Make: Online: Photography Archives

Archive: Photography

July 5, 2009

MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup

Solar night light circuit art
High speed glass breakage
Creep out your babysitter!
DIY air rocket
Candy PCB most likely ROHS-compliant [above, bottom-right]
FedEx wine rack [above, bottom-left]
Power drill coffee grinder [above, top-right]
Compressed air rocket goes up, must come down … somewhere? [above, top-left]

July 4, 2009

How-To: shoot fireworks

So, you're heading out with the family and need something to do at the local fireworks display. How about taking some memorable photographs?

Don't keep your shutter open too long. The temptation is to think that because it's dark that you can leave it open as long as you like. The problem with this is that fireworks are bright and it doesn't take too much to over expose them, especially if your shutter is open for multiple bursts in the one area of the sky. By all means experiment with multiple burst shots - but most people end up finding that the simpler one burst shots can be best.

Shoot some great stuff, and don't forget to share with us in the Make Flickr pool. Know of any other great low light photography technique resources? Share 'em in the comments!

July 2, 2009

Metallurgical eye candy

An alloy of 1.3% copper, 0.3% magnesium, and 0.3% manganese in aluminum, etched with potassium permanganate and lye.

So I woke up this morning all pumped up to blog about metallography. If you don't already know, metallography is a type of scientific microimaging that involves mirror-polishing metal surfaces and then etching them with various reagents to reveal their microstructures, which are often of breathtaking beauty.

"Griffith Cannon Flash," by Dr. Frederick E. Schmidt, from the iron of a cannon used at Gettysburg.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of these images online. ASM International, the big metallurgical professional society, has a large online database of metallographs, but it's locked away behind a members-only paywall. Except for a couple of skimpy .PDFs (2007, 2008), even the winners of their annual International Metallographic Contest seem to go largely unpublicized.

Which is a shame, not only because the images themselves are so beautiful, but because they could inspire a whole culture of amateur and artistic metallographers that does not, as far as I can tell, presently exist. Which fact also surprises me, by the way, because the equipment and techniques of metallography are very accessible to amateurs, especially relative to other modern methods of materials analysis.

"Grain structure in CC cast 3304 aluminum alloy," by Elana Naez.

If you know of anyone who's making metallographs as a hobby or as a means of personal artistic expression, please drop me a link in the comments.

June 29, 2009

How-To: Dual USB/serial cable for Nikon Coolpix cameras

I recently got it in my head that I wanted to take some time-lapse photos showing the oxidation of various bright-polished metals over the course of a week or so. Investigating the possibility of setting up an intervalometer for my elderly Coolpix 4300 quickly became frustrating, however, as I realized that I was facing a nightmare of proprietary connectors, unpublished protocols, and exotic cables. Nikon manufactured a time-lapse controller compatible with my camera (the MC-EU1), but all the reviews I've seen are unfavorable, and I can't find one for sale for less than $85.

To make matters worse, it turns out the proprietary 8-pin connector used on the 4300 and other older Coolpix cameras is dual-function: Four of the pins provide for normal USB connectivity, while the other four provide the serial interface used, for instance, by the MC-EU1 to remotely control the camera. My camera was supplied with a cable to access the USB half of the connector, but of course getting to the serial pins requires the purchase of a completely different cable (the SC-EW3), which can't be had for less than $30 plus shipping.

Fortunately, I then stumbled across this excellent tutorial by David Holmes about how to convert the connector on the bundled USB cable into a dual-use USB/serial cable that lets you swap out the proprietary end with two different harnesses that access the USB or the serial pins as needed. Thanks, David!

P.S. I've found a promising piece of freeware called Snappixx that claims to control the Coolpix cameras through the serial interface. I can't vouch for it yet, however, other than to report that it downloads, installs, and starts up without any apparent hitches.

June 26, 2009

High speed glass breakage

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Some nice shots of breakables caught in mid-shatter can be found in this photoset from Flickr member whosdadog (ytmnd!)

