Photo Review
Lesson 23 from: DIY Photography: Lens Attachments, Filters & Creative EffectsMike Hagen
Photo Review
Lesson 23 from: DIY Photography: Lens Attachments, Filters & Creative EffectsMike Hagen
Lesson Info
23. Photo Review
Lessons
Class Introduction
02:19 2Build & Shoot: Soft Filters
11:20 3Build & Shoot: Star Filters
14:56 4Build & Shoot: Ethereal Filters
21:53 5Build & Shoot: Sunglasses Filters
14:55 6Build & Shoot: Half Double Exposure Filters
12:04 7Build & Shoot: Heavy Stop ND Filters
18:14 8Build & Shoot: Tilt and Shift Lenses
09:19Build & Shoot: Bokeh Shapes
20:32 10Build & Shoot: Coffee Cup Sleeve Lens Hood
05:51 11Build & Shoot: Body Cap Pinhole
17:16 12Build & Shoot: Mirror Under Lens
05:17 13Build & Shoot: Reversible 50mm Lens Mount
17:04 14Build & Shoot: Free-Lensing
10:23 15Build & Shoot: Fisheye Lens
20:14 16Build & Shoot: Bellows
08:46 17Build & Shoot: Toilet Roll Macro Lens
05:23 18Build & Shoot: PVC Extension Tube
06:49 19Build & Shoot: Rail System
18:45 20Build & Shoot: Macro Flash Brackets
25:54 21Build & Shoot: Field Macro Light Box
15:47 22Build & Shoot: Chip Can Macro Diffuser
07:07 23Photo Review
10:45Lesson Info
Photo Review
- [Mike] I'm always shooting raw, and I highly recommend... This is not necessarily related to the DIY world, but I highly recommend shooting raw because you get so much more latitude and so more control over what your final image looks like, so shoot raw. And what I'm gonna do right here real quick is the shell photo. I just want to add a little bit of clarity. Actually, I'm gonna hit the dehaze filter, and this is another tip that I have for you. In a lot of these DIY projects, because, you know, they're not always optical quality, I find I get a lotta haze inside of the system, you know, light bouncing around inside of these tubes, so one good tip for you is editing. Go down to the right-hand side, and use the dehaze slider. Here. Look at what a great difference it makes in this photograph. So use the dehaze, and then I'll go back up here to the top and I'm gonna increase a little bit of exposure. And then I'm gonna turn that sucker green, and now, I'm gonna turn on my filter so we ...
only show green photos. And let's just go through and reminisce. Let's go down memory lane together and remember some of the really cool and fun photographs we created today. Hold on. Yeah. I don't want to pull my camera off. DIY D800, right? All right. I'll this down here. I'm sure I'll forget about it and step on it. So this shot, anyone remember what this one is? This is our haze filter. So this one, I think, was either the sandwich baggie or it was the bottle cap...the top of the water bottle. I think that was it. So we get a little bit of haze around the edges. This one. Oh, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This one was actually the Vaseline. You're right. This one was Vaseline with the crosshatch. So remember, I took and I went in diagonal lines with the crosshatch, and then I made the middle of it with no Vaseline. And then I put the little light bulbs behind it to get the little star effects. That was cool, and that's actually a really cool looking image. All right. Another example, a very similar example. This is one where I went from just diagonal lines, and then I also went horizontal and vertical. So I just put in all kinds of lines on that Vaseline. And it's always those little points of light in the background that give us the little star effects. Okay. This was the bag. This was the sandwich bag. And to be honest, I never really thought about coloring the edges of the bags, so I'm happy that people in the audience at home said, "Hey. What if we used some type of coloring?" In fact, someone here said, "What if we used, like, lipstick or glitter?" All of that stuff would be really fun to do in this scenario. Same thing here. Sandwich baggie, but rotated in a different direction. We just got a totally different look, a different light hitting the sandwich baggie. Again, soft focus, but in the middle, she is in focus. So that's pretty cool. She has a nice smile. I'm happy she came today. She told me she's never modeled before. Really. This is her first time ever, so she did a wonderful job. Okay. This one. Sunglasses. So our sunglass filter so she's wearing sunglasses, we're using the sunglass filter, and I included this on purpose just so I kinda remember how it is that I shot it. And also, I included that to let the viewer know that this is kind of a special effect type of photograph. Okay. This was our long exposure photo, so this was the welding mask neutral density filter. Actually, not neutral density filter, but just the density filter is technically what we would call it. And remember how we took this photo. I took a little bit of time to expose for the backdrop, and then I had her go into the scene and then stand there. So it looks like some of the backdrop is actually shining through her body, so that's very cool. Nice, neat effect. I was talking to her later, and she's like, "I tried to stand still, but I kept, like, going forward, falling forward." So just who knows. I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing that she's blurry. I think it's actually kind of interesting. One of my favorites of the day...this really was one of my favorites of the day. So this is the DIY bokeh filters, and so basically, the little black piece of paper where you cut the shapes in it. So in this one, we cut the star shape. She said her favorite one was the lightning bolt. I probably should've chosen that one, but I really like that look. Super, super, look. Very