan Bosman, a Mars Cafe barista of 14 years, and I are chatting just like we always do.

Shooting Daguerreotypes of California Redwoods

This trip has been waiting in the wings ever since I made my first successful daguerreotype in the redwoods two years ago. I actually planned on going as early as August this year, but one project after another kept getting in the way, and for months I kept pushing it back by a couple of weeks.

Petroglyph Daguerreotypes on Daguerre’s Birthday

Toward the end of November, I went back to one of my favorite places in the desert. A spot out in the middle of nowhere, with the nearest significant human population well over an hour drive away.

Photographing Northern Harriers Flying Over the Grasslands at Dusk

I've always found northern harriers to be a raptor species that stood out from most others. Their hunting method provides ample opportunity for creative photography as they glide over gorgeous marshes and grasslands searching for food. On this particular evening, I visited a new grassland in the middle of New Jersey that I had not visited previously to see if I could capture some photos of these beautiful birds.

How to Freeze Camera Cables: The Otherworldly Beauty of Ilulissat, Greenland

It’s a bit like arriving on the set of a nature documentary; watching whales swim around distant icebergs and fresh blueberries underfoot. The key to this passion project was to show the extreme seasonal variations on the incredible island of Greenland. Juxtaposing the summer warmth with the extreme winter cold.

Restoring an 85-Year-Old Leica Camera

Maximilian Heinrich of Analog Insights recently inherited an 85-year-old Leica camera and handed it off to his friend Jules for repair and restoration. This 15-minute video is about the camera's journey from nearly being passed on to a camera store to being brought back to form.

Shooting Portraits Inside a London COVID Hospital

I first came to the hospital back in June, having decided that the stories and experiences of the front line staff shouldn’t be forgotten. We’d all seen inside the Italian hospitals, but when the virus hit the UK, there was nothing coming out of the UK, so I made it my mission to gain access and document the life and death struggles going on behind closed doors.

This is How Photojournalists Got Shots of Trump Golfing

President Trump was golfing on Saturday when most mainstream media outlets called the 2020 presidential election, projecting former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner. A few photojournalists managed to capture photos of Trump by shooting with ultra-telephoto camera lenses from nearly a mile away across the Potomac River.

My Process for Creating Insect Portraits with Macro Photography

Each print that I create is a composite of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of individual photos digitally stitched together. Using a method of macro photography called “photo stacking” it’s possible to create images with an incredible amount of detail, even when printed on a very large scale.

Tutorial: Make Your Own Hard-Cover Photography Portfolio

When I started freelancing as a professional photographer, I knew I had to put together a printed portfolio. Unfortunately, I found it very hard to find useful resources on the Internet on how to actually do this. As I had some experience in bookbinding I managed to bind my first book by myself, but after three books I realized that in this stage of my career, I needed to have something a little more flexible.

How to Capture Professional Whiskey Product Shots with Only One Light

Photographer Dustin Dolby is back with a new no-frills product photography tutorials that his viewers have been asking him to do for ages: whiskey. In this walkthrough video, he takes you step-by-step through the entire process of capturing and editing together a professional whiskey bottle product shot using only one light.