Making a Cheap Macro Lens
Macro photography is close-up photography. The lens is typically optimized to focus sharply on a small area and magnifying...
Making a cheap Bounce Card
Yet again some cool diy to bounce light from a DSLR flash! As everyone knows, it's actually better not to flash light...
Capture taken in Genova Aquarium
Capture taken in Genova Aquarium
What is a Ring Flash?
Ring flash is a circular photographic flash that fits around the lens, especially for use in macro (or close-up) photography. Its most important characteristic is providing even illumination with few shadows visible in the photograph, as the origin of the light is very close to (and surrounds) the optical axis of the lens. When the subject is very close to the camera, as is the case in macro photography, the distance of the flash from the optical axis becomes significant. For objects close to the camera, the size of the ring flash is significant and so the light encounters the subject from many angles in the same way that it does with a conventional flash with soft box. This has the effect of further softening any shadows.
Ring flashes are also very popular in portrait and fashion photography. In addition to softening shadows, the unique way that a ring flash renders light gives the model a shadowy halo which is a common feature of fashion photography...as Wikipedia says...
This is actually what you'll get:
Click here for Examples
As i previously said, i've never used one, but i'm planning to, so i found some useful link on how to do-it-yourself!
All the credits go to the authors.
1) The Strobist.com flickr group full of DIY ring flash and lighting DIY
2) DIY ring flash from swilton
3) Really cheap and simple DIY ring flash from antontrax
4) Super cheap DIY ring flash from jedrek
5) Ring flash for built-in flash
6) Christmas Light Ring Flash by Tom Edge Photography
7) D.I.Y. ring flash from latente (in italian)
8) Finally a really well done blogspot about strobist infos
In photography, a multiple exposure is when two or more individual exposures are made to create a single photograph.
This is an example of what i did with an Holga camera, which let you shot multiple expoure on the same piece of film!
To do the job, the shutter release of the camera should be independent from the winding mechanism of the film (if we are talking about film cameras) but we can have multiple shots using our imagination and create some cool and dreamlike works.
Basically there are four way of doing that, or at least those are the one i thought on:
1) Buy an expensive Pro DSLR and probably it will let you shot some few times on the same picture.
2) Buy a cheap Holga from eBay
3) Use a software photo editor such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, by altering the opacity of the two images and line them up over each other, or set the layers to multiply mode, which 'adds' the colors together rather than making the colors of either image pale and translucent
4) DSLR with an external flash unit
DSLR with an external flash unit
As the title says, we need a dslr unit with a lens (obviously) and an external flash unit for it.
Actually the trick to have multiple exposure is to:
- have a long shutter speed (you need to try it for your best fit, as every environment will require a different long shutter speed)
- use an external flash unit which let you shot the flash by pushing a button
How to:
Target the subject of your picture, shot it with the flash on (as a normal shot with flash), and then move quickly (it depends on how long is the shutter speed you are using) on another subject and just press the button of your flash unit to flash for a second time.
We will get a double exposure picture, because the automatic flash on the first shot, freezed the first subject, then the manual flash will freeze a second subject.
Actually you can have multiple exposure even with a single flashing light if the subject is in good light condition.
That's what i did
The main thing to diffuse light on every flash, is to try to filter it before the lights go to the subject!
Actually on DSLR flash external unit (which you can move in certain degree of movement) you can diffuse light by bouncing it on a white surface or you can diffuse it through opaque surface as discussed previously here.
On compact camera flash, we can do the same things to diffuse lights. Perhaps flash in those cameras are really tiny and we can't use the same way we used for DSLR.
So, here some tips on what you can use to diffuse light from it.
(example on how to do it, are done on my mobile camera, because i have no compact camera at the moment, but they have been tested and they work properly)
- Rolling Paper taped directly over the flash unit (and only the flash unit, pay attention not to put the opaque surface choosen on the lens camera too!). You can test using 1 or more sheet of it until you go to a good compromise between light available and shadow smoothing.
Other examples:
- Toilet Paper
- Opaque Plastic from detergent/liquid soap
- Simple white paper
So, in the end, any white opaque surface attached directly over the flash unit trying to avoid light leaks (just by taping all over its edges), will do the job.
Enjoy it.
Actually its really simple and fast.
1) Open Photoshop and your "postcard" suited picture. I choosed that one taken by me in Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Italy:
2) Go to Image -> Canvas Size or just press Ctrl+Alt+C and a new window will appear:
3) Insert Height and Width values as you prefer (usually same values for both and in pixel, they depends on the resolution of the picture you're framing) and on the bottom right you can choose the color by clicking on the little square.
Actually this will add a line around all of your picture by the values you inserted and the color you choosed. My values are H:1 W:1 Color:White
4) Let's re-do the second and third step; Go to Image -> Canvas Size or just press Ctrl+Alt+C and the canvas window will appear.
