Problem statement Sometimes, I am somewhat dissatisfied with the size of my digital photographs. The simplest way to improve (after the fact) is to run any Photoshop-like program, and apply a resampling (resize) preferably with the Lanczos method, in order to get 2x or 3x or 4x more pixels. It is fast and efficient, but…
Category: DIY
Fast identify your USB drives and sticks
We are handling so many memory cards and USB thumb drives that it is often quite unpleasant to recognize them all. Sometimes, because it is difficult to find them in the photographer bag, sometimes because all these look alike when plugged into our computers. wouldn’t it be great if we had a simple way to…
Is this the best camera manual?
We always complain about the quality of user manuals of our cameras. We sometimes complain about the environmental impact of their useless paper. Here is a delightfully intelligent solution to it: Make the packaging double as a user manual (or re-use the materials of the manual into a clever packaging for the DSLR camera). Please…
Light leaks on Sony A7 and A7r
The small hybrid cameras with interchangeable lenses from Sony, the Sony A7 and A7r know quite a (expected) success but the manufactured just recognized a fairly big fail: a A light leakage is possible between the body and the lens at the lens attachement. Not good…. The lens mount lets some light leak into the…
Repair the D300s
Before the D400 comes and replaces the Nikon D300s, let’s see how you can repair the pent bent pin from a CF card connector. A time-lapse video. YouTube link
Lens repair
You must not be too easily frightened to go and reapir your own photographic lenses. But with some patience, some tidiness and a lot of concentration… This is exactly what Fredy Willette of Alpha-Numérique teaches us in his article Réparation d’un problème d’engrenage sur un objectif non motorisé (Google English translation).
Nikon D7000 – Disassembly
How would you take your Nikon D7000 apart? If you are not sure, I suggest you have a look at the following video from Thailand. YouTube link However, I would strongly suggest that you would try this only if the camera is broken and it’s already out of warranty. The Nikon D7000 is a fragile…
A Soviet Photoshop
A little historical gem: Soviet Russia had found a way to automate the photo image retouching jobs before the invention of Photoshop but with the help of a rotary scanner. YouTube link
Links between a flash and a studio
A photographic studio is not only a place where there are too many cables on the floor. It could also be an excuse to find a lot of useful web links: High Speed Sync for flash at any shutter speed Almost Free DIY Paper Diffuser (Strobist) High Speed Photography Studio at Home You also have…
A simple variable Neutral Density filter
A long post from Instructables (Simple Variable Neutral Density Filter) invites us to build easily a Neutral Density (ND) filter whose density can be adjusted (using only two polarizing filters). The simple and neat idea is to flip back one of the filters in front of the other. Correctly aligned, they become nearly totally black…
Big lenses for the iPhone
After some years of people trying to hook big lenses onto an iPhone (like above), there is now somebody trying to make this a serious affair: Here is the prototype of something that could become a real product from Vid-Atlantic, a way to solidly attach a Nikon DSLR lens to your iPhone. Little cameras like…
Stars: Both a portfolio and a DIY tutorial
At first, Peter Shah seems to be the usual astronomy photographer. He goes out at night to look at the sky with a photo camera and a very big lens on a tripod. This is actually wrong. Peter Shah is actually a perfectionist. Where most amateur astronomers learned to grind a mirror by themselves in…
A gun to protect your photo luggage
photo credit: Tanozzo This is the surprising advice given by Bruce Schneier about how you could protect your photo luggage when traveling: Pack a starter gun in your luggage. This is definitely considered as a weapon by the TSA and other flight authorities (but it is not dangerous and you don’t need a license to…
DIY: Two projects
Thanks to LifeHacker, there are two simple photography-related DIY projects that you can tackle during a rainy weekend. Build a Closet Photo Studio Build a DIY Digital Camera Scanner
Photo collage, free tools
It is no longer possible to list all the web sites that offer you the possibility to assemble a photo collage in a form that is appreciated by so many photographers despite its simplicity. Many web sites are characterized by the needed payments they request, but the idea has come a long way and what…
158 lenses = 1 photo camera
Associate professor Yojiro Ishino and his students at the Nagoya Institute of Technology obtained an official recognition of their achievement when the Guinness World Records certified them as holding the world record for a camera with largest number of lenses. Usually, a DSLR has 1 lens attached. Some 3D cameras have two. This piece of…
Transform GIMP into a free Photoshop clone
GIMP is an excellent image edition software which could (should?) attract all those who do not want to pay the full price of Photoshop, while they work with Apple, Windows or Linux. the differences are real, but the most obvious one is certainly the interface (and Adobe clearly did a nice work on it). So,…