Hot Photography Posts
News: The Secret Life of a Love Doll
Famed artist and photographer Laurie Simmons boasts an impressive career spanning over three decades. She's shown at some of the world's top art institutions and galleries, and appeared on art world popular PBS television series Art 21. She also happens to be the the proud mother of promising young filmmaker Lena Dunham, the 24-year-old director of last year's indie hit Tiny Furniture.
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.
HowTo: Arduino High Speed Photography Trigger
Photography guru Matt Richardson demonstrates how to build your own arduino high speed flash trigger so you can create awesome work like this. Pick up the project code here.
How To: Use AV mode & High Speed Sync (flash)
In this tutorial, we learn how to use AV mode & High Speed Sync (flash). First, go to AV mode and change the settings to 2.8. When you do this, your shutter speed will blink at 250. To fix this, hit the lightning bolt with the "h" and change it to the high speed setting. Now, your camera will be able to use the high speed shutter with the flash as well. Now, take some shots of your subject in the sun and you should be able to see a huge difference. The background should come in crystal clear ...
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: Use an old flash on a new digital camera
Old camera equipment like flashes and lenses are often praised by modern photographers, but getting them integrated into new digital photography setups can be a challenge. This video will show you some tips for using old flashes with new digital cameras, including a great trick for making your digital camera recognize the flash by covering one specific contact. Don't get a new flash, use an old one with the skills you learn in this video.
How To: Develop black and white 120 roll film
This four-part video describes, in great detail, how to develop black-and-white 120 film. With photo labs becoming rarer by the day, knowing how to do this yourself will become increasing important if you want to continue to take and develop pictures with film. Developing 120 is a bit different than developing 35 millimeter, so if you can already do that still watching this video! Thankfully, the presenter demonstrates the process in full light. Bear in mind it will be very dark when you do t...
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.
HowTo: Transform a Boring Image Into Amazing 3D Magic
Andrew Odewahn of O'Reilly Answers posts a HowTo on creating 3D(ish) images through simple processing. Odewahn employs the practice of stereoscopy (a technique for creating the illusion of depth in a 2D image):
How To: Use a Polaris incident light meter
In this Fine Art video tutorial you will learn how to use a Polaris incident light meter. The meter has a power, mode, ISO control and a multi flash exposure buttons. On the side you have the up / down and the trigger buttons. Power on the light meter. Select the mode, say ambient light and then set the ISO by pressing the ISO button and the up/down button. Now using only the up/down button, set the shutter speed. Then place the meter under your chin to meter the light on your face. Press the...
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...
News: Exploded! Photographer Dissects Objects
Texas based photographer Adam Voorhes takes four objects (telephone, frog, gun, etch-a-sketch) and dissects them for his photo essay entitled Exploded. The frog in particular looks like an illustration, but is indeed a photograph.
News: Take Pictures With Your Mouth-Camera
Justin Quinnell has created a series of pinhole photographs taken from the perspective of an open mouth. Pinholes can be disposable, flexible and pretty simple to make. Play around and see what kind of interesting perspectives you can come up with...
How To: Develop film for a black-and-white photo
When developing film for a black-and-white photo, first extract the leader of the film from the film canister and then pull out the rest of the film in total darkness. Develop a black and white photograph with the tips in this free instructional video on photography tips from a professional photographer. Good information for black and white photography students.
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: Load 120 film onto stainless steel reels
Ever try to load a roll of film onto a reel and into a sealed developing tank in complete darkness? If you have, you know that anything unexpected can throw a kink into your personalized process of developing photographs. This video demonstrates how to load film onto stainless steel reels. If you are interested in developing film by hand, it is a good idea to be aware of all types of winding reels and developing tanks so you don't fumble in the darkroom.
How To: Load film into Kodacraft tanks
This video will be useful to a select group of people, who are still interested in developing film by hand using the Kodacraft film canisters. Practice loading Kodacraft film tanks with plastic film aprons. Use an exposed roll of film to do try this process in the light. Now, let's see if you can do it blindfolded, or in the dark room.
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: 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 UV Pictures
This video will show you how you can take UV (ultraviolet) pictures with any basic camera. In a few easy steps, you too can be seeing the world in a whole new way.
How To: Make a cheap 35mm style pinhole camera
This is one of my favorite projects, a wide format pinhole camera that uses 35mm film and is made from $10 in crafts store items.
How To: Photograph a nude woman
Learn how to photograph the beauty of the female form. We will show some of the things you will need to know to take great, tasteful shots of the female nude…from finding models, to posing, composition, and lighting. Photograph a nude woman.
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...
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: Take Long-Term Pinhole Exposures Using a Beer Can Camera
Interested in experimenting with long-term pinhole exposure, but don't want to spend a lot of time or money on the setup? Well, why not start by cracking open a cold one? You're going to need it for this project anyway—drinking it is just an added bonus.
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...