In the Maker Shed:

High-Speed Photography Kit Version 4

June 21, 2009

MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup

From the MAKE Flickr pool

BabyPod brings MP3 to youngin's [above, top-left]
Moleskine map preserves your street cred [above, top-right]
The solder test [above, bottom-right]
Miniature drill [above, bottom-right]

June 18, 2009

How-To: Panorama robot camera rig

Building on some Kite Aerial Photography gear, Instructables user waldy made this rig to take panoramic photos automatically.

More:

Maker Profile - Aerial Kite Photography on MAKE: television

June 14, 2009

MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup

From the MAKE Flickr pool

Super classy bike trailer [above, bottom-right]
Sci-fi-chic eyeshades use ancient design [above, bottom-left]
Bio-friendly drain cleaner
Mobile speaker water bottle
Playing card polyhedron [above, top-left]
How-To: Joystick from scavenged parts [above, top-left]

June 12, 2009

Mounting Head to take 360° panoramic pictures

Kalanda shared with us this project where you can take 360° panoramic pictures using this aluminum base, a traditional tripod and any camera you have at home. As you know, most of the digital cameras have already integrated this function, where it is possible to take two or more pictures and merge them into a panoramic one. So, what is the mounting head for? When we put the camera on a traditional tripod, it will generally let us spin 360° over the horizontal axis, and a little bit less on the vertical. The problem is that when we take pictures and we turn the camera, the spinning axis does not line up with the objective's "nodal point". This mounting head allows you to decentralize the camera from the trip, in order to line up both axis. You can visit the original blog for a thorough explanation and construction details. We hope you are practicing your Spanish with Make:en Español.

¡Gracias Kalanda!

June 10, 2009

Multi-flash camera makes automatic line drawings

Here's an oldie-but-goodie from 2004: Kar-Han Tan, James Kobler, Rogerio S. Feris, Paul Dietz, and Ramesh Raskar, then of the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory (MERL), produced a custom digital camera and software that derives line drawings of a scene, or an object, by analyzing the shadows in four otherwise-identical pictures that are illuminated from different quadrants. The MERL has a technical report from 2005 describing potential medical applications of the technology, and photo.net has a good general overview of the process. Raskar has since gone on to the MIT media lab (so you know he's doing something right), and his page there includes more up-to-date work on the technology.

Thanks to Jon Wolfe for bringing this to my attention.

June 8, 2009

How-To: 24-hour time-lapse video

Matt of NYCR shares his recipe for shooting a day's worth of time-lapse images and easily stringing them together as video -

So during the Thursday craft night we received a request from one of the hackerspace folks for some time lapse videos of the space over a 24 hour period. They are working on a project that will no doubt be stupendous and magnificent. However this spawned a quick project.

While we do have a camera or two that provide security / (is anyone there!?) data to members, and we were able to cobble together a fairly awesome sample of video for them. I had some time and the parts to quickly assemble something with higher over all image quality.

Check out the specifics available over on the NYCR blog.

June 7, 2009

MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup

From the MAKE Flickr pool

The day before Maker Faire [above, top-left]
Roll Your Own Protoboard [above, top-right]
Light-to-sound converter kit [above, bottom-left]
Eggshell speakers [above, bottom-right]

June 4, 2009

Back-to-back lens rings for macro on a budget

Udi Tirosh, of DIYPhotography, sent us the link to this post on creating back-to-back ring adapters for macro photography on the cheap:

One method of delving into macro photography is to use adapter rings.

These rings have threads on both sides, one end is screwed onto your present camera lens like any filter and a second lens is attached in reverse onto the other end of the ring. So two lenses can be attached front to front using the adapter rings filter threads. You can buy these adapters or you can make them yourself by taking filters matching the thread sizes of the lenses being used and removing the glass and epoxying the rings together with the threads sticking out on both ends.

