Try "unfocusing" your photographs for some dreamy, evocative and somewhat abstract takes on life. Check out the two tutorials (here and here) from Michelle Geoga of Lights! Camera! Photoshop! for tips on unleashing the blur-power of your camera. You can see plenty of example i ...more
Taking a group portrait can be a pain. Here’s how to make it go as smoothly as possible. Check out this Howcast video tutorial on how to take a group portrait. You Will Need * A camera * An external flash * A tripod * A group of people * And a large room or space * Wide-angl ...more
This is a continuation of a previous post about getting "unfocused" with your DSLR. We all work hard to get pictures that are sharp and have perfect focus. Maybe we’re missing the forest for the trees. Think about mood, color, ideas—in other words, not your gear. There are l ...more
The Job Board is a weekly entry of the most ridiculous Cinematography related jobs posted online. DP for Music Video (Los Angeles) Award winning Director and Producer seeks an amazing hard working Director of Photography to shoot a rock music video. Selected candidate will a ...more
Introduction to the Basics of Off-Camera Flash There are a lot of resources on the web for using your flash. For Nikon shooters, the Strobist and Joe McNally are the best resources. For Canon shooters, maybe Syl Arena is the best. It doesn’t matter because if you are a Canon ...more
Shoot an action-packed close up, or film while you're biking around. All you need to do is build a simple bicycle camera mount. You'll need a tripod mount, PVC pipe, pliers, bungee cord, a U bolt and a bike. Watch this video cinematography tutorial and learn how to build a bic ...more
So, you scratched up your $500 Adobe CD and now it's unreadable. You could go buy a new one, but you already purchased it! Searching The Pirate Bay and downloading some Adobe software can usually be easy enough, but what should you watch out for? And what about your movies? W ...more
In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to make stop motion animations. Begin by mounting the camera onto a stable surface position, such as a tripod. Then layout the figure to a desired position for the first frame. Now take a picture and slightly move the figure for the se ...more
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more
In this clip, you'll learn a simple method for modifying a Manfrotto tripod into a fun, functional car mount for your Canon or Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera. For more information, including a complete demonstration, and detailed, step-by-step instructions, take a look.
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more
Time lapse is a dynamic filming technique, and can be even more interesting if the camera is moving while it films. You can achieve this effect by using the Dynamic Perception Stage Zero Dolly, MX2 DollyShield and Pentax K7, and this tutorial shows you how.
This video demonstrates how to use a Nikon SD-80 Battery Pack with a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight. The first step is to identify the different power adaptors on the ends of the cable leading to the battery pack. This pack is powered with AA batteries. Remove the outlet plate on the ...more
Chris Rutter teaches us how to use off camera wireless flash in this tutorial. First, attach the flash to the camera and aim it towards your subject. For a more flattering result, place the flash gun on a tripod that is placed on the right hand side of the subject. Now, go to ...more
Here is a detailed video that explains techniques and equipment you can use to take pictures of a lightning storm. Yes, take photographs in an actual lightning storm. You will definitely need a tripod to take a photograph with a long exposure and a plastic bag to protect your ...more
Before jumping right into becoming the next James Neely or Moose Peterson, you're going to have get situated with your new digital SLR. No matter if you purchased the Canon EOS 5D Mark II body and lens separately or together, you've got everything you need to get started excep ...more
Depth of field is the term for how much of an area your camera keeps in focus. Moving your camera allows you to keep your subject clear, and make the background blurry. Use this video to get better control of your film making. Of course, thanks to YouTube's video compression, ...more
Turn your digital footage into something that looks more like film! Set your frame rate to 24 and shoot with a low depth of field to mimic the look of a film camera. Also make sure you pick the right aspect ratio, resolution and use a tripod!
