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A while back I saw the Light Blaster in a online shopping site, I liked the effect and that Inspire me to build a Light Blaster on my own. My first order of business was to look for something that would serve as the body of the unit. I needed a material that is strong enough to carry a lens and light enough to not overwhelm a light stand. I decided to a use a small plastic food container from the dollar store as my Light Blaster body....

When you think of the popular boudoir photographers out there at the moment, Lindsay Adler’s name is one of those that immediately springs to mind, and for good reason. Her work’s fantastic. In this video, Lindsay goes through her thought process when lighting a boudoir set in the studio, and demonstrates that you really don’t need a lot of equipment to get amazing results. Using only a single speedlight and a reflector for a dramatic low key look that highlights form with smooth flowing curves, this is a simple setup that anybody can try very inexpensively....

Even the magical light of the golden hour requires some enhancement in post-processing. There are a few ways to do it, and Denny Tang of Denny’s Tips suggest one of the simplest I’ve seen so far. He uses a single adjustment layer, and it’s the Channel Mixer. The whole editing process is pretty fast, yet gives natural-looking results on the photos taken during sunset (or sunrise). Why the Channel Mixer?...

No matter how many times this subject comes up, it’s always extremely uncomfortable for a great many photographers to approach people in the street. Whether it’s the feeling of being perceived as weird or simply being rejected, a lot of people are afraid to just walk up to people and say “Hey, can I make your portrait?”. It’s something that photographer Jamie Windsor‘s struggled with, but he’s determined to get over it....

Even though the final season of Game of Thrones has been a huge disappointment for some of us, there’s one thing we can’t deny – it looked freakin’ gorgeous. In this video from Film Riot, Ryan Connelly shows you how to achieve the Game of Thrones style and feel. Of course, the HBO show had a massive budget, but worry not, Ryan’s suggestions work for all us common folk who are more into DIY than high-budget solutions....

While many photographers do everything they can to avoid lens flare, others actively seek it to add a dash of colour or just a little something extra and different to their portraits, weddings or other photography. Other than shooting directly into a light source, the most common way people add flare is to put something in front of the lens between the subject. People use prisms or all kinds of things, and there are even photography products out there specifically for this purpose....

Coming to you from the guys at COOPH, here are two ways to make and shoot with a pinhole camera. The first is analogue. Yes, that’s right, it uses 35mm film, the construction is as cheap and simple as it gets. All you need is a matchbox, a fresh roll of film, an empty film spool, an empty drinks can, some thin card and a whole mess of electrical tape....

Under the pre-dawn skies of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on May 5th, 2018, NASA launched InSight. Destined for Mars, InSight launched on the back of an Atlas V-401 rocket, one of the biggest rockets available for interplanetary flight. It’s the first mission to leave Vandenberg Air Force Base that is destined for another planet and it gave Tested’s Norman Chan an opportunity to document it. The video goes over Norman’s process for shooting the event....

These days, social media is a huge part of one’s branding. It needs to represent who you are as a person and a company. There needs to be consistency between Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. It needs to convey who you are, either as an individual or as a company, and your personality. Photographer and YouTuber, Joe Edelman recently had to update his social media profile photos after acquiring a new pair of glasses....

If you tend to create lots of crazy self-portraits as I do, a good technique to know is how to quickly change skin tone in Photoshop. Like the above image, one of my favorite things is to turn people into zombies. If you work for me its only a matter of time before you are in front of the camera, ready to be zombified! The trick is to start with the skin color and work it from there....

You’d think that recording a simple conversation would be quite straightforward. But it’s not as easy as it often looks. If you want to add a little drama you need to put some thought into it. This video from CinematicJ is primarily aimed at those shooting some kind of dramatic conversation scene for a movie. But, you can also apply some of the techniques and suggestions mentioned in other filming situations....

I’ve posted a few natural light setups and techniques recently and although this setup isn’t as tricky or as involved to achieve as those, this is a nice little idea to play with if the occasion arrises. The good news is, you barely need any kit to make this work and truth be told, I was actually packing away my lighting gear when I saw this natural light pattern form on my scrim after a shoot....

There are plenty of cheap, DIY product photography tricks (the one with a garbage can will probably forever be my favorite). If you’re on a tight budget, you can always use one of these and get professional-looking shot without using tons of expensive gear. In this video, Ed Verosky shows you how to take great product photos at home using just one light. Ed suggests that you use a good constant light source instead of a speedlight....

Timelapses are a lot of fun to shoot. I don’t shoot them anywhere near as often as I would like, but I try to shoot them as often as I possibly can. Shooting them in daylight, though, can present some challenges, especially if you have fast-moving subjects like people or vehicles. Yes, when it comes to timelapse, people are fast moving subjects. It often results in very jerky motion with one frame looking drastically different from the last, losing that flow of motion we like to see in a timelapse....

Even though many cameras offer built-in timelapse features that automatically process your images and spit out a single mp4 file at the end of it, a lot of photographers prefer to shoot a big series of raw files, process them ourselves, and then edit them together on the desktop. It gives us a lot more control and results in better quality. But that can be a slow and painstaking process....

If you’ve spent most of your life living in the same town, you may find it boring to photograph. You enjoy taking photos of the new places you visit, but your good ol’ hometown simply isn’t interesting enough. But is it really the case? In this video, Wahid Fayumzadah will show you how to take interesting photos in your “boring” hometown. He goes around Westervoort in the Netherlands, exploring this small town and turning all its uninteresting spots into interesting photos....

I’m still shooting portraits and doing creative work on a very regular basis. I have experience in various genre, I ran a studio, I have taught both workshops and one-on-ones, and I’m quite a sociable chap. Despite all that, you probably never heard of me; I’m ok with that. All that aside, it is now 2020 and I’m now in a 12-weeks lock-down in a small bungalow, looking after my mother and daughter....

Even though “social media influencer” sounds like a made-up job, it looks like it has something in common with “real jobs” after all. If you fail to do it right – you will face consequences. And influencer Luka Sabbat is facing serious consequences after failing to promote Snapchat Spectacles on Instagram. After breaching the $60,000 contract he signed, he is now being sued. Sabbat, who has 1.4 million followers on Instagram, is sued by public relations agency PR Consulting Inc....

Nikon Rumors is reporting feedback from somebody who’s actually handled the new Nikon Z mirrorless cameras and confirmed a few things. They got their mitts on the new cameras during a closed-door event last week in Asia. This is what they had to say. There are many similarities between the Z6/7 and Sony’s A7 seriesThe new Z-mount is almost as large as a medium format for some 6×6 SLR camerasHandling and ergonomics are perfectThe Nikon Z6 and Z7 have exactly the same body and use the same batteryThe EVF is fixed (I’m assuming as opposed to articulated, not broken)There are no scene modesThere is a green AUTO mode as well as the usual MASP and 3 user settings...

Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp have been hit by a global outage. The DIYP team noticed the issue earlier today, and Facebook has confirmed that it’s gone down for users across the globe. I initially noticed that Facebook was down when I tried to reach out to my team via Messenger on my desktop. Then I realized that Instagram was down as well, and the outage lasted for over two hours now....