Macro Photography On A Budget Or Back To Back Couplers

June 2, 2009

Pole aerial camera photos from Maker Faire

Cris Benton writes in:

This year’s event was fabulous and my kite aerial photography group had a fine time. I took a break from the KAP exhibit on Sunday and made a circuit through the Faire with my pole camera setup. I was able to stitch an interior 360 degree panorama in the large hall from 19 images taken at shutter speeds less than 1/30th of a second. At 17,000 pixels wide, the original panorama would print over six feet wide at high resolution and also works well as source for a QTVR.

June 1, 2009

Experiments with homebrew CIS

So-called Continuous Ink Systems (CIS) are after-market goodies that attach to your inkjet printer, replacing the pricey consumable ink cartridges with permanent cartridge-heads that are continuously refilled from external ink bottles connected by silicone tubing. So to replace the ink in the printer, you just pour more ink in the bottles. Here's a good review of an aftermarket CIS system priced at $250 (which still seems like a lot to me since it's basically just a couple hundred grams of injection molded plastics.)

The idea of a CIS is simple enough, and beautifully subversive of the military-industrial-inkjet complex, but it's received surprisingly little attention from the DIY community. Eddie Matejowsky of Brisbane, Australia, has one of the very few pages I could find on DIY CIS, and its records of his experiments--both successful and otherwise--make very interesting reading for those interested in the idea.

Know of other cool pages about this? Drop me a link in the comments!

May 31, 2009

View from above Maker Faire

Paul Eastham was awesome enough to fly his homebuilt RV-9A aircraft around the Maker Faire airspace and snap a few choice pics of the event! See more in his Flickr photoset.

Update:Another set of great aerial shots - Clif writes,

Hi Makers,
On our way home we took some shots from our rented Piper Arrow. Couldn't shoot from directly overhead either because of the low wings, passengers, etc... ;-)

Check out all the photos here.

May 28, 2009

Bringing analog instant film back from the dead

Recently, at a party, DC-area artist and photographer Jason Horowitz was lamenting the death of instant Polaroid film. I told him I'd read somewhere online that some folks had figured out (or were in the process of figuring out) how to make instant film so this beloved medium could live on. I made a mental note to look this up when I got home, to do a posting about it, but forgot. Jason didn't. He found what I was vaguely remembering, The Impossible Project. Started by a former Polaroid employee and a member of an online analog film fansite, the two have leased the former Polaroid factory in the Netherlands and hired chemists, engineers, and technicians to help them create a 21st century "integral film" that will work in 20th century Polaroid cameras. They even solicit help online -- for instance, they're currently looking for people who knowledge about latex chemistry to help in engineering the "latex timing layer," a layer in the deposition of the instant film.

The Impossible Project [Thanks, Jason!]

More:
No more Polaroid... instant film - and MAKE's look at Polaroid projects

May 24, 2009

MAKE Flickr pool weekly roundup

From the MAKE Flickr pool

DIY bike helmet fan
Rock Band axe in a box [above, top-right]
Anybody lose a lightning bolt? [above, bottom-right]
Music box plays solenoid beats [above, top-left]
Maker's Notebook 555 cover
Etch A Sketch, automated, wireless [above, bottom-left]

May 20, 2009

More amazing protos

After seeing our previous proto pr0n post, Alberto wrote us pointing out the meticulous proto layouts from ChaN. Another great example of much of someone with obvious love for the craft, we've featured several of ChaN's excellent AVR projects in the past - I'm still a big fan of the Wavetable Melody Generator code.

May 19, 2009

Protoboard pr0n

A stroll through Eric Archer's synth prototype photoset reveals some of the most awesomely intricate specimens of DIY electronics I've ever come upon. I do believe I'm experiencing solder-envy. Seen above is his modified recreation of the TR-808 Rhythm Composer's rimshot/clave circuit.

I had the chance to snap a quick macro shot of Eric's touring gear when E-Squared performed at the last Handmade Music event -