Monthly Archives: December 2012

Diy: Make a Waxed Canvas Camera Bag on the Cheap

DIY: Make a Waxed Canvas Camera Bag on the Cheap diywaxed1

Looking to put together a sexy camera bag? Already have a messenger bag you want to carry your camera in? Love the look and feel of waxed canvas bags but don’t want to fork over the money to buy one new? This tutorial is for you!

First, you’ll need to turn an ordinary messenger bag into a camera bag. It’s pretty simple: buy a bag, buy a camera bag insert, put the insert into the bag, and voilà!

Materials

DIY: Make a Waxed Canvas Camera Bag on the Cheap diywaxed2

Once you have your camera messenger bag, you’ll need to wax it. You’ll need:

  • Your bag (obviously)
  • A double boiler. I recommend NOT using one intended for kitchen use — it can be a mess to clean. Rig one out of old pans, coffee cans, or whatever you may have around. I used two old, aluminum camping pots that I had sitting in the basement.
  • Wax. Many places recommend a blended mixture of paraffin and bee’s wax, but I used straight paraffin, and it seems to have turned out fine. You can pick up a pound box of paraffin wax in the canning section of Walmart or your local grocery store. You shouldn’t need more than one or two of the included wax bars.
  • A brush. I recommend a bristle brush between 1/2″ and 1″…up to 1-1/2″. Any smaller and it would take to long; much larger, and it would be too unwieldy and messy. I used a half-inch artistic brush I had sitting around.

How To

DIY: Make a Waxed Canvas Camera Bag on the Cheap diywaxed3

Here’s how to wax your canvas bag and make it water-resistent and durable:

  1. Put some water in the bottom portion of your double boiler and place it on your stove on HIGH (to get it boiling faster). As the water boils, add a bar or two of wax to the upper portion of your double boiler, and allow it to melt.
  2. Once the wax has started to melt, dip your brush into it, and begin painting all surfaces of your bag, paying special attention to the seams and bottom of the bag. Maybe coat the bottom a little extra well as this i the area that will be taking the brunt of the wear. Allow was to cool…it will become caked and hardened, but that is okay.
  3. Put your canvas bag into an old pillow case, and tie off the end. (This keeps the wax from getting all over the place.) Then, put it in the dryer on HIGH for about 15 to 30 minutes. This allows the wax to be evenly melted into the fabric. You can also use a hair dryer (much more of a pain with this amount of wax, but possible) or a heat gun (a bit overkill).

DIY: Make a Waxed Canvas Camera Bag on the Cheap diywaxed4

When your bag is finished in the dryer, pull it out and allow it to cool down. It will harden because of the wax between the fibers…this is to be expected. You can now use it as it is, work the fabric to break it in and soften it a bit, or give it another application or two of wax.


Here’s a video version of the above tutorial:


About the author: Allen Mowery is a photographer based in Central Pennsylvania. Visit his website here for more DIY goodness. This post was originally published here.

A Beginner’s Primer on Post-processing Photos in Lightroom 4

French photographer Serge Ramelli made this short 30-minute tutorial that teaches the basics of using Lightroom 4 to post-process your digital photographs. If you’re just getting into using Lightroom and shooting in RAW, it’s a helpful primer that will allow you to hit the ground running.

Ramelli has a number of other Lightroom 4 tutorial videos, as well as a YouTube channel chock-full of helpful photography tutorials.

(via Serge Ramelli via Reddit)

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi1

I recently captured the macro liquid splash photograph above, and found that it came out looking like it was computer generated. Here’s a brief description of how the photo was created.

Here’s a photo showing the setup I used:

Shooting a Macro Liquid Splash Photo That Looks Computer Generated splashcgi2

The white thing on the right is a softbox with an Einstein E640 flash (it’s blown out white because the modeling light was on). Above is a round reflector, though to be honest I don’t think it was doing much.

The water receptacle is my wife’s favorite martini glass filled to the brim with just regular tap water. To the right of the glass is a Canon 580EX flash sitting on a PocketWizard remote transceiver.

My Canon 7D (with Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro lens) was triggered with a wired hand-held trigger (TC-80N3). Food coloring or other liquid was dropped by hand and timed manually by watching the drop and trying to time hitting the trigger for the moment of impact.

For this shot, I already been doing some food coloring splash shots, so the water had various colors swirling around in it. I used some drops of milk to get this and what you see is the end of the splash where there’s an ejection of liquid from the splash shot.

The drops look colorful because they’ve already gone into the colorful water and mixed a bit before being ejected. The surface looks kind of grey and glassy because the angle I had the camera at relative to to the surface of the water.

I didn’t do much post-processing except for a crop, some increase in contrast, and a de-saturation of color along the back edge of the glass (the whole surface was already de-saturated).


About the author: Steve Owen is a photographer based in New England. Visit his Flickr page here.

10 Most Popular Petapixel Posts of 2012

10 Most Popular PetaPixel Posts of 2012 fireworks

Wowzers. Time flies! As we come to the end of another year of blogging about the wonderful world of photography, here’s a roundup of the top 10 most popular posts of the past 12 months. It’s a list of advice, inspiration, creativity, and interesting news stories.

  1. This Photograph is Not Free
  2. Why Wedding Photographers’ Prices are “Wack”
  3. Photographer Sues Apple Over the Use of Her Photo to Promote the Retina Display
  4. Teen Girl Shoots Beautiful and Creative Portraits of Her Pet Dogs
  5. Flashed Face Distortion Effect Makes Ordinary Portraits Look Hideous
  6. Photographs of Mirrors on Easels that Look Like Paintings in the Desert
  7. Usain Bolt Nabs Photographer’s DSLR, Snaps Awesome POV Shots
  8. Process This Negative With Your Brain
  9. How to Increase the Performance of Your Canon Kit Lens
  10. 32-Year-Old Man Has a Conversation with His 12-Year-Old Self

Image credit: Fireworks by bayasaa