Photography Features
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: Master the classic three light studio portrait
Watch this instructional photography video with Jim Talkington and learn how to light a studio portrait using three lights. This is the classic three light portrait technique using a main light, fill card, hair light and background light in the photo studio. Adding additional lights should bring out texture, extra detail, and three dimensionality. Practice these tips and improve your photography skills.
How To: Set up a photo studio for product lighting
Use inexpensive materials to create your own photographic studio equipment for product photography. The DIY set up is simple and useful.
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.
How To: Make a mini tripod for your camera with a tennis ball
Turn an old tennis ball into a nifty camera tripod in just minutes. Inspired by an Instructables.com project: http://www.instructables.com/id/SDMK5MWFDO29GEZ/
How To: Take a surreal photo of yourself for your profile pic
Take awesome myspace/facebook profile pics, follow this short guide to taking photos that look like they've been photoshopped without even touching the photo itself.
How To: Clean a camera lens & get rid of smudges
Professional camera cleaning is expensive and usually more than you need. Follow these simple steps to keep your lenses clear and smudge-free.
How To: Use the Harris Shutter Effect to Get Crazy, Colorful Action Photos
Want to take vibrant photographs like this one? You won't find this filter in Instagram, and that's because it's a little more difficult than just slapping a digital filter on a solo photo. The extra RGB colors are created using a special strip device called the Harris shutter, invented by Robert Harris of Kodak.
How To: Use a light meter
Mark Wallace explains how to use a light meter, how it works (incident and reflective meters), and what type to purchase. Use this for still or motion cameras.
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...
News: Meticulous Recreations of Old Family Photographs
It's axiomatic: if you want to know what's different, look to what's the same. And, if you want to know what's the same, look to what's different. What makes Irina Werning's Back to the Future project so amazing then is that, in matching everything that can be matched, she helps us instantly hone in on what can't. In most cases, viewers notice just one thing—the effects of the passage of time on the subjects of the photographs. It's very strange and sometimes even unsettling. But also really,...
How To: Learn studio product photography tricks
This instructional photography video with Jim Talkington explores various studio photography tricks. Whether shooting products or people, the whole reason for studio lighting is to be able to define the things you want to define and to minimize the things you don't want to see in the photograph. Practice these tips and improve your photography skills.
How To: Take a picture of an exploding water balloon
Fine tune your photography skills with this video lesson on how to take a picture of an exploding water balloon. You'll see what equipment you'll need, like cameras, lights, flashes, etc. Pixel Catcher shows you how. It's a matter of perfection, so check out this video to see how to take that photo of exploding water balloons. You could apply this principal to any photograph!
How To: Use long exposure photography to paint with sparklers
Long exposure photography has long allowed photographers to do amazing things with light. Now you can do that! This video will show you how to use a long exposure, sparklers, and Photoshop to create amazing psychedelic art on your photographs. This new art form is called light painting or light writing, looks amazing, and is pretty easy to get started doing. Do it!
How To: Shoot stunning raindrop reflection photos
This tutorial will walk you through the steps of making stunning raindrop reflection images. Lindsay Adler (of Adler Photo Workshops) will cover equipment and techniques, and give you advice to make the most of your time. You don't need a rainy day, just the right preparation to create amazing raindrop reflection photos.
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: Understand the basics of a Nikon SB-600 photo camera
This instructional photography video teaches the basics of the Nikon photo camera in this hands-on demonstration of Nikon's amateur-grade SB-600 speedlight. Watch this video and start taking more professional looking photos. This tutorial is great for photography enthusiasts.
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: Make a DIY photography bokeh for a camera
How to make that cardboard hood to assist you in making your own custom bokeh when shooting images.
How To: Take pictures of lightning with a Nikon DSLR
Here is a detailed video that explains techniques and equipment you can use to take pictures of a lightning storm. Yes, take photographs in an actual lightning storm. You will definitely need a tripod to take a photograph with a long exposure and a plastic bag to protect your camera from the rain. Telephoto lenses allow you to keep a safe distance and avoid switching lenses during a lightning storm. Equipment used in this video: Nikon d300, Nikon 18-200mm vr and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 vr lenses.
How To: Master single light studio portraits in photography
Studio portrait photography using a single light can be tricky to master. Learn how to achieve beautiful portraits with expertise from a professional photographer in this free instructional video series.