Responding to the inexplicably rampant use of faux-documentary techniques in "Battle: Los Angeles", Matt Zoller Seitz of Salon eloquently and hilariously lambastes the "played-out" fad of the shaky cam. Here are just a few nuggets: 'Get yourself a tripod. Make a shot list. Th ...more
Rescue the sky in your pictures. Sometimes, the blue sky and the white clouds are the most exhilarating part of a photograph, so making sure it's as vivid as it is in real life is key to having a good pic. To do this, you'll need to do some touchup work in Photoshop. This vid ...more
This colorful image may look like a miniature set of model cars, foam buildings and painted grass, but it's nothing of the sort. It's a still photo from a time-lapse video that Stu Kennedy shot in his hometown of Lincoln, England. But it's not your ordinary time-lapse. Kennedy ...more
In this video tutorial, Wess does some research and builds a steady-cam for under fourteen bucks. Hooray for no more motion sickness! Steadycams (or camera stabilizers) are attachments used to capture smooth looking video even when the camera and camera operator are in motion ...more
Check out this cinematography video tutorial on how to use the Panasonic HPX500 broadcast camera. The Panasonic professional digital camcorder HPX500 is an awesome camera for the new age. This video is a simple introduction to full-sized broadcast cameras, featuring the Panas ...more
In this DIY video, we show you how we built our camera crane. This was all done with a table saw, drill and hack saw. Parts for the crane: Lazy susan Boards Nuts & bolts Screws Old clothes hanger Old tripod Aluminum strips Equipment used: Sony HDR-HC3 Camcorder Sony Playstation
You can take high dynamic range photos with a regular point and shoot digital camera. You may need to take up to three versions of the same photograph and make a high definition composite photograph. Even a small digital camera can take three photographs at the same time using ...more
If you're always taking blurry and underexposed pics with your mobile device, try using some of the tips below to turn your phone into a valuable photography asset. It doesn't matter if you have an iPhone, Android smartphone, or even a first-gen camera phone... you can still t ...more
Don't spend hundreds of dollars on an expensive Spider Trax dolly when you can make your own at home for just a few dollars and an hour or so of your time. Make sure you build something that will work with your own camera!
Watch this instructional photography video on how to shoot Panoramic photographs with What Digital Camera Magazine. Panoramic photography is a format of photography that creates images with exceptionally wide fields of view. You don't have to use a tripod but it's much easier ...more
Forget dogs - tripods are a man's best friend (well, if he's a photographer). Eliminating many of the factors that create crappy photos, including the instability of holding the camera up by hand, photo blurs, and general strain of weilding those hulking digital SLRs, tripods ...more
My first attempt at a helmet cam, yielded ok results, but I wanted something even better. The downside to all of this was cost, but it is very close to what I want now. Yes the camera is upside down, and yes there's a solid piece of fabric covering the view. Read on to find o ...more
Here at WonderHowTo, we appreciate the fine art of photography (including its extensively vast bag of mind boggling tricks). We also enjoy playing with fire. Sorry, most of us are little boys at heart, and we can't get enough tutorials that fall within the playing-with-matches ...more
Giveaway Tuesdays has officially ended! But don't sweat it, WonderHowTo has another World that's taken its place. Every Tuesday, Phone Snap! invites you to show off your cell phone photography skills. Submit your best shot to our weekly competition for a chance to win an awes ...more
I woke up at 4:00 am this morning in order to take some video of the last total lunar eclipse visible from North America till 2014. The eclipse was beautiful. It was amazing to watch the shadow of our planet creep slowly across our nearest neighbor. Once the shadow was blockin ...more
Long-exposure photography gives us the ability the capture some pretty amazing shots by delicately capturing moving elements in an image while keeping the shutter open at a slow speed. While that's great for things like traffic, scenery, and carnival rides, it can come in espe ...more
Want to find out if your neighbors are talking about you? You could always hack their webcam or turn your iPhone into a secret spy camera, but unless you have a key to their house, that could be tricky to do without getting caught. With this DIY parabolic microphone (archived ...more
Chance are, you or someone you know is that person in the gym: flexing in front of a mirror, posing for the perfect photos to show off your workout results. But finding the right picture is hard. The thing is, it doesn't need to be. A good gym selfie or workout video doesn't ...more
While Live Photos has been a fun addition to iOS ever since the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, there hasn't been much practical use for Apple's moving images so far. That was, until iOS 11 added advanced features such as long exposure effects that make a DSLR less and less impressive ...more
Believe it or not, capturing a beautiful shot of a vehicle is more difficult than you think. Sure, you can just snap a photo, but capturing the design, detail, and essence of the car is a whole other story. Lighting, location, settings, and angles are play into how well the ph ...more
There are plenty of reasons to upgrade to the iPhone 12 mini. Maybe you want to take advantage of the improved camera system, or you're intrigued by the return to a smaller form factor. But one of its coolest features might be MagSafe, a completely different way to charge and ...more
