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.

MAKE Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup

MAKE Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup

It was as if there were some October-inspired conspiracy, this week, to turn the MAKE Flickr pool pumpkin orange! Fortunately I found some nice greens to round it out. Our first image this week is the mostly-completed “Most Spectacular Failure Award” trophy from last weekend’s handcar regatta. Other highlights include a beautifully printed and photographed mechanical differential, some 2-liter bottlecaps modified for a home carbonation system, and a brain in a jar. Mmmmmm. Brains in jars.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan
Strum Motion Pictures with the VideoBass

Strum Motion Pictures with the VideoBass

Invented by Swiss media artist Michael Egger in collaboration with Maïté Colin, the VideoBass is an instrument that plays moving images instead of sound. The performer uses their left hand on the neck of the instrument to select or scrub through video clips and triggers them in rhythm with their right hand on PlayStation controller knobs. The result is a mix of visuals that stand on their own or compliment music made by traditional instruments. Originally developed in 2003, the first incarnation of the VideoBass has undergone many revisions since.

Continue Reading Matt Richardson
Light Painting a B-25 Bomber

Light Painting a B-25 Bomber

LA Photographer Eric Curry’s series “American Pride and Passion” is just beautiful. Each piece is achieved using a very simple technique: The scene is staged in darkness, a camera positioned to record it, and different parts individually illuminatedโ€”say, with a flashlightโ€”while a long exposure is recorded. The many resulting images are composited in appropriate software, and with considerable artistry, to create the glowing, ethereally-lit finished pieces.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan6
The XKCD “Giant Head” Enhanced Depth Perception Project

The XKCD “Giant Head” Enhanced Depth Perception Project

Many of you will probably have seen this one from late August, already. I havenโ€™t found any indication that Mr. Munroe has actually done this, yet, but thereโ€™s no reason the idea shouldnโ€™t work, in principle. To do so requires a viewer with an individually addressable video display for each eye, but these are not too hard to come by. And large-parallax static stereograms taken using widely-separated synchronized cameras are well known.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan50