DIY

DIY projects are in abundance on YouTube and I just can't get enough of them. Back in January I posted about YouTuber Matt Perks from DIYPerks and his amazing project building a 1,000 watt water-cooled LED lamp. Well he has a new DIY project that has me super excited to try and build my own. Perks' new video goes into great detail and lists all the parts needed to build a motorized desk partition that can be added to any existing desk. He calls his a "monitor lift" but the possibilities I've already imaged that I could use it for are even more useful. If you're like me and have a ton of things in and around your desk but very limited and cluttered desk space, then this could be a super easy build that might resolve some of your clutter in a really cool way.

I thought I was a fairly apt DIY'er, but then I saw this next-level achievement. This man built his own lens from scratch, right down to machining the glass himself.

Shooting suspended objects in your images can be done a few different ways, from the use of Photoshop to the simple and effective use of wire or fishing line. My first instinct would be to grab clear fishing line. Not having done any work with fishing line in suspending objects, I would not even have thought about getting brown or even a greenish tint line to use in the set, as Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens packs in his fishing line kit box for various projects and scenes. In this video, he shares all his tips on this approach, including how he decides to use a certain color based on the background.

Filmmaking is a wonderful thing, but it's also an expensive thing. Luckily, filmmakers are resourceful people full of tricks. This great video will give you five such tricks to get great results without spending a lot of money.

The Internet is loaded with articles on new gear or popular techniques. Everywhere you look, you will find some new unboxing video or review piece. Everyone promising that they will make you the photographer you have always wanted to be. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy looking at fancy new equipment as much as the next guy -- and I have written a few of those articles myself -- but do all the toys and tricks help my career in the long run?

Photography isn't something you decide as a career path. You rather find photography and then setup your life to do it as a job. It has that effect and it's why it's such a beautiful art form. You'll never be a successful photographer if you are not passionate about it, which is different to deciding a financial adviser or insurance broker. I might be stereotyping, but I am sure there are many who love their job, but also many who do not, but at least get a good paying salary at the end of every month, so they keep at it.

The most creative ideas are often the most simple ones. Here is a video a team from France put together showing you ways to enhance your portraits using cheap and basic tools that you can find at any grocery and hardware store. You don't have to worry, there is no French explanations, it's all done visually and is quite easy to follow.

Creating interesting effects in camera doesn't always have to require expensive filters. With a little ingenuity and a cheap UV filter, you can replicate these cool effects in your own work.

If you're into that film noir look à la "Double Indemnity" (and who isn't?), this is the tutorial for you. Using only an off-camera flash, a food box, and some tape, you can create this moody and cool lighting effect.

Motorized camera sliders can really improve the quality of your videos and time-lapses, but they're also rather expensive. With a little bit of savvy, however, you can build your own relatively cheaply and in just a few hours by following this great tutorial.

When we think of bokeh, we normally of out-of-focus areas behind the subject. But the nature of depth of field means there are out-of-focus areas in front of the subject as well, and taking advantage of these can create some unique portraiture.

We talk about how to clean our cameras and lenses quite a bit, but for many of us, our tripods are just as essential a piece of equipment. Here's how to properly clean one to extend its life and ensure it functions fully.

Today was a day of much needed motivation, so I decided to grab one of my speedlights and shoot a portrait with an element of motion. In this case, water.

For decades, business cards have been the most popular way to share personal details for networking and self-promotion purposes. Whilst these clever introductory tools have traditionally taken the shape of a rectangular piece of paper, one young Singaporean wedding photographer, is changing the face of business cards with his innovative idea.

Developing your own film might be the cheaper (and more amusing) way to go, but with all the preparation and lab space required, that simply hasn't always the best option. Ars-Imago's Lab-Box hopes to solve these problems in a small, light-proof container that enables you to develop your own film at home or even while traveling – yes, it's that easy and compact. The best part: it's not all that expensive, either.

We’ve all been there — forking out for a personal project to make what you envisioned for your images a reality. But fine art photographer Nicky Hamilton takes that one step further — he spent months building these incredible sets for his photos.

As creative professionals, hobbyists, and tech nerds (myself included), we often find ourselves wearing many different hats in our day-to-day activities. The crafts of photography and cinematography, among others, remain heavily dependent on technology that needs to be reliable and largely up to date. Often, that means the technician hat comes out to perform RAM upgrades on computers, to replace internal batteries and hard drives, and, admittedly, to repair screens on mobile devices. Here are some tools and tips to make that process a bit easier for you.

Imagine if we started selling oxygen as a commodity, as a medicine for a sick and polluted planet. What would that fantasy look like? Benjamin Von Wong explores this in his latest series, and is bringing to light the very real market for oxygen in China.

Matt over at DIY Perks, a Youtube channel dedicated to electronic based DIY projects, made a tutorial on how to build a 1000w equivalent liquid cooled LED light. The best part is it's daylight balanced at 5600k so perfect for simulating a sunny day or Window light when the sun just won't cooperate.

Caleb Pike released a string of interesting and fresh camera hacks over the past year. This time, he's tackling wireless monitoring; a problem that we all know can be expensive and time consuming. Does this leave you open to criticism before you've even finished the shot? Is it the equivalent to handing over raw images? Let's talk about how to do it, and why you should do it.

“Memories are important, because with a terminal illness, you’re not going to live a full life,” explains James Dunn. Suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin condition that causes blisters and extremely fragile skin, he can’t use a camera without assistance. However, that may now have changed.

The biggest downside to using a gimbal is losing basic controls of the camera. Sure, you can use a monitor, but you can't actually control the camera. Could your phone fix this problem?

A French photographer has shared the results of images he took with his own 3D-printed lens. Mathieu Stern, a freelancer, came up with the idea due to his passion for collecting cheap and unusual lenses.

A couple of years ago I was tasked with getting a shot of grape stomping for a local food magazine, Edible Ozarkansas, who were doing a story on the history of local wine production in Arkansas. Right away, images of Lucy and Ethel of "I Love Lucy" stomping grapes in the giant barrel came scrolling through my mind. Challenge accepted.

When they are out at night, wanting to shoot some astrophotography, the trickiest thing photographers usually worry about is getting enough light to highlight the nightscape for it come out well-exposed in a shot. Some make use of the available light, some wait for the full moon, and some get creative with torch or car lights. But Paul Heran and Ryland West came up with yet another ingenious method to light up their landscapes: drone lighting.

The beauty of studio shooting is that you have absolute control over every aspect of your final image. From makeup, to the general lack of ambient light to deal with, to the subject in front of your camera, everything is up to you. This can bring some challenges _ namely, you as the photographer are also the director of the entire shoot. If something isn't going right, it's your responsibility to fix it. I apply this to everything in life, but it's especially relevant in assembling a successful shoot. Remember the six Ps of life: proper planning prevents piss-poor performance.

Last week I wrote a post detailing my frustration with getting airline agents to check my bags under the "media rate" that I am entitled to as a photographer or "film making crew." I decided to print my own media pass so that this will never be an issue again and today they arrived.

Along with drone technology and the advancement of user-modified drones, another thing that has also been evolving is LED technology and the way people use it. In this four-minute video, you will see a good example of the combination of these two technologies, as Stratus Productions mounted a 1000-watt LED light to a Freefly Systems Alta 8 drone.

For a long time as a photographer, I did not have access to a studio nor did I have the necessary lights to help create a studio setup indoors. And let’s not talk about renting studios! So, in absence of a studio, I came up with one easy way to create the studio feel, which you will find is pretty cheap.