Hot Photography Posts
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: Convert a halogen lamp into a makeshift ring light
In this tutorial, we learn how to convert a halogen lamp into a makeshift ring light. Instead of pointing this light straight at the person you are photographing, you can use a ring light to make the halogen light less harsh. The prices for ring lights are very expensive, so making this yourself can save you a lot of money. First, go out and buy a round metal mesh object wherever you can find one. You will also need tin foil, a plastic cup, and wire cutters. First, set the metal bowl on top o...
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.
How To: Build a 4x5 pinhole camera
Attention photography lovers! Put down the digital camera for a day and try this DIY project out, constructing a camera that dates back to as early as 4th century BC.
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: 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: Build a Cheap Ring Light for Your Smartphone with Velcro and an LED Camping Tent Light
When it comes to the quality of a photo, lighting can make or break it. Too much light, and your subject looks washed out. Too little, and you can't even tell what your subject is.
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:
How To: Blur Fireworks with Your DSLR for Some Wicked July 4th Photos
Try "unfocusing" your photographs for some dreamy, evocative and somewhat abstract takes on life. Check out the two tutorials (here and here) from Michelle Geoga of Lights! Camera! Photoshop! for tips on unleashing the blur-power of your camera. You can see plenty of example images there to help you out.
How To: Prepare a photography portfolio presentation
Putting together a print portfolio for your photography? This instructional photography video provides some suggestions on photographic portfolios and how to assemble a portfolio. It is very important to have a good online presence, a nice gallery of your work to show. But there are advantages to having a print portfolio as well.
How To: Shoot your baby's photos like a professional
In this tutorial, we learn how to shoot your baby's photos like a professional. If you want to take great photos of your baby but don't want to pay a professional, just use these quick tips. First, determine the type of flash you should be using on your camera. Use the manual that comes with your camera to find the right settings for you depending on where you're taking the pictures. You can also edit the pictures on your computer to make the colors stand out and the image more crisp and clea...
How To: Take pictures right after sunset
In this tutorial, we learn how to take pictures right after sunset. To get the optimal setting for pictures after sunset, you will first want to place your camera on a tripod. You want to get a view of both the sky and the tops of buildings that have just turned their lights on. After sunset, set your flash to a setting for outside and then take a picture of the sky with the clouds showing lightly in the air. Make sure to take a wide angled shot so you can see a clear view of the surrounding ...
HowTo: Photograph an Atomic Bomb
George Yoshitake is one of the remaining living cameramen to have photographed the nuclear bomb. His documentation of the military detonation of hundreds of atom bombs from 1956 to 1962 reveals the truly chilling effect of the weapon. Below, images and explanatory captions via the New York Times. Don't miss the melting school bus. Creepy.
How To: Get to know your DSLR camera
This video gives viewers an overview on how to use the manual settings of your DSLR camera. Aside from the Auto setting, your DSLR camera has the P-mode which is the program mode, S-mode which is the shutter priority mode, A-mode which is the aperture priority mode and finally the M-mode which is the complete manual mode. P-mode or program mode is more like the Auto-mode in your camera. You can't control your shutter speed and f-stops (aperture) however; you can manipulate the other settings ...
How To: Choose the right speed film for cameras
When choosing camera film, use slow film for bright day light, medium speed film for a cloudy day and high speed film for low light conditions. Choose the right speed of film for a particular camera with the tips in this free instructional video on photography tips from a professional photographer. The speed of the film is essential in determining what type of environment you will be taking pictures, so listen up!
News: Build a camera from junk
Escape the perfection and stale records of modern high-definition cameras. Anyone can point and shoot, but to artfully capture light... that takes a bit of courage.
How To: Load 600 film into a Polaroid SX-70 camera
Loading 600 film into a Polaroid SX-70 polaroid camera.
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: 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: 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: 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.
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: 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: 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: Make a Super Cheap Soft Box for Pro-Looking 'Soft' Light in Your Photos
Remember the young Parker who taught us how to make fun things like the ghost trap from Ghostbusters and the cheap severed leg effect? Well, he's definitely grown since then, and in his latest video he takes a more practical approach to DIY with a cheap and easy soft box for you home photography studio.
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 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: Use a Holga camera
Here are some tips about the Holga camera. The Holga is a plastic camera that takes unique, distorted pictures. This instructional photography video is good for people who just got their Holga camera and want to learn some photographer's tricks.
How To: Get a spinning effect in your photography
Learn how to make it look like the subjects of your photos are spinning by changing the shutter speed and making the background streak.
How To: Build your own 35mm lens adapter for a Canon HV20 camera
You don't have to spend lots of money for an expensive lens adapter! You can make one at home. This tutorial shows you how you can take some basic camera equipment, a little extra hardware and make a 35mm lens adapter for a Canon HV20 digital camera.
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...
News: Remarkable Trompe-l'œil Turns Artist into Enemy of State
35-year-old artist from Shandong, China, Liu Bolin, has created a series of photographs entitled "Camouflage". No trick photography employed, no photoshop alterations. Every effect was created by anal, fastidious painting and the exact alignment of subject to background.
How To: Use gobos in photography
Here is a Harper Point Photography video on gobos for fashion photography. Nathan gives a simple but effective photo tip for creating dynamic light with a cardboard 'go-bo.' The gobo is a lighting element that texturizes lighting by blocking in strategically. Apply these directly to a light to shine texture or to light with words as a projector would.
How To: Make a Super Cheap Pinhole Lens Filter for Your DSLR Camera
There are tons of ways to make your own pinhole camera out of everything from a juice box to a pine nut. If you have a DSLR, you can make a DIY pinhole lens for it for just a few bucks. David O'Sullivan over on DIY Photography made this one using a cheap body cap and an aluminum can. Here's how to make your own. David put up a template you can follow to make things easier, so start off by downloading it, then use a ruler to draw a line directly through the center of the body cap. Cut out the ...
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: 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...
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
News: Canon 7D Jerry-Rigged to Shoot Pinhole Video
We've had our fair share of pinhole cameras showcased in Wonderment. And while the pinhole is certainly cool, it typically creates the same, familiar effect across the board. This time we have something slightly more unusual for you.