DIYPhotography.net

Have you ever tried to photograph a wolf on a wild terrain when it is sub-zero outside? If you have, you must know that gloves are a photographer's friend. Of course, gloves can be a nemesis as well, if they are making you clumsy and take away your ability to press them little camera buttons.

I am going to show three ways to handle gloves clumsiness fever and then we will have a giveaway at the end. Read more ›

The following sliced fruits shots tutorial is by photographer and artist William van der Steen.

The tutorial will take you step by step toward creating an image similar to that wonderful sliced up banana.

here we go Read more ›

Optical Slaves are the simplest (and cheapest for the most part) method for using off camera flashes.

The principle is simple, when the optical slave sees another flash fire, it fires too. Kinda like yawning. Once one of goes, it is catchy.

Of course optical slaves have their limitations, one of which is that they are too dump to understand the difference between a flash and a pre-flash. There are a few more limitations to optical dumb slaves, but this post is about overcoming the pre-flash issue with a cool gizmo called Arduino. Read more ›

I am very happy to announce the new look of DIYP. If you are reading this via RSS, you may want to click though and see the new design.

Over the last few weeks I have been working with the great team at cre8d design to give DIYP a new look.

The fact of the matter is that since I originally installed Drupal on the site, I never changed the default theme. It is a great theme, however it did not allow for some of the features I wanted for DIYP.

The team at cre8d did a very nice job of creating a new theme that makes better use of the space the page has to offer, as well as allow for some community features.

Read more ›

I've had it happen when I heard a veteran photog telling another, "This one? You cannot do this one, you don't have the gear".

Now, as the name of the site suggests, this is not what I consider a good answer. A better answer would be a breakdown of the shoot, trying to get some understanding of what is a must for it, what gear is needed and how can we make up for the gear we don't have. Maybe with another piece of gear; maybe in post; and maybe by changing one of the underlying assumptions that we initially had when thinking about the shoot.

Photographer Scott Bourke (flickr) shows this exact king of thinking in his Sportraits session. There is a nice how to video and then some thoughts. I'd love to hear your take on dealing with gear shortage in the comments. Read more ›

UPDATE: IanW has a good point in the comments that flashes can go thermal on you. He is right. Pop to hard and too fast and you will overheat. "Fire a flash too frequently with this setup and you will destroy it due
to overheating, unless it's got a thermal cutout (most don't)."

UPDATE 2: if you're gonna do this, make sure you're doing this on a 6V flash, i.e. 4 AA batteries. This will fry your flash if it is a 3V flash (2 AAs)

We write quite a bit about portable strobes. If you've been around for a while you may remember an older version of those strobes. The Sunpak family. While I have not used them myself (too young, sorry), those behemoth shoot at a staggering GN of 48 (meters) and have the look and feel to support it. That makes them ideal for sun swamped on location lighting. The nice thing is that they are old enough to be bought at ridiculously low prices second hand.

The following post about portable power source for small flashes (and Sunpak 611 in particular) is written by John Hagar (blog). Read more ›

Photographer Peter Karlsson has it all worked out when it comes to travel light. Peter is a Strobist at heart and as such he is using small flashes quite a bit. The coolness comes in when you see how he places his flashes in space.

Instead of your orthodox light stand solution Peter uses a home brewed light stand made of tent poles. Those are great for travel for several reasons: There are super light-weight, they fold small and they will definitely make your subject go WOW! Luckily for photographers wold wide there are two vids available that shows how those light stands were made. Read more ›

When it comes to protecting your camera from the elements we already know that a condom will go a great way. However, sometimes a more subtle approach is needed. Especially if all you are seeking is to protect your camera from a bit of rain.

The following guest post about creating a camera rain cover from trousers is made by Matti Hassinen.

Read more ›

The following guest post about the best invention since the invention of the power cord (and saving space while traveling) is made by Simon Williams of Simon James Williams Photography.

You’ve been looking for something that will change your photography forever, something you’ve never quite been able to put your finger on, the “Zen” some people say that you have been looking for.

You have the best camera that your wife (or husband) will allow – in fact you’ve got more mega-pixels at your disposal that the Hubble space telescope. You are in more debt than the Lehman Brothers website designer because of it. Read more ›

Hello again! It’s Dana, twin cities brightest, back again with more tricks for light painting photography.

I hope you have all been practicing because it’s time to deal with the unruly beast - fireworks.

Read more ›