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...
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!
Macro photography is close-up photography. The lens is typically optimized to focus sharply on a small area and magnifying it.
Depth of field is extremely small when focusing on close objects; a small aperture (high f-number) is often required to ensure sufficient depth of field. This requires either a slow shutter speed or bright lighting for correct exposure; in all but the brightest natural lighting if a prolonged exposure is not advisable, auxiliary lighting (such as from a flash unit) is required as a ring flash or a flash diffuser like the one discussed here on DIY photography.
How to:
- Using a lens specifically designed for close work and with a long barrel for close focusing, called a macro lens.
- Extending the distance between the lens and the film or sensor by inserting either extension tubes
- Placing an auxiliary close-up lens in front of the camera's taking lens. Inexpensive screw-in or slip-on attachments provide close focusing at very low cost
- Reversing the lens using a "reversing ring"
You can buy a reverse ring, or you can fit your second lens (if you have one) on the lens you have on your body camera as i did and have macro capabilities for FREE:
That’s my sony a300 with the standard lens dt18-70 and my old manual Zenit lens: Mc Helios 44m-7
I just reversed the Helios lens and attached to the DT lens
That’s all!
Don’t forget to switch to Manual focus!
This is an example of what i did with that DIY:
Other infos:
- Here is another cheap way to have an homemade macro lens at Photocritic
- And here another usueful way to build your own reversing ring from a Body Cap, its basically the same way i did macro reversing, but instead of using 2 lens, you will use a body cap, a filter and some glue!
- Another really cheap way of doing macro from Zuco
In that link you will find schematic of the camera connection so to quickly make a release cord which really cost if you want to buy it in a store!
Check out:
- Minolta
- Sony
- Canon or here or here or for N3connector
- Nikon or here
Or a general PDF on how to make your own trigger or here
Basically you have to shortcircuit some pins on the camera.
You can do that by using a simple 2way switch.
Here is the pin schematics on the Sony Alpha Series
It has 3 little cables, one red (1), one white (2) and one without rubber around it (3)
Whenever i push the button, my camera shoots!
If you liked my How-to, please Share!
