Shooting in low light or need some help with camera shake? Make yourself a string tripod. A string tripod is an old trick professionals used to use in a pinch, in lieu of lugging around a large metal tripod. It’s an easy and cheap do-it-yourself project that gives you a few additional stops to work with, if you don’t mind the occasional inquiring glance.

From Instructables:

Advantages:
-Cheap
-Easy to make
-No special tools needed (or really any at all)
-Hard to break
-Small
-You can use this where tripods are disallowed (such as museums)
-If the “tripod” gets dirty you can throw it in the wash
-If you misplace it, you can make another
-Rotational movement still available for panning and recomposition

Disadvantages:
-Does not hold as steady as a real tripod
-You can get some looks while using it

Check it out how to make it here.

Image via Instructables

Lens hoods are a gigantic rip-off. While they’re a great way to reduce flare and increase contrast on your digital SLRs, they’re also expensive, considering that it’s just a piece of plastic.

For a cheaper solution, there’s from Lenshoods.co.uk. The site offers free printable PDFs to make paper lens hoods for most popular lenses. They don’t look as professional, but they cost next to nothing and will do just as well in a pinch.

Check it out (via Lenshoods.co.uk)

Yesterday’s post on tilt-shift photography hit the front page of both Digg and Reddit, so I guess people found it interesting. If you’re looking for a way to get a tilt-shift lens of your own on the cheap, there’s a guide online.

What you’ll need (from the site):
1. Lens
2. Rubber Plunger - (any type will do, as long as it’s flexible and not too large.)
3. Cardboard - (something stiff and not corrugated)
4. Plastic Body cap

Since a medium format lens is designed for a format larger than the full-frame or APS-C sensors in most digital cameras, there’s room enough for the rubber plunger can be used to attach the lens to the camera body, enabling a tilt-shift effect. The results look pretty nice for a project that should only set you back $50 or so. And hey, it’s a lot cheaper than a Lensbaby.

Check out the full tutorial via DigiHack.

A ring flash is a great way to get even lighting for your macro or portrait shots. Typically, it’s a pricey investment, but DigiHack came up with a way to convert your regular, off-camera flash into a ring flash. It may not be the prettiest looking thing in the world, but the ring flash gets the job done and that’s what matters, right?

Here’s what you’ll need to build it:

1. A flash. Any flash will work for this but if you want to use the ring flash for more than just macro work, you’ll need a strong flash. Get the strongest one you can get your hands on. Seriously.
2. Styrofoam
3. Cardboard
4. Aluminum foil
5. Tape
6. Lens hood. (This is important this is the device you will be using to mount the flash directly to the lens. It’s important that you use a hood/shade thingy and not just a lens filter. There’s a bunch of flare to be dealt with)

The DigiHack site is kaput now, but you can view the whole article courtesy of the Wayback Machine here.

The benefits of having a diffusion panel on hand just keep coming…

In my Do-It-Yourself Light Box, I used Cracked Ice diffusing panels that are typically designed to cover overhead florescent lights as the outside panels of the light box frame. They served to diffuse the bright light sources I placed outside the light box, creating nice, even lighting within.

If you have leftover scraps from the diffusing panel after building the light box, they also are a good tool to set the custom white balance on your camera. Here’s how to do it.

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