Filed under: Audio/Video, Cameras, Advice, Digital Camera, Peripherals

Here’s a DIY project not for the weak-of-heart (or impatient). MAKE, a magazine completely dedicated to the art of DIY, has intriguing directions on how to turn your flat-bed scanner into a nifty camera capable of taking grainy black and white photos.

You probably have a scanner sitting around somewhere (likely untouched and collecting dust since 1999) and the magnifying glass can be had for $.99 from a local store, but we’re pretty sure most of you don’t have foam core on hand. Unless you’re an arts and crafts fanatic ordering the foam core to create the focusing mechanism for this scanner-camera probably isn’t worth while.

It’s a neat project, but seeing as how you could probably create a similar effect with a digital camera and ‘Photoshop‘ we cant imagine wasting the time and man hours to build this one-trick-pony. Check out the video above for step by step instructions. [From: MAKE, Via: GeekSugar]

How to Turn Your Scanner Into a Grainy Camera originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Cameras, Advice, Digital Camera

DIY photography Web site Photojojo has compiled a series of tips for aspiring night shooters. It might take a little bit of work and planning, but you can shoot great photos at night. The article goes through various approaches you can take — using your camera’s Night-Portrait Mode, being the most obvious — and helps you sort through what might be most appropriate for your particular situation. It covers (in minimal detail) high ISO settings (the digital equivalent of using different-speed film on analog cameras), as well as motion and color tips.
Our favorite tip, however, is the last one.

A quirk of physics dictates that unfocused points of light in a photograph take on the shape of the aperture. You can make a lens hood with a specially-shaped aperture (a heart, for example) and turn all the points of light into that shape.

It’s really easy, super cheap, and lends an unexpected “how-did-you-do-that?” touch to night photos. Make any shape you want: stars, ghosts, butterflies. You can even buy specially-shaped hole punches at craft stores.

Now, young photographer: go forth, and bokeh. [From: Photojojo]

How to Take Better Night Photos originally appeared on Switched on Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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