Top ten DIY photography tips

On the day the digital camera was invented, the photographer died. Go on to the street these days and the only thing a digital camera tells you about a person is the size of their bank balance. As an alternative-lifestyle statement, SLR ownership is now right up there with owning a Coldplay CD. In these troubled times, when SLRs are no longer a badge of actual photography skills, you need something to distinguish yourself from the crowd. We're going to tell you how to stand out from the Jessops jockeys with ten DIY tips for distinctive looking -- and almost free -- photography hardware. 1. Some 'professional' photographers will tell you that you need to buy a tripod to steady your shots. The principle is simple. You can see the likely insertion point in the diagram above (1). If you've got the length right, you should be able to pull up lightly on the camera to produce tension in the strings. 2. You can fashion your own softbox out of any cardboard you have to hand. 3. Now find a bowl.

Watery Camera Tricks for Rebellious Photographers A photographer’s best light source? That would be the miasma of incandescent plasma hanging in the sky. A carefully-placed lens flare can add drama to your shot. But for the truly daring, a little H2O can take it even further. Introduce strange squiggles, gauzy haze, and a twinkly smattering of bokeh by placing water on your glass. Of course, your neighbors may gasp: Dihydrogen monoxide is a menace to electronics, and getting a camera wet is unheard of in polite circles. Traditionalists may admonish, “it’s simply not done!” Make Your Lens Flares Bloom p.s. Using water to deform the sun! Anyway, please promise us you’ll be careful. But you are a rebel! So now, if you’re aware of the risks and ready to give it a whirl (and you should, because this is totally fun), let’s do it! What You’ll Need An SLR lens (not your best one)A cheap UV filterLens-cleaning cloth or paperA spray bottleA sunny day or very strong artificial light Step 1: Wet Your Lens This is a pretty simple step. Take it Further

How to Make a Tilt-Shift Lens for $10 (Plus Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Tilt-Shift!) And now for a non-dictionary of photo terms: Tilt-shift: not the crazy-legged move we bust on the dance floor. Selective focus: not the clever strategy used against parents. Maybe we’re better off referencing our pal Bhautik’s incredible guide to tilt-shift and DIY lenses! What the heck is a tilt-shift lens anyway? Isn’t tilt-shift only for 19th Century men with pointy mustaches, cloaks, and large, fancy cameras? Can’t I just fuzzy out parts of my photos using Photoshop? Where do I get one? Now, select your focus and tilt n’ shift til the cows (photos) come home! Selective Focus: An Illustrated Guide to DIY Tilt-Shift [Bhautik's Selective Focus Gallery] p.s. p.p.s. Photo credits: Bhautik Joshi You might also like...

Four Fun and Easy Ways to Make Your Photos Look Vintage Recently we asked friends of our Tumblr page what they’d most like to see covered in our next tutorial. The votes are in. The absentee ballots have been counted. The results are clear: You want to learn how to make your photos look vintage! So, we got together to brainstorm and do research. Four Easy Ways to Make Your Photos Look Vintage p.s. 1: Doctor Up the Shots You’ve Already Got. Don’t have Photoshop? We found some awesome places online to help you convert your digital snaps into old-style vintage masterpieces super fast and without expensive photo-editing software! Wanokato has a fantastic online tool for making your digital photos look vintage. Try Rollip.com, a simple web application where you can apply over 40 different filters (including specific vintage ones!) 2: Reuse and Diffuse. Old photos are known for looking fuzzy, oddly exposed, scratchy, vignetted, and sometimes even dirty. A quick search for “Vaseline Filter” brings up some rad photos flickr users have already made.

How to Photograph Lightning “The reason lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn’t there the second time.” -Willie Tyler All the more reason to get that perfect lightning photo the first time! Here’s the lowdown on everything you need to take flabbergasting shots of this summer’s lightning storms: how to keep the camera still, how long to leave the shutter open, what to get in the shot. Just remember to stay grounded and not be the tallest thing in the field, OK? How to Photograph Lightning p.s. It’s our baby and we’re really excited. We’re looking for contacts at Readymade, Real Simple, Dwell, Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping and other magazines we should be in. Know someone? p.p.s. Photo credits: krunkwerke You might also like...