Photography & Video

The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for creating and editing digital photos and videos, as well as how to make your own still and video cameras.

How-To: Develop Film with Coffee and Vitamin C (Caffenol)

How-To: Develop Film with Coffee and Vitamin C (Caffenol)

Did you know that you can develop your own black and white film with instant coffee, vitamin C, and washing soda? In this how-to, Matt Richardson walks you through making and using your own developer, which has come to be known as “caffenol.”

For more information, check out: http://blog.stage.makezine.com/archive/2011/07/skill-builder-caffenol-homebrew-film-developer.html

“Light Field” Imaging, Lytro, and the Future of Digital Photos

“Light Field” Imaging, Lytro, and the Future of Digital Photos

Rob’s recent post over at Boing Boing drew my attention to Ren Ng’s startup, Lytra, which is developing a digital imaging technology that requires no moving parts to focus an image at any depth of field–even infinite. It’s called “light field” photography, and, besides eliminating failure-prone moving assemblies from cameras, it will let you refocus your pictures however you want, as many times as you want, after they’ve already been taken.

Cream-of-the-crop DIY Softbox Designs

Cream-of-the-crop DIY Softbox Designs

Thanks to Flickr user Matt Jones for hipping me to Udi Tirosh’s recent homemade softbox design contest over on DIYPhotography.net. For those, like myself, who are unsure, a “softbox” or “soft box” is simply a diffuse lighting source for taking photos, commonly with a reflective interior and one or more diffusing panels that scatter the light and help prevent it from casting harsh shadows. The contest had seventy submissions, reportedly, and here you can read about Udi’s top 24.