Thank you for all who came to the DIY Photography meeting and we hope you learned something and had fun with the creative hands-on practices we brought to the table. But for some reason if you missed the meeting, here is a full recap on what happened in the meeting.
To start off (Sid writing here), DIY photography is exactly what it sounds like. You see something laying around that has a photography potential, you use it. Maybe to create a cool effect, maybe you can use it just to hold your camera in position. As simple as that and you can be very creative in this area because there are no limitations. Having said that, I’ll show you some easy examples you can try out right now down below.
Let’s jump right into the first one, Shooting Through. Basically, you find something that you can put in front of your lens and shoot through it. It can be a plastic bottle of some sort, or anything else that fits the criteria. Take a look at the pictures above. The second photo is the after picture. Notice the blurred out edges and haziness. It helps you isolate your subject perfectly. I got this effect by simply shooting through an alcohol wipe bottle.
The next one is a Color Filter Look. Get some clear tape pieces, put them across the lens, well stretched so you don’t touch the front glass element. You’ll see what I mean when you look at the picture. Then you color them with a sharpie. This gives you a vintage, color filter look straight out of the camera.
Creative Bokeh Photograph. Photo by Sidath Karunaratne.
Creative Bokeh Behind the Scenes.
Creative Bokeh is the next effect we talked about and this one is one of my all-time favorite effects. First, you take a piece of paper and cut a circle that fits your lens diameter. Then, cut a shape in the middle. Could be a heart, square, star, or anything else except a circle (since bokeh looks like circles anyways). Everybody should give this a go because it is a lot of fun.
Laptop Bokeh. Photo by Sidath Karunaratne.
Next, we talked about using your laptop as a background for your shots. Obviously, your subject is going to be a little small given that laptop screens are only so big, but if you have a bigger display, you can even do portraits with this effect. I only demonstrated how to shoot a small object, but you are free to explore. This is a great effect for product photography.
The next effect is Anamorphic Flares. My second favorite. Have you seen in movies whenever a bright light comes up - it has this horizontal flares going across the screen that looks really cool. You can get this effect very easily with minimal tools. All you need is a clear fishing line and a piece of tape. You simply stretch the fishing line horizontally across the front element of the lens. Of course you can do any angle you like, but anamorphic is all about horizontal flares. This effect works when you are pointing at the light source directly.
Finally, I have three other little and very quick tips to add a creative touch to your photos. One of them is to use a phone to create a reflection. It works really well with landscapes, but feel free to try it however you like. In the above example, I used bananas to demonstrate this. Another quick tip, is to shoot underwater with your phone and a glass mug that is big enough to put your phone in. Put the glass in the water and drop your phone in and snap away.
Lastly, let’s talk about a diffuser for your on-camera flash. It is really harsh when you fire it directly at something. To counter this, you can diffuse the light by simply using a white colored plastic grocery bag. In the first photo above, you can see the harsh shadows on the plant. And in the second photo, you can see it has a much more even light without harsh shadows.
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