cool. Okay. This one. Pinhole. So this was our pinhole studio portrait. It's all soft and moody and blurry. Okay. But I just wanted to show that you don't have to use a pinhole lens in the traditional pinhole environment, which is outside on a sunny day. You can actually bring that pinhole lens into the studio. And just to remind you all, I think this one was, like, ISO 6400 or ISO 12000, and then I pumped in light. Remember, the light from the flash had to be at full power, so it's kind of a really creative portrait. I like it. Dingy, garage-style portrait. Remember this one? - [Woman] Yeah. - The broken mirror. So it actually ended up looking okay even with the broken mirror. It's just a slightly different effect. If I had a bigger mirror...and that was the plan before I couldn't get it out of the handheld mirror. My goal was actually to get her reflection closer to her face, right? But it actually worked out okay. So that was the mirror photo. Okay. Freelensing. Trust me. It's a great photo. You look fantastic. And so this was freelens. This was the Pentax lens on a Nikon...not even on a Nikon camera...near a Nikon camera, and I'm just moving the lens a little bit left and a little bit right. And some of them, to be honest, looked really bad, not because of the model but because the freelens effect was just way outta whack. This one I chose on purpose because it's just a little outta focus on the other eye, and I kind of like the feel. I like the feel of that. If I was to edit this one even further in Lightroom, I would decrease the brightness overall, take a little bit of the brightness on the right side. But yeah. Freelensing. How cool is that? Fisheye. This one was the Holga. Yeah. So this was the Holga lens. Yeah. This was the Holga Fisheye attachment on the Holga lens. That's what this one was. Interesting. And really, Holga, the reason why they designed their cameras this way is to kind of create that effect. That's the Holga look. Holga's designed to look this way. So we accomplished the Holga effect. Great. This one wasn't. Was this the toilet paper tube? It might have been either that or the PVC tube. Regardless, it's great. I like it. I probably should add some dehaze. You can see a little bit of haze in here. So again, back to that concept of the light bouncing around inside of your extension tube. Use the dehaze filter to clean that up a little bit. Really nice looking picture. All right. The seashell. Yeah, I missed focus a little bit on that. I focused on the backside. Okay. No problem. In the real world, I would have taken probably 50 or 100 shots just to get it just right. Ducky duck face. Fantastic. It's, like, super macro of the duck. And then remember, this one was taken with just the hard flashes, so I didn't really even have any light diffusion. So you can see some of the shine on the eyeballs. It's a little bit too intense, a little bit too aggressive, but I showed you how we kinda back that off with those little softboxes. Is that it? Are those the ones that I chose? I think those are the ones that I chose. Cool. - Awesome: - So that was very fun. That was super, super cool. - Well, Mike, any final questions? Any final words from you for advice about just getting re-inspired by doing DIY projects? - Yeah. Well, I don't know if you all noticed, but I pretty much had a smile on my face all day long. And even though it was honestly stressful... You know, to do this stuff live, it always takes kind of an extra amount of effort. Even though it's stressful, I still really enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge. When you're doing this on your own, you know, each of these 20 or 23 projects, I encourage you to just take some time and work through it. Take a whole day. Take a day to construct it, and then take another day or even two days just to explore the capabilities of that. And really, that's why it took me two and a half months to prepare all the stuff for this class because I would build something, and then I'd go out and test it. And then I'd build it and go out and test it. For me, that's what I enjoy about photography, and I take that same approach whether it's do it yourself, whether it's flash, whether it's sports and action or wildlife. I take that same approach to all of my photography. So I think the big story here is you have to practice. Take some idea, practice it for a while, and then master it. And then find the next thing, you know? Just bring the next thing in and the next thing. Pretty soon, you're a photo guru.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
It's a fun course, with a lot of interesting ideas presented in a way to help spark the creative juices in anyone wanting to branch out and experiment with different ideas. Mike's presentation style is fun and easygoing - perfect for this type of discussion. If you're not afraid to color outside the lines and see where the road takes you, this is a very enjoyable bit of inspiration.
user-ee46bd
Love it!! Very creative and full of inspiration. Mike Hagen explains the different effects in a great way, he is precise yet easy-going so he makes learning fun. I recommend this class to all who wants to take their creative photography to the next level without spending money on expensive accessories.
Kelly Youngblood
I am so glad that I stumbled upon this website. It has me excited to keep going further in my photography abilities. I can't wait to be able to watch more classes. Thank you so much for this, I am going to stay up all night checking out how to do this way of shooting different ways. DYI I love this lesson.