How To: Rasterbate rasterized images from any picture
Empty walls? This is the perfect solution. The Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. Upload an image, print the resulting multi-page pdf file and assemble the pages into extremely cool looking poster up to 20 meters in size. Rasterbating is when you make a photo out of several photos.
How To: Stop Saying "Cheese"! Here's How You Smile More Naturally for Photos
I hate having my picture taken. It's awkward, and I almost always end up thinking, "Is that what I look like all the time?" Most of us think we look awful in photos, probably because we all subconsciously act and carry ourselves a little differently when we know there's a camera on us.
News: Corneal Imaging Photo Process Reveals the Hidden, Reflected 'World in an Eye'
You can take some absolutely gorgeous photos using the natural reflection that appears in people's and animals' eyes. With the right angle and lighting, you can even see a detailed picture of what the subject was looking at when the photo was taken. Photo by Martin Cathrae
How To: Mod Your Old Polaroid Camera for Wet Plate Collodion Photography
Wet-plate collodion photography is a process that lets you develop a photo onto a piece of glass. It has some neat applications, but it's not a simple process, and most people use a special camera to do it because the silver nitrate used to process usually ends up leaking, which would ruin a regular camera.
How To: Build a Cheap and Easy Optical Zoom Lens for Your Smartphone
Love taking photos with your smartphone, but don't have a zoom? This tutorial by Unitips will show you how to DIY one with a few simple parts. All you'll need is 1/4" bolts, washers, and wingnuts (two each), some sheet metal, and a pair of binoculars.
How To: Take the Perfect Booty Selfie
Today you can be just like Kim Kardashian and take an awesome booty selfie. Taking a booty selfie is So Easy a Guy Can Do It!
How To: Build a Bulldog 5x4 large format camera
First of all open the box and take out the kit, different parts and the instruction manual. You also need glue, epoxy adhesives, sand paper, 2 mm drill and a 4 mm drill. Start with assembling the outer frame of the camera by fixing in the slots. Use a screw driver to screw the bolts. Now use the glue and fix the inner parts of the camera. Now make the front portion of the camera. Fix it exactly as shown in the instruction Manual. Now drill in the holes on the sides of the camera's outer frame...
How To: Repair a Lomography Diana camera shutter
If your film camera shutter has stopped working, chances are that the shutter spring has become detached. This photography tutorial shows you how to disassemble the Lomography Diana Plus shutter assembly and re-attach the spring. You will need a small screwdriver to make this camera repair.
How To: 5 Incredibly Cheap and Smooth DIY Camera Mounts for Inside or Outside of Your Car
Shooting a photo or video in a car can be rather difficult without a proper mount, and if you want to secure your camera outside the car, it can be just plain expensive. Luckily, there are tons of DIY camera mounts for both inside and outside your vehicle, and most of them are pretty cheap to make. Here are some of the best.
How To: Develop black and white film for photography
In this photography tutorial, learn the developing process of black and white film. Jim Talkington guides you through the steps in this instructional video. A good way to start developing your own black and white film photographs.
How To: Develop Kodachrome Film (B&W Hand Processing & Kodak's K-14 Process)
Remember KODACHROME? That color reversal film from Kodak? The film that was the inspiration for Paul Simon? The only brand of film to have a state park named after it?
How To: Protect Your Camera from Rain with This Hands-Free DIY Umbrella Holder for Your Tripod
When you're shooting in the rain (or other extreme weather conditions), there's a lot more to think about since cameras and water don't exactly mix well. An umbrella will protect your gear, but unless you have someone to hold it for you, it can be a pain to use.
How To: Make a wide-mouthed screaming face in Photoshop
Munch's The Scream is one of the world's most famous paintings, and at least since it was painted people have had a fascination with images of larger-than-life mouths screaming. This video will show you how to use Photoshop to create some cool screaming face effects, like making the mouth huge and distorted or even making it cover the entire face! The effects are cool and easy, so try it!
News: It's Magic! See 3D Without the Glasses
On last week's Gizmodo Shooting Challenge, submittors were challenged to create photos that could be seen in 3D, simply by refocusing the eyes to merge two appropriately placed white dots.
How To: Create a crazy, cross-eyed person effect in Photoshop
When we think about Photoshop, we think about the desire to look beautiful and "perfect." Celebrities get airbrushed and Photoshoped all the time when they appear in magazines in order to make their faces appear slimmer, their thighs smaller, their lips more voluminous, etc. Photoshop is usually a tool that enhances beauty.
