Tips & Tricks
7 Simple Photography Hacks
Photography Talk
Part of what makes photography so fun is that you can often reinvent how you tackle the process of taking a photo.
Our friends at the Cooperative of Photography are masters at doing so...
In their video below, which features photographer Leo Rosas, you can get the inside scoop on a few awesome hacks that will help you take your photography to a whole other level.
From simple tricks for time-lapse videos to hacks for diffusing the light from your flash, there's something for everyone in this video.
Below, I've summarized a few of my favorite hacks.
Timelapse Rig Hack
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
Want to make a timelapse video?
Well, you don't have to buy a bunch of expensive gear because you can hack the setup with nothing more than an egg timer.
Just grab your GoPro, mount it to the egg timer, set the timer to the desired duration, and boom, you have an easy and cheap motion control device for your video!
The Vaseline Hack
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
This tried-and-true hack has been around a long time, but it never gets old.
Just place a filter on your lens, then apply a layer of vaseline around the perimeter of the filter.
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
Doing so creates an interesting vignette effect that's perfect for portraiture.
As you can see in the photo above, the vaseline blurs everything but the subject for an awesome-looking shot.
Learn More:
Editor's Creative Tip: Don't just leave your creative photos on your memory card or hard drive. Instead, turn them into gorgeous fine art prints. Find out how here.
ND Filter Hack
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
ND filters, good ones, anyway, can be extremely expensive.
Good thing COOPH came up with a DIY ND filter hack to save you some money.
What you need is a piece of welding glass (which you can get at a hardware store) and some elastic bands.
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
Mount the welding glass to your lens, as shown above...
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
Then dial in the appropriate settings (they use f/4 and ISO 250 with a shutter speed of 15 seconds.
Find a location where you can include movement, like water or clouds, and fire away!
Bokeh Hack
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
Grab some cardboard, tape, a ruler, and an exacto knife, and you can hack your way to beautiful bokeh.
Cut out whatever shape you like in the cardboard, then attach it to the front of your lens.
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
A little masking tape will do the trick for affixing the paper in place...
YouTube Screenshot/COOPH
Then head outside, find a good subject and you'll find that you have awesome, unique bokeh populating the background of the shot.
It's simple hack (like all the rest of them), but it sure can make quite the impact in your photos.
Learn More:
Final Thoughts
Part of staying fresh in photography is trying new things.
Another part of it is getting creative not just with how you compose your photos but how you take them as well.
The hacks outlined in the video offer you a way to do both, get more creative, and produce images that have tons of visual appeal.
Give the video a look (it's barely more than three minutes in length), and by the end, you'll have all sorts of fun projects to help you create better photos.
