World class photography on a budget

Towards the start of February, I decided to take on the 365 Day Challenge. It involves taking one photo a day for an entire year. I started, but soon found myself pressed for ideas or subjects to shoot, as well as frustrated that I couldn't achieve my potential with the equipment I had. So I did something about it. I got creative. This news article will show you how, with examples, to take great photos that make your friends and family say "wow!" without breaking the bank!

The right house is the one for sale, the right person is anyone

I'm using a Canon EOS 40D DSLR for my photos and most of these tips will apply to DSLR users, but you can achieve similar results using a webcam, point and shoot or a "bridge" camera (halfway between a P&S and a DSLR). Just use Google and your imagination!

"Free" as in "free speech", not as in "free beer".

Not everyone can afford Photoshop. The CS5 Design premium package is $1,900 USD ($2,000 AUD roughly). But you don't need Photoshop to edit your photos. For all of my photos, I use a free package called The GIMP. You can get it from gimp.org, the project's website. It doesn't cost a single penny and it can do almost anything Photoshop can do, from converting your camera's RAW files, to advanced editing. It's one of the first things I install on a new computer.

There are lots of other free programs out there too. luminance.londonmet.ac.uk/webh… : Software to create HDR images, www.digikam.org/ : software for managing your photos and even www.flickr.com/tools/ : software to help put your photos on various websites. Just take a look on Google. Chances are your favourite software has a free alternative. You may be comfortable with the commercial versions, but when working on a budget, beggars can't be choosers, as they say.

Don't be afraid to shop! Photoshop, that is

Let's face it, there's not a single camera out there that will take flawless shots each and every time. A www.google.com/products/catalo… $4000 camera won't edit out that fly that decided to land on your girlfriend's face or overlay a nice hue on your photos. You need to do it yourself. There's no harm in mucking around with an image heavily to get the results you desire, so go nuts until you're happy!

Again, don't be afraid to shop! eBay, that is

Yep. eBay is the best place to get equipment on the cheap. Yes, it's inferior Chinese stuff that may or may not be good for your camera but it works damnit, and that's all that counts. Do your homework first, though. Don't go spending $80 AUD on a flash that should only cost you $30 AUD or buying something that will kill your camera, simply becausei t's cheap. Research the equipment for sale by Googling the model number of the stuff you're looking at. If it's "blow up your camera" type equipment, don't buy it but if it's "It's not as good as the expensive stuff" type equipment, then by all means, take a closer look.

Buy the 'tubes

I bought some extension tubes (also called macro / extension rings, loops etc.) off eBay for $8.50 including shipping. They go between your camera's body and your lens and let you get some amazing closeups for a fraction of the price of a dedicated macro lens ($8.50 compared to $1000 for a proper Canon macro). Yes, the image quality won't be as good as you would get with a dedicated lens and yes you can't easily set apertures without "tricking" your camera, but take a look at some of my photos to see how good they can look:



Be a flasher

While looking around on eBay, I came across a $30 Yongnuo Digital external flash. It clips onto your camera's hotshoe and works an absolute treat. You don't even need a DSLR to use it. It has an optical mode so a flash from any camera will set it off, even a point and shoot. It has seven levels of brightness and three modes. Take a look at one of the first shots I took with it:



Not ready to be a flasher? Use a mirror as practice!

Now, you may not have $30 to throw around on a flash, or just don't want to buy anything from eBay. Fear not, with a small mirror, you can get a similar effect for zilch. Rather than bore you with the details here, I'll bore you with the tutorial I wrote not too long ago:



It really does work a treat. The proof is in the pudding:



Slavery is not illegal

That's right. I bought a nice remote slave unit off eBay for $20. Has a transmitter and a receiver and lets me fire off my flash from 30 meters away. Great when you want to light something from the side or don't want a full-frontal flash. The transmitter slips onto your hotshoe and your flash onto the receiver. It's great when using your extension tubes and especially during portraits (aim it at a wall and bounce the light off it to scatter the rays evenly). Once again, the proof is in the pudding:



Free infrared photography

Infrared filters for cameras are somewhat cheap. I picked mine up on eBay for $20 or so. But again, if you don't like spending money, why not do IR photography the free way, with The GIMP!

Just open your image up The GIMP, go to Colors > Components > Channel Mixer then pick "Monochrome" and fiddle with the channels. Ramp the green up and drop the blue and red down until your sky is dark but your foliage is almost glowing, like so:



It's not as good as buying a good IR filter, but you can't argue with the price!

Conclusion and resources

I think that just about wraps it up. As you can see, you don't need to fork out two thousand dollars to get macro shots and some decent lighting when eBay and a bit of ingenuity are your two best friends. If you have any great ideas that I haven't mentioned, drop a comment here so everyone can benefit from it. And I'll leave you with some great resources and ideas for your own photos. Good luck!

DIY Lighting Hacks: digital-photography-school.com…
Killing lightbulbs: www.diyphotography.net/photogr…
Lightstalking photo blog: www.lightstalking.com/
My "Photo a day" challenge on Flickr: flickr.com/photos/solidinc