Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Photography
  3. Legacy Archives

Easy out-of-the-box photography tips using common household items

Add as a preferred source on Google

Photography is a creative art form, and often it’s out-of-the-box thinking that yields the most interesting results. While there are thousands of products on the market that promise to help you achieve great photos or perform some kind of other useful service, a lot can be done by using the everyday things we have around us. The difficult part is figuring out how to use them.

For example, did the thought of using a beer cozy (the sleeves that you put your beer cans into in order to keep them cool, as well as concealed) as a makeshift lens protector ever cross your mind? If you happen to have some lying around, why not use them to keep your lenses safe during transport, instead of buying an expensive new photo backpack or dedicated lens pouches.

Recommended Videos

Want to create some light-painting art? Use your iPad or Android tablet to add some colored streaks into your photos, instead of buying dedicated light-painting sticks. Want to achieve a soft focus effect? Stop looking for a classic soft focus lens on eBay and instead simply wrap a piece of pantyhose around your lens.

Photographer Markus Berger from COOPH (The Cooperative of Photography) shows these and more clever tricks in the video below, using nothing but common everyday items that many of us happen to own anyway. Need more ideas? Then we strongly suggest you take a walk around your house and start experimenting with things. Because that’s the easiest and most effective way of discovering something new.

(Via Lifehacker)

Felix Esser
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Felix is a freelance tech journalist with a strong focus on photography. Based out of central Germany, he contributes to…
The FCC’s latest crackdown could put more than DJI drones at risk in the US
Robot, Person, Face

DJI may have found creative ways to keep some of its products flowing into the US, but those efforts are now drawing increased attention from regulators. According to The Verge, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has started cracking down on several companies it believes could be helping DJI continue selling products in the country. These businesses have been described by industry observers as "DJI front companies" because they market or import products that appear to be closely tied to the Chinese drone maker while operating under different brand names.

DJI's alleged back door may be closing

Read more
I bought Kodak’s viral keychain camera, and the bad photos are part of its charm
The Kodak Charmera is barely a camera, and I still keep using it
Machine, Wheel, Camera

I bought the Kodak Charmera partly because I wanted a portable digital camera, and partly because I wanted a pretty little collectible. The Charmera is sold as a blind box, so you do not know which version you are getting until the box is opened. There are multiple retro Kodak-style designs, plus a transparent secret edition that looks like the one everyone would want.

I had the shopkeeper pick my box for better luck, and it worked out. I got the yellow variant, which is inspired by Kodak's original 80s disposable camera. The transparent one is definitely the fun collector’s piece, but the yellow model feels like the proper Kodak version. It looks like a tiny toy camera that escaped from a souvenir shop, found a keyring, and now hangs around wherever you go.

Read more
This new $30 keychain camera is coming for Kodak Charmera with a flip screen for selfies
Yashica's new camera makes toy photography more fun
YASHICA Funtastic Keychain Camera in multiple variants

Tiny digital cameras are all the rage, and Yashica is now offering a very cute toy photography experience of its own. The company’s new Funtastic Keychain Camera is exactly what the name suggests, a miniature digital camera small enough to clip onto your keys, bag, or lanyard. The popular Kodak Charmera is the obvious comparison, which brings a tiny blind-box keychain camera that became a viral collectible.

Now, Yashica's version lands in the same novelty-camera lane, but adds one very useful trick, which is a 180-degree flip screen.

Read more