Using a filter is a great way to protect your lens from damage, but if you accidentally drop your camera and smash the filter, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to remove the filter from your lens’ threads. Here’s a quick video that shows how you can remove a stuck filter — all you need is a strong pair of pliers.
(via ISO 1200)
If you’ve never done studio portraits before, check out this uber-helpful video that quickly runs through five basic lighting techniques commonly used by photographers everywhere.
If you’re looking for a creative way to display your photos (and decorate your home), papernstitch has a tutorial on how you can make circular picture frames using embroidery hoops. The photographs are printed onto PhotoFabric and then held taut between the hoop rings.
Here’s a video in which interior photographer Roger Brooks walks through how he goes about lighting, photographing, and stitching residential interior photographs.
Modern DSLR lenses don’t usually have aperture rings, and opening and closing the aperture is the camera’s responsibility. If for some reason you need to keep the aperture blades locked in a certain position, the “lens twist trick” can help you do so. Simply untwist the lens from the camera while holding the depth of field preview button.
One practical use for this trick is time-lapse photography. Cameras don’t always close the aperture to exactly the same size every shot, and the slight variation can cause a flicker in the resulting time-lapse video (a problem called “aperture flicker“).
(via planet5d)
A couple days ago it was discovered that iPhones, iPods, and iPads running iOS 5 have a secret panorama mode that’s hidden in the operating system. The feature can be enabled, but featured either a jailbroken device or knowledge in how to edit a particular iOS 5 preference file. Luckily for non-hackers, Redmond Pie has discovered an easy way to do this by taking advantage of iTune’s backup feature. This tutorial will teach you how to get the panorama feature unlocked in 5-10 minutes.
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Here’s a helpful tutorial on how to adjust the angle of your light sources to avoid the nasty reflections that show up in eyeglasses. It has to do with understanding and harnessing the “angle of incidence” and “angle of reflection” of your light.
(via ISO 1200)
Earlier this month we shared a hugely popular post on transferring a photo onto a block of wood. Well, the same technique can also be used to create a canvas print. All you need, besides the stretched canvas, is some gel medium and a photo printed with toner (e.g. made with a laser printer or photocopier). The gel medium is used to “steal” the toner from the paper, and once the paper is rubbed away, the print remains. Check out the full tutorial over on A Beautiful Mess.
Make Your Own Canvas Portrait! [A Beautiful Mess]
P.S. Be sure to check out the wood transfer tutorial if you haven’t seen it already. It’d make for a neat gift for the holidays!
In this video, commercial photographer Jay P. Morgan walks through how he went about shooting a composite sports photograph of Mexican soccer player Rafael Márquez.
We were going to shoot several shots that would need to freeze him in mid air as he kicked the ball. We had limited time with him so it was necessary that things were planed out and ready to go when he arrived. We took two Hensel speed max heads that have the fastest flash duration of any mono block head available. The goal was to use them as our key lights and freeze his action in mid air. We shot background plates the day before at the ruins outside of Mexico City for him to be retouched into. The idea being famous soccer players in action shots at different iconic sites of Mexico. [#]
A video walkthrough of the post-production can be found over on Facebook.
(via Fstoppers)
Google+ is becoming pretty popular among photographers as a way to share work and connect with others. If you’ve been thinking about jumping in but don’t know where to begin, Scott Kelby and Co. made this helpful (and free) hour-long primer with tips on how to use the service effectively.
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