When he was the host on DigitalRev TV, Kai Wong did a video showing a few DIY photo hacks done mostly with items found around the house.
Among the hacks he shows are filling a bag with popcorn kernels to use as a makeshift stabilizer, using a couple key rings and zip ties to hook a strap to your tripod and using an old nylon stocking as a soft-focus filter.
Some of the hacks are worth trying out, although if you are going to do the Vaseline diffuser, I would probably get a cheap UV filter dedicated to that rather than trying to hold up a sheet of glass in front of your lens.
Do any of these interest you? Or do you have a suggestion on household photo hacks?
There are times when you want a reflection in you picture for artistic purposes, but there are more than a few times when it's a pain in the tuchus.
This usually happens when what you're photographing is behind glass, such as in a display case, you're looking out a window or standing on top of the Space Needle in Seattle, where even on the outdoor deck you're behind glass.
Some ways to get rid of the reflection, if it's ruining your composition, include changing your angle so the reflection isn't going straight into your camera lens (angle of incidence = angle of reflection) or using a polarizing filter.
The only drawbacks with those methods is you might be limited in moving to the sides, and the light may be at the wrong angle for a polarizer, which works best when the light's coming from a right angle.
While reflections can be eliminated in post (I had to do that with a picture I took of a stained glass window in a museum), that can be extra work you wouldn't need to do if you can eliminate the reflection before you trip the shutter.
It's not a bad strategy, as you are blocking the light causing the reflection from your lens.
(Do not try this tip with a museum display case. You may either knock over the display or set off an alarm.)
The only thing I take issue with him on this matter is his suggestion that this option only works with phone cameras, as they typically have a flat lens. A DSLR, he argues, has a curved lens and can't be put in such contact.
To which I call shenanigans.
First, most of us use UV or skylight filters on the front of our lenses to protect them from damage, so we do have a "flat" surface to put against the glass.
Second, a lens hood also provides the shading that can keep the stray light from messing up your photo. It works especially well if you have a collapsible rubber hood. Just make sure the hood is right for your focal length or you'll get vignetting.
Another option to have a friend hold a jacket up behind you to block anything behind you from being reflected in the window. Just make sure they hold it in front of them, so you don't get their reflection in the window instead.
One of the things I like with the Manfrotto bag is that the camera and its lenses are in a compartment I can access while keeping a strap on my shoulder. I had to take the LowePro off every time I needed to get inside it.
But I've noticed that when I've opened the camera compartment, some of my lenses were slipping. I almost lost a nifty-50 that way. I needed to find a way to secure the lenses better.
The solution was at the local dollar store.
Inside the camera compartment, it uses hook-and-loop fasteners (the generic form of Velcro fasteners) to secure the compartment dividers. I decided to take advantage of that to secure my gear.
I bought a 10-piece set of 1-inch square hook-and-loop fasteners (generic Velcro fasteners) at the dollar store (the one I went to was Dollar Tree, but the names vary depending on where you live but the concept is the same; everything is a buck).
I cut a hook piece in half, so it was .5 by 1 inches, and used the adhesive backing to apply it to the middle of my lens cap. It worked, in the sense that the piece on the lens cap caught hold of the inside of the bag, but it came right off.
I solved that by using hot glue to attach it to the cap. I would recommend using one of the genuine hot-glue guns and not the "cold" guns, as the hot ones have a stronger adhesive. And it worked, keeping my lens secure.
I've since applied it to all my lenses, and found it can even secure the camera body when the lens is attached.
As a side benefit, the fasteners can also be used for holding on to the caps. You can either stick it inside the bag, put a piece of loop material on your camera strap or put some on one of those lens-cap tethers. If you do the latter, I would recommend attaching the tether to the strap lugs on your body instead of the lens, since it likely will get in the way on the lens.
