Photography

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: 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: 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?

News: Conjuring the Apocalypse on Tabletop: Lori Nix Talks Dioramas

Lori Nix is a photographer whose stunning work depicts curious scenes of danger and disaster: abandoned spaces, architecture in a state of extreme deterioration, natural calamities, and more. But the mysterious places she captures with her 8x10 large format camera aren't actual found locations—they're meticulously fabricated miniature dioramas.

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: Load film into a Hasselblad back

This is a how-to video featuring the A12 film back for a Hasselblad 500 series camera. Watch this photography tutorial to begin using your antique Hasselblad camera and all of its confusing parts. Once you are aware of the unique film loading process for this camera, you can adopt this camera into your photography practice and begin shooting.

How To: Load 120 film into a Paterson plastic reel

Many people have trouble loading 120 film into developing reels when they are first starting. In the darkroom, it's tricky business to wind film and load it into a developing tank. Find out what works for you and repeat the process until it becomes second nature. If you are interested in developing your own photographs, you will need to know this process backwards and forwards, using all types of film, reels and developing tanks.

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: Build a Weatherproof Camera Enclosure for Long Term Time-Lapses

There are plenty of ways to create time-lapse photos and videos, but most of them are taken over the course of several hours. If you want to do a longer term shoot over several weeks or months, you'll need a battery that can last that long, and you probably don't want to leave your DSLR sitting somewhere for that amount of time anyway.

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: 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: Take a Crazy Self-Portrait of You Holding Yourself

David Talley, a 19-year-old fine art photographer, has been widely praised for his surreal self-portraits. Many of them take hours to set up and shoot, and even more time to post-process through Photoshop or any other photo editing program.

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: 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: Create an easy and inexpensive seamless white background for photography

Love the look of the seamless white background in some trendy photographs? You don't need to pay for expensive remodeling to your studio - this video explains a very simple and inexpensive technique you can use to achieve this same effect in your low budget studio.

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: Create an easy photo montage as a Photoshop beginner

Create stunning montages the easy way. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or simply looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial from Pro Photo Life. For more information, including step-by-step instructions on how to create your own custom photo montages, watch this graphic designer's guide.

Do-It-Yourself: High Speed Photography Tips & Tricks

High speed photography is awesome. Who doesn't love looking at bullets smash through glass or annihilate a tomato? Or see a babe in a swimsuit do a strikingly slo-mo wet hair flip?

News: Gyroscope Steadies Super Duper 3-Vertical-Camera-Rig for Nat Geo

California Redwoods are some of the oldest and tallest trees on Earth, so snapping a single photograph couldn't possibly capture their majestic entirety.

How To: Set up a big white infinity sweep for photo studio

This instructional photography video shows how to setup large white infinity backgrounds in the photo studio. The key components to this setup is include this six foot octobox softbox light, which requires quite a bit of power; a framed aluminum reflector; the background itself is vinyl floor painted white; and a black baffle to shield the camera from lens flare. Set up professional looking shoots and take great portraits with this 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!

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: 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.

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...