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.
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.
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: Use flash photography
Mark Wallace explains shutter speed, sync speed, and key shifting by explaining basic flash photography.
How To: Build a DIY digital SLR (DSLR) camera cage for smooth and steady video
A DSLR cage from a professional photographer supply store will cost at least a few hundred dollars, but you can build one yourself for around 50 bucks. This tutorial shows you how to use a few pipes, metal struts and a few pieces of hardware and tools to make your own digital SLR cage for shooting steady videos on your digital camera.
How To: Shoot a white object on a white background
Anxious about shooting a white foreground object against a white background? Learn how to take stunning white-on-white photographs with this free video photography lesson. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started taking your own wintry photographs, take a look.
Eye Candy of the Day: WiFi Networks Visualized
Norwegian designers Timo Armall, Jørn Knutsen, and Einar Sneve Martinussen visually capture invisible WiFi signals by light painting signal strength in long-exposure photographs. The trio set up a four-meter long WiFi-detecting rod with 80 LED bulbs to depict cross-sections through the WiFi networks of various Oslo neighborhoods. Armall says:
How To: Tilt-shift photography to create a miniature effect
Kipkay from Make Magazine shows us how to create a photographic illusion, making things look smaller than they really are with tilt-shift photography. Materials needed include rubber plunger, an oversized lens, a plastic body cap, a single lens (or digital single lens) camera, a hot glue gun, a sanding file, and a disposable object for a plastic backing, such as a VHS tape case. With this great tutorial and a little work, create the illusion of a miniaturized world with this photographic tech...
Human Mutation Through Age: Year 0 To 100 Side-By-Side
Luckily for us, human aging is a long, slow process. One day newborn babe... 36,500 days later, you're old. Really old. And how you looked in between is all but forgotten. To see a side-by-side mapping of the long and slow human mutation process, check out Danish photojournalists Sofia Wraber and Nanna Kreutzmann's 101 photographs of males, ages 0 to 100.
News: Speeding Bullet Vs. a Single Drop of Water
Alexander Augusteijn captures one of the world's most deadly projectiles slicing through the Earth's delicate water droplet.
How To: Upcycle Your Old Jeans into a DIY Camera Stabilizer
Need a camera stabilizer, but don't have the cash? With an old pair of jeans, a bag of lentils, and an hour or two of your time, you can make one for cheap. Maybe even free, if you have a bag of those legumes already.
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: Make a homemade pinhole camera
Want to create your own camera? The simplest one that you can create is a pinhole camera which can be constructed from everyday household items.
News: Birds as the Ultimate DIY Architects
The widely used expression "free as a bird" intimates an enviable existence: delicate, yet mighty wings transporting to destinations no human could so breezily venture. But despite their fanciful, superhero ability, in truth, the avian race leads one of the most difficult existences in the animal kingdom. Yes, birds have existed for eons—they likely evolved from small dinosaurs of the Jurassic period—but for these creatures, life can be ruthless.
How To: Rasterbate rasterized images from any picture
Empty walls? This is the perfect solution. The Rasterbator creates huge, rasterized images from any picture. Upload an image, print the resulting multi-page pdf file and assemble the pages into extremely cool looking poster up to 20 meters in size. Rasterbating is when you make a photo out of several photos.
How To: Photograph well-lit isolated objects on a white background
Not all of us have an entire photo studio in our houses. In fact, unless you're a professional photographer, you probably don't have much space at all in which to create solid looking shots.
How To: Assemble a softbox in the photo studio
This one minute video shows how a softbox and speed ring are assembled quickly and easily in the photo studio. A softbox is just loose cloth with four flexible rods inside. You can use a softbox to adjust the direction of your lights for a professional studio photo shoot.
How To: Learn tabletop studio photography with mirrors
This instructional photography video with Jim Talkington explores tabletop studio photography done with mirrors. Use just one light and several mirrors to light your subject. You can also use silver poster board or white poster board to reflect the light from the strobe. Mirrors are the best way to reflect most of the light in your shoot. Practice these tips and improve your photography skills.
How To: Photograph a nude man
Learn how to photograph the beauty of the male form. We will show some of the things you will need to know to take great shots of the male nude…from finding models, to posing, composition, and lighting. Photograph a nude man.