How To: Control Your Samsung Smart Camera with Your Android or iOS Device
Samsung is helping photographers in getting more utility out of their cameras with their new Samsung Smart Camera App. With it, your device becomes a powerful viewfinder for your Samsung camera, allowing you to not only frame shots, but control multiple aspects of the camera, right through your phone.
DIY Photo Processing: How to Develop Film at Home for Cheap Using Coffee, Red Wine, or Tylenol
Not many people use film cameras anymore, so it can be hard to find the materials to develop your own photos at home since most local camera stores are closing. But it's actually relatively easy to make homemade developer, and you can make it with a few relatively common ingredients.
Quick Tip: Use a Wired Headset as a Shutter Release Trigger for Your DSLR Camera
Whether you're trying to get an unconventional angle or just want to include yourself in the picture, there are plenty of times when a remote trigger can come in really handy. Of course, if you want to buy one, you have tons of options. But if you already have an Xbox 360 headset, all you have to do is plug it in. YouTube user Gurnarok accidentally found that by plugging his Xbox headset into his camera's remote port, the on/off toggle triggered the shutter release and flash.
How To: Make Your Photos More Fun with These DIY Bokeh Effects Lens Filters for Your DSLR
In photography, bokeh refers to the blurry or out-of-focus parts of a shot. Bokeh can be good or bad—it all depends on how you use it. There are tons of ways to create a bokeh effect, whether you go the traditional route with lens filters, digital with Photoshop, or even from your iPhone. With filters, you can use the blurred spaces to produce different shapes and colors. If you have a DSLR and want to experiment with bokeh, this tutorial by Chris Perez over on Apartment Therapy will show you...
How To: Make a 50mm Lens into a Tilt Lens Using a Shower Head
There are so many ways to modify your camera using common household items, like clothes hangers, an umbrella, or even a jar of peanut butter. Here's a new, unexpected addition to the list—a shower head. Maciej Pietuszynski came up with this brilliant camera mod, which uses a shower head to turn an old 50mm lens into a DIY tilt lens. This trick works by using the part from the shower head that allows you to adjust the angle. You'll have to take apart the lens and cut the shower head in half. T...
How To: Build a Horizon-Stabilized Camera That Mounts on Your Bike or Motorcycle
There are plenty of ways to mount your camera on your bike, but there's not much you can do about uneven surfaces on the road that cause your videos to end up looking shaky. If you're on a motorcycle, it's even worse because turns force you to lean, which makes your video tilt.
How To: Turn Time-Lapsed Clouds into a Brushstroke Painting with This Photo Stacking Technique
You can create a lot of impressive effects by stacking or layering photos, whether you do it in a darkroom or with Photoshop. The Harris shutter effect makes your photos super colorful, and double exposing or stacking negatives makes for some crazy looking portraits.
How To: Use the Harris Shutter Effect to Get Crazy, Colorful Action Photos
Want to take vibrant photographs like this one? You won't find this filter in Instagram, and that's because it's a little more difficult than just slapping a digital filter on a solo photo. The extra RGB colors are created using a special strip device called the Harris shutter, invented by Robert Harris of Kodak.
How To: Make a DIY Camera Bag Insert to Protect Your Gear
When you have expensive camera equipment, the last thing you want to do is just throw it all in a bag without any kind of protection. If you don't want to buy a separate bag, you can always use an insert, but they can get pretty pricey, too.
Extreme Light Painting: Artist Uses Just One LED to Trace Entire Rooms with Light Waves
How many trips up and down the stairs do you think it took artist Janne Parviainen to create this incredible topographical light painting? Apparently, quite a few. Using only one LED, he moves around his house, tracing all of the surfaces. Sometimes the exposure times are up to 30 minutes to achieve this effect. He's done similar projects in the past, like these fun, but slightly creepy skeletons. Check out Janne's website and Flickr profile to see more of his work.
How To: Make a Canon Shutter Release Cable
This article will show you how to make a shutter release cable for a Canon camera. It took me about half an hour once all of my materials were gathered. I came in at a total of about eight dollars. It has three switches and buttons. The black button on mine triggers the auto focus. The red button triggers the shutter. Finally, the switch triggers the bulb mode, or long exposure. This can be used to take astronomical photos that show the movement of the stars in the picture. The release cable ...
How To: An Extensive Guide to Creating Bokeh Photography
Bokeh (which translates to "blur" in Japanese) is a photography technique referring to the blurred areas of a photograph. Basic bokeh photographs often have one point of focus, while the background falls away into a dreamy, blurred haze.
