Photography

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: Make a face more symmetrical and balanced in Photoshop

The relationship between one side of your body - including your face - to the other is not like that of a twin to a twin. Rather, most people don't know that the left and right side are more like sisters than twins. This means that one leg may be a millionth of a degree shorter, or that your left ear is slightly smaller than your right.

How To: Take photographs like Gregory Crewdson

In this Ovation TV original special, acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson shares with us his insight into his photographic techniques. Like a film, he uses a lot of production, a lot of lighting, a lot of set design. He is an American photographer best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. Learn how to take pictures like this master artist.

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.

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.

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 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!

How To: Take photos of floating / flying / levitating people

Do you believe you can fly? Or at least, believe that you can take pictures where it looks like you or other people are flying? Or at least jumping really high? This video will show you how to take pictures of flying, floating, levitating, or high-jumping people using a digital camera, tripod, stool, and photo editing software like Photoshop or GIMP. Either way, the effect is surprisingly easy to create and can help you make some really amazing photos.

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: 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: 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.

How To: Shoot a Moving 360 Degree Time-Lapse Around a Tall Building

Time-lapse videos are a recent phenomenon to the mainstream audience—in movies, on television shows, and even in commercial ads. These sped-up and blurred images are a microcosm of many of our lives in which we're constantly in a hurry to get somewhere. We like everything fast: our work, our coffee, and our news.

Light Painting with Fire: How to Create a Badass Wall of Flames!

Believe it or not, capturing a beautiful shot of a vehicle is more difficult than you think. Sure, you can just snap a photo, but capturing the design, detail, and essence of the car is a whole other story. Lighting, location, settings, and angles are play into how well the photographic representation turns out.

How To: Turn a Canvas Messenger Bag into a Water-Resistant Waxed Camera Case

If you take your camera equipment with you on a pretty frequent basis, having a camera bag can help protect it and makes it much easier to keep everything in one place. A good camera bag can be pretty expensive, but with this tutorial by photographer Allen Mowery, you can turn a cheap canvas messenger bag into a nice looking DIY waxed camera bag for half the price. For this project, you'll need a canvas messenger bag, a camera insert, and some paraffin wax, which can be found in the canning a...

How To: Turn a Sink Strainer into a Soft Focus Camera Lens Filter

Soft focus photography can produce some beautiful images when used properly. It's used a lot in beauty and glamour shots, but can be applied to other types of photos as well. Some digital cameras have pre-programmed settings for soft focus shots, but if you're using a DSLR, you'll need a special lens or filter to do it.

How To: Create Stunning Double Exposure Portraits with Your DSLR Camera (No Photoshop Required)

There are plenty of ways to take double exposure photos, even if all you have is your cell phone. If you have access to a darkroom (or Photoshop), you can do it by stacking negatives. But if you have the right kind of DSLR, you can do it right from your camera by using the multiple exposure setting.

How To: Give Your Photos a Surreal Effect by Stacking Negatives

Want to add cool effects to your photos without using expensive equipment? Photographer Laina Briedis created these gorgeous shots by stacking 35mm negatives of starry or cloudy skies on top of photos of people to give them a surreal, dreamlike effect. There are a few ways to go about it. Laina explained to PetaPixel that you can do this with or without a darkroom. If you have access to one, you can expose two negatives at the same time by stacking them, or expose them separately onto the sam...

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.

HowTo: Build Your Own Camera Lenses

The prerogative of most fancy, pricey lenses nowadays is ultimate sharpness. However, if you're partial to that soft, out of focus look, you can make your own lenses to achieve this type of effect.

How To: Make a glass positive/soft negative for Collodion

This shows the process of making a positive image on clear glass; traditionally, this would be called an Ambrotype. Here, it is a little bit overexposed to get a "soft negative" or a negative that can be used with modern silver paper (printing). Learn how to make a glass positive or soft negative picture with the Collodion printing technique by watching this video photography tutorial.

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 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!

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.

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.

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: 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...

News: New York Times Photojournalism

Very interesting interview with the editors of the New York Times Lens Blog, a website which is totally dedicated to photojournalism and videojournalism.

How To: Take Photos at Night

Lighting is one of the most important features of good photography. American photographer Eric Levin has become somewhat of a favorite of mine, especially because his photography tips and tricks are a very helpful tool for all aspiring photographers.

How To: Do a "Punk Rock" Photo Shoot

This is a photography how-to video, where American photographer Eric Levin takes us on the set of a photo shoot with punk band Ice Nine Kills. This is a really good step-by-step "how-to" guide to the perfect photo of a music band.

How To: Make a Cheap Light Wand for Dark Photo Shoots Using PVC and Glow Sticks

Taking photos in the dark or in low-light settings can be tricky. Just using your normal flash can make your subject look washed out, but not using it can result in a totally dark photo with no subject at all.

Light Painting with Fire: How to Capture the Perfect, Most Badass Wall of Flames Photo

You may remember this badass wall of flames photo... That's because last month I highlighted a tutorial by photographer Barry Elder that showed how to light paint with fire.

How To: This Clever DIY Contraption Lets You Capture Exploding Balloons Without a High-Speed Trigger

There are some pretty incredible camera techniques out there, but the biggest problem that amateur photographers run into is that they don't have the equipment to try them. You can still get some great shots, but there are some things that are really hard to do if you don't have the money to drop on expensive lenses and accessories.

How To: Use a Video Projector for Long-Exposure Light Painting in the Snow

There's no shortage of techniques when it comes to light painting—you can use LEDs, flashlights, or even make your own light painting nunchuks. If you want to do something a little different, though, why not use a projector like photographer Brian Maffit did to capture these gorgeous long-exposure shots of a recent snow storm? Maffitt used a projector to play the movie The Lorax onto a tree in his backyard, providing the backdrop for these photos. The long exposure shots were taken using an o...

How To: Need More Juice from Your DSLR? These 2 Battery Hacks Will Keep the Power On Longer

For most people, the battery life on a DSLR is more than sufficient, but if you want to do a really long exposure or time-lapse, one charge might not last long enough to get the shot you want. You can always connect it to an extension cord to charge while you shoot, but that can be really annoying to work around.

How To: Build a Double-Shoulder Camera Mount for Only $8 Using PVC

Shoulder mounts are great for stability, but they can be pretty pricey. This DIY project by TheJamesTheatre is better in both aspects—it rests on both shoulders for extra stability, and it only costs 8 bucks to make. The frame is made of PVC with foam pieces from a pool noodle for cushion. All you need is a few connectors and the nuts and bolts to put it all together. You can find the full parts list on the About section on YouTube.

How To: Keep Track of Your Disappearing Camera Lens Cap Using LEGOs!

Lens caps are one of those necessary evils that serve a very useful purpose while still creating tons of headaches for users—who hasn't lost at least a few? Sure, you can always buy a holder for it, or just shove it in your pocket, but if you have some LEGOs lying around from your distant youth, you can make your own in just a few minutes.

How To: Add Rainbow Effects to Your Photos Using a Cheap Prism

Want to add cool, colorful effects to your photos without paying for filters or using Photoshop? A cheap glass prism (and some practice) is all you need to bend the light to capture images like the ones below taken by wedding photographer Sam Hurd. Sam uses a six inch triangular prism to catch the light and reflect images in front of his lens. The shape allows you to "twist the prism into creating a curve and bend-like distortion of your surroundings," which can create rainbow effects and mir...

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...