I took a telescope mount from a tripod and converted it so it could be mounted on a microphone stand. For a step-by-step guide please visit my project at Make: http://makeprojects.com/Project/Mic+Stand+Camera+Mount+-+Steadycam+-+Camera+Boom/2770/1
With smartphone cameras and software getting better and better every year, more and more users are getting passionate about photography. So when you're shopping for a gift to get someone, if they have a smartphone, chances are they'll more than appreciate some tools and access ...more
The Pixel 3 has an indisputably great camera, but a software update coming soon is going to make it even better. Google will be adding a "Night Sight" shooting mode that's so good with low-light situations that you'll have to see it to believe it. XDA highlighted a port of th ...more
Night mode, which helps you snap great photographs in low-light environments, is a feature available only on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 lineups. It's a useful tool to have in your arsenal, especially if you're fond of nightlife photography. Still, you don't have to purchase a ...more
Thanks to its advanced cameras, the Galaxy S9 can capture videos at an astonishing 960 frames per second (fps). To put it in perspective, you now have you the ability to record the world around you in ways that previously required expensive professional camera equipment. And t ...more
Smartphone videos get better and better each year. Seven or eight years ago, who would have thought iPhone and Android phones could support 4K video recording. Some phones can even shoot slow-motion at 960 fps. But no matter the resolution or frame rate, a phone's rolling shut ...more
Our first stop at CES this year was at iLuv, a company well known for their long line of smartphone accessories (portable chargers, speakers, headphones, etc). While their products are geared towards everyday use, their Selfy phone case, which is a bit more situational, caught ...more
You can take a photo on your iPhone with just one tap or press, but you can also use the Camera app hands-free for more impressive images. Doing so lets you take more detailed selfies, include your whole group in the frame, or get steadier results in Night mode — and it's easy ...more
LIGHTFAKTOR is a Cologne artists collective experimenting with the "possibilities yielded by bulb (long-term) exposure and painting." The technique employed has been coined "light writing" - Wikipedia's definition: "Light writing is an emerging form of stop motion animation ...more
If you've seen ParaNorman or Fantastic Mr. Fox, then you have some kind of idea of what stop-motion animation is. Basically, these artists make objects, or small figures, appear to be moving on their own by manipulating and repositioning them in the smallest increments, then c ...more
Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's ...more
With the release of Object Capture this fall, Apple is giving everyone with a Mac and a camera the means to create their own 3D objects. But what about volumetric video, which currently requires multi-camera rigs like those at Microsoft's Mixed Reality Capture studios? One de ...more
Apple's iOS 15 update has some great camera features that can benefit professional photographers and casual users alike. And while many are exclusive to newer iPhone models, there are still some Camera app upgrades and additions that apply to all iPhones running iOS 15. 1. Im ...more
No extra tripods or dollies required! This tutorial shows you the 'steadyhand' technique: a way for you to hold your video camera in your bare hands without any tremors or shaking. The trick is to not hold it too tightly.
Shooting good footage with handheld cameras that wiggle, bounce, and fall onto rocks on a regular basis is tough. Sometimes, though, you may want to make it appear as if film that you've shot with tripods and such was actually shot with a handheld, like in some horror films. T ...more
With the invention of 3D TVs and a 3D film showing in nearly every theatre, 3D seems to be the biggest craze lately. Did you know you don't have to spend a fortune to create one of these eye-popping movies yourself? In this tutorial, learn how to take two inexpensive mini Fli ...more
We don't always have a tripod handy when we need to grab some footage for our latest video project, but shaky footage can ruin an otherwise great video. Thankfully, After Effects has a 'stabilize motion' tool that you can apply to your recording to prevent headaches brought on ...more
If you know what a cam slider is, you know you want one. But camera sliders can be pretty pricey, so that's when it's time to resort to DIY techniques. In this video, see how to build your own pro-slider. It's super easy and only takes ten minutes to make! Shopping list: * 1 ...more
In this tutorial, learn a quick tip on how to get smoother panning and tilting using a tripod. A rubber band is an inexpensive way to improve your tripod's movement. This method is so easy to do, and you will wind up with a beautiful finished product. This works especially we ...more
Watch this cinematography tutorial on how to use the microShouldermount, which can be attached onto a tripod or used in its typical configuration as a shoulder mount. You can attach a monitor along the grip rod. Learn the essentials of the Redrock mounting systems for professi ...more
There are many types of photography tripods for using in different shooting situations. Watch this instructional photography video to test out different tripods from mini to mighty. Make sure to label your tripod with your name and address, because at a large photo shoots, tri ...more