News: Making Ordinary Objects Extraordinary
Kevin Van Aelst creates witty visual "one-liners" by recontextualizing everyday, ordinary objects. With a few simple tweaks, the viewer recognizes a roll of tape as the ocean or reads gummi worms as chromosomes or understands mitosis through the use of sweet, sugary donuts.
How To: Create realistic sun rays in Photoshop
Trying to design that perfect beach scene in Photoshop? Master the look of summer with help from this Photoshop lesson. In this video tutorial by Yanik's Photo School, learn how to create realistic sun rays or sunbeams in Photoshop.
How To: Use the Manfrotto Super Clamp
Did you ever have trouble keeping a steady shot with a camera or camcorder when you didn't have a tripod ready? In this video, Steve from Cameras Brookwood shows you why a Manfrotto Super Clamp might just be the tool for you. A Super Clamp can open up to three inches and attaches any camera weighing up to fifteen kilograms to a post, beam, or table. To use the Super Clamp, open it fully and place it around the object that you want to attach it to. Turn the crank until the Super Clamp is snug,...
How To: Use the Vivitar 285HV professional camera flash
Got a new Vivitar 285HV and having trouble using the flash? No problem! This video will describe how to use the flash on your new camera and gives some other great tips for new owners! The flash on this camera can be a little different to use than an automatic flash because you have to manually set the settings. Since you can see what the picture looks like if you aren't satisfied you can use the tricks in the video to play around with the flash settings until you get the perfect shot.
How To: Take a picture of an exploding water balloon
Fine tune your photography skills with this video lesson on how to take a picture of an exploding water balloon. You'll see what equipment you'll need, like cameras, lights, flashes, etc. Pixel Catcher shows you how. It's a matter of perfection, so check out this video to see how to take that photo of exploding water balloons. You could apply this principal to any photograph!
How To: Choose a narrative theme for a photo series
This instructional photography video provides some helpful tips on how to build narrative ideas surrounding body of photography work that you'll want to create. You can use these techniques when building a book, a web site or a series of consistent images for your story. You will not only make your photography work more interesting, but working with narrative will train you to become a better story teller.
How To: Make 2D Pics Look Like 3D Objects Using This Optical Illusion Camera Trick
How do you make a plastic bottle sit on top of a Rubik's Cube without a Rubik's Cube? It may seem like a brain teaser, but it's more like something you would see in an Escher drawing. An optical illusion. A three-dimensional world trapped in a two-dimensional image, which is exactly what's going on in this Rubik's Cube illusion.
How To: Fake UFO photographs
The best evidence that UFOs represent spacecraft from other worlds consists of grainy photographs, blurry videos, and anecdotes about things that go bump in the night. In this episode Michael Shermer shows how easy it is to fake UFO photographs, enlisting the help of children and disposable cameras to create convincing photographic evidence that even fooled experts!
How To: Take Perfect Selfies
The selfie craze has caught up and how! But sadly enough, not all of us know the tips and tricks to get it right. Watch this video if you're yet to master the art of clicking the perfect selfie.
CES 2015: The CUBE Action Camera, Polaroid's Answer to the GoPro
Polaroid's answer to the masculine-fueled GoPro comes in the form of a tiny family-friendly square, fittingly named the Polaroid CUBE. Starting at a very modest $99.99 , the water-resistant action camera comes in all different colors, shoots HD video at 1080p, allows users to take 6MP pictures, and supports a microSD card of up to 32GB. Attached to the bottom of the cube is a magnet that allows you to stick the camera in many places, including the side of a car (though the Polaroid representa...
How To: Take the Perfect Selfie, Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year
Ladies and gentleman, it's official—"Selfie" has been named Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries.
How To: Do a Nighttime Halloween Photoshoot
Eric Levin is back! Check out his latest photography how-to video. It's basically a cool nighttime photoshoot session in the middle on New England forest, obviously featuring... Ice Nine Kills!
How To: Add Creepy Apparitions to Your Halloween Photos Using the Pepper's Ghost Illusion
Photographers have been using the Pepper's Ghost Illusion for over a century to play up the level of creepiness in their photos. Many of the pictures that claim to be real "sightings" use this technique to project a ghostly figure into the background of their images. Today, it's still used in theatre, "scary" rides at amusement parks, and haunted houses all over the world, which makes it a great photography trick for Halloween time. As shown in the tutorial below by Make's Jason Poel Smith, t...