Let’s see, I was browsing Wordpress sites and found myself at PhotoMatt, where I read a post about USF.edu using wordpress. In the comments some one mentions that Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism also uses wordpress, and I happed to notice on that site a link to Pinoy Top Blogs. A casual perusal of the list found Litratista, a Pinoy photo hobbyist site. This site had quite a few links to frugal-style photography. It is the Filipino way to make do with what you have, so these are a few of the sites that I found, in that round about way, from Litratista:
Home studio on the cheap – This really is cheap, coming at around $75. I am not sure I have the space for this kind of setup, but I think i could swing the light box below.
Small budget photography – How to use what you have to look like a professional. A few basic skills and available software is all you need. Personally I would recommend getting familiar with The Gimp. It will do most of what you need, and maybe more for hundreds less (free, actually).
Build you own light box/tent – This would be perfect for small studio shots and macros. It would also come in handy for all those pictures of B’s projects.
Portable Gimp – This may only apply to Windows users, but it could be very handy for touch ups on the road, or for those of you who travel the world with a camera… You know who you are.
Using old SLR lenses with a digital SLR – Very handy if you already have some of these lenses, or have easy access to them. I think you could find them cheap on eBay well, so maybe it really is a good way to fill out your collection of lenses if you do not mind the drawbacks of more manual fiddling.
Unusual photography tips – These are just good tips that you may not have seen/heard before.
I had a lot of fun looking through these sites, and thought I would pass them along. Strange how one hobby (web design/Wordpress) led me to another, in a culture that I understand (Pinoy photography)
And I keep finding more:
Makeshift film scanner – although I do not personally have much film to be scanned, I know some of you might like to get your work into the computer.
Actaully, PhotoCritic.org is a good blog that covers this type of thing, with a by line of “Home of budget DIY photography projects”
Thanks for the link love to Litratista
I’m one of the founders of the site.
awesome stuff, I can tell, and I haven’t even gone to them yet… at our school we have these tiny light tent/ boxes that we bought especially for shooting digital of small 3-D objects. We got four of them from Porters Camera for $99 each. They are little portable studios. I was really surprised by the quality of the lighting, even though it looked to my eye like it wasn’t bright enough. The shots turned out pretty well.
This is just what I needed. At the same time that we’ve been trying to simplify and spend less money, we’ve been getting more into photography. I have not been able to reconcile this, but getting low-budget methods should help a lot. Now I just need to find a big zoom lens for a Canon at a thrift store…
And I need a tripod that is not constantly lopsided. It is tough to get into photography on a shoestring… most of the info out there assumes access to cash or credit, and a willingness to use it. Although I still have my eye on a dSLR, I am trying to see things on a bigger scale, and practice the discipline of delayed gratification. I know it could still be a year or more away, but that is ok. If this is just the beginning of a lifelong fascination with photography, what is another year?