This time my values are H:15 W:15 Color:Black
As you can see, that step will add you a bigger line than the one before (this time we used H:15 W:15) that will be our frame around the picture giving to it a postcard mood!
Hope you liked. As usual, please share.
This time i will explain how to build a free and easy Flash Diffuser.
As everyone knows, flashing directly to the subject will cause it to be "whitened" and so, we will have a great loss in details.
That's why we need to bounce the flash light on a reflective surface (white if possible) as discussed in my previous post "Making a cheap Bounce Card"
Actually you stop here and can go buy a Flash Diffuser from eBay or photography shops, or you can read furthemore!
Ingredients:
- an opaque can of Liquid Soap/Detergent
- a can of Pringles
2) Cut the bottom of the liquid soap/detergent can so that some cm of the closed bottom will actually go out from the pringles can in the final flash diffuser.
Actually the pringles can should fit almost every external flash unit!
Ingredients:
- an empty white opaque film can
Just cut a little stripe of the film can just to let your internal flash fit inside it.
Here how it should look like and how it will fit the internal flash unit of your dslr
As everytime, if you liked it, please share it!
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby each film frame is captured at a rate much slower than it will be played back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. Time-lapse photography can be considered to be the opposite of high speed photography.
Processes that would normally appear subtle to the human eye, such as the motion of the sun and stars in the sky, become very pronounced. Time-lapse is the extreme version of the cinematography technique of undercranking, and can be confused with stop motion animation.
That tutorial will help you in making an intervalometer for free if you have a:
- programable calculator (as the Texas Instruments)
- a Sony/Minolta/Canon camera with known remote pins layout as described previously on Making a Remote Release Chord
- a 2.5mm stereo male jack for Canon or a CD-audio cable with 3/4 pins config (the one that goes from your pc cd drive to your sound board) for Sony/Minolta/Nikon
- a 2.5mm stereo male jack for the calculator side
How to proceed?
The calculator will be progammed to send an impulse in know intervals that we can decide in advance.When "Send" methods is invoked in a program on the calculator, all the 3 pins (if you have a Sony) or the 3 part of the 2.5mm jack (if you have Canon) are activated and the camera gets the commands to both release the shutter and auto-focus at the same time but, if the camera is set to manual focus, it will take a photo.
The calculator will send Voltage to the camera, so TRY at YOUR OWN RISK. I'm not responsable for any damage you will make using the tutorial links i will provide.
Basically, we have to build a cable from the pins of our Camera config (see Making a Remote Release Chord) to a 2.5mm male jack which will go in the 2.5mm socket of your Calculator (TI and Sharp have it).
Here are the tutorial links:
Every combination is possible! The main thing is to build the right cable for our Camera/Calculator and then adapt the intervalometer code on the calculator programming language it use.
Actually i will post soon how to make time lapse using a Sony A300 (so, every sony alpha series) and a Sharp EL-9650 or a TI-92, so stay tuned.
Let's shoots!
Before taking shot we have to put everything in Manual Mode:
- Aperture and Shutter Speed
- Iso
- Focus
- White Balance
So we can always change our parameters while taking shots.
Imagine that we are taking a day long time lapse. When the night comes, we will have to change the shutter speed/aperture/iso properly to let the transitions between day and night light be as smooth as possible.
What after taking shots?
After building the cable and programming the calculator we can connect the cable from the camera to the calculator and execute the program. The camera will take shots in intervals by our choise.
Then we can use quick time or movie maker to create the movie by inserting all the shots we made.
Hope you like it, if so, please Share!
Well,if you are reading how to create an Holga effect, you probably know it. But i will do some wiki and explain.
The Holga is an inexpensive, medium format 120 film toy camera, made in China, appreciated for its low-fidelity aesthetic.
So the main features are:
- Vignette
- Vintage/Acid color
- Good Contrast in the center of the picture
- Blur on the edge of the picture
some picture taken with the holga can be viewed here on Flickr
You can buy a cheap Holga on Ebay
Here we go with our Photoshop Tutorial
1) First of all, let's open an image we like. That's mine, a shot taken in Asakusa
I did Amount=-100 and Midpoint=+80 and here is the result:
First we have to go to Image-> Mode -> Lab Color and then in the Layer|Channel|Trace we click on Channel as that:
8) Let's go back to RGB color by clicking on Image-> Mode -> RGB and we are almost done:
9) OPTIONAL, we can add a 10% to 20% transparent Black layer over the picture to obtain a more flat image:
10) That's the final result i had in a few minutes!
We can even add some Blur on the edge by using the same way explained in my Tilt-Shift Tutorial
Hope you enjoied it, and if so, SHARE it!!
