Photography

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.

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.

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: 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: Create a Light Painting Vortex Using a DIY Reusable Steel Wool Cage

There's no shortage of uses for steel wool, but the majority of them tend to be on the pyromaniacal side, like DIY fireworks. This trick by Mike Mikkelson is no different—it uses a homemade reusable "wool cage" to create a spinning vortex of light, like in the photo below. You can do this with just a piece of steel wool on a cable, but Michael wanted something he could easily reuse no matter how many shots he took, so he built a small cage to house the steel wool out of chicken wire, a small ...

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.

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?

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: Make a Mini DIY Camera Tripod Using Old Disposable Razors

Choosing the right tripod stand can be a difficult decision, but if you want to avoid the hassle and save some money, making your own easy to use tripod can be the best way to go. If this tennis ball tripod isn't right for you, then maybe this disposable razors one by Instructables user Jawasan will do. This tripod stand only works for small cameras, so make sure yours is light enough before you start.

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: 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.

News: The Iridescent Beauty of Bursting Bubbles Captured with High-Speed Photography

Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner wanted to capture the moment right before a bubble bursts, a feat that required surprisingly little equipment, but a lot of time and patience. The result was well worth it though. Here's a quick before and after: The trick to the color, he says, is lighting the bubbles from all angles. He placed illuminated panels all around and used a high-speed flash. The bubbles were blown through a sugar funnel. The trickiest part, not surprisingly, is capturing the exact ...

News: From Puppy to Adult in 40 Seconds (+ 3 Methods for Creating Time-Lapse)

What's cuter than a puppy? Not much, especially when you omit all the peeing, barking and furniture chewing, as Remedie Studio did with this sweet time-lapse homage to their beloved pup. Below, watch Dunder the German Shepherd grow from 8 weeks old to 1 year in 40 seconds. Inspired? Make your own time-lapse video and post it to the WonderHowTo company blog. We'll show off the best ones. Here are three different methods to get you started:

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: 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: Creating the Cosmos With Ink, Paint & Water

Artist Pery Burge uses water, paint and ink to create images that look like they might have been captured by the Hubble Telescope or under the super-zoom of a powerful microscope.

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: 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: Take professional digital photos at night

Taking professional photographs at night poses a whole new set of problems relative to taking pictures during the day. This four-part video is here to help, in great detail. It covers several topics, including subject selection, tools necessary, deterring depth of field, and all of the other things that you will have to do to take really good-looking photos at night.

How To: Use Sekonic light meters to balance flash and ambience

In this episode of Digital Photography 1-on-1, host Mark Wallace goes in depth on the subject of light metering and flash balancing. Making use of a Sekonic light meter, Mark shows how to read the light levels in a room, and explains how to interpret those readings in order to adjust flash levels, ISO levels, and alternative light source manipulation. Mark also goes over the important roles that aperture settings and film speeds play when attempting to successfully balance flash and ambient l...

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: Walk like a male / female model on the catwalk

Are you interested in fashion? Let's try a catwalk. For guys, walk straight and the feet shouldn't cross while walking. For girls, walk with one foot in front of the other, look straight forward and shoulders should pull back. Walk with your hands on the hip or let loose. There must be attitude on both the boy as well as the girl which will create a niche. This will help in launching your fashion career as well as maintain your posture.

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: 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: Load a roll of 120 film into a Holga camera

This photography tutorial demonstrates how to load a roll of 120 film in a Holga camera. You can use different masks for different shapes of negatives. This vintage camera is difficult to get used to, but once mastered, the Holga is an incredibly versatile film camera.

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: Hand color black & white photographs

Watch this video to learn how to traditionally hand-color silver gelatin black and white photographs.

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.

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!