Photocritic photography blog

A good while ago (see this post), I discovered the phenomenon of the lensbaby lens. Basically, it’s a bendable lens that you can use for creative effect. It means that you get what essentially is a tilt/shift lens which allows you to work with creative selective focus, extreme macro photography, and lots of creative freedom.

I recently got my grubby paws on a Lensbaby, and ever since, I’ve been a complete convert. I recently spent 4 days exploring Madrid, and despite of having a lot of expensive glass, I ended up only using the Lensbaby lens throughout the whole trip. Read the rest of the article »

Why would you put a $100 lens on a $8,000 camera? Well, because even the professional photographers have to go back to their roots, and re-learn the passion of photography. The Lens Baby can help. Read the rest of the article »

Lomography has been covered at length before, but people keep giving me fantastic tips about lomo photos, so I just can’t help but going back to the topic again and again.

This time, I got a tip about someone who’s made a digital version of the Lomo Coloursplash - essentially a cheap camera with a coloured gel in front of the flashgun.

What a brilliant idea! Read the rest of the article »

I just found the best web page ever. I know, it’s a bit of a tall claim, but I think it’s probably the truth.

What if there was a web-site out there that explained in great detail how cameras work, history of photography, and offer up a ton of cheap mods you can do to a camera to broaden its use to astrophotography, micro photography, and lots of other nifty stuff? Yeah, I thought that’d catch your attention! Read the rest of the article »

There are a lot of cameras out there that have no attachment for filters. Mostly, this isn’t a problem, but every now and again you will want to get a little bit more creative, obviously! I was thinking about how to solve this problem, and then Rolf sent me a tip: Why not just use a short piece of PVC linkage to connect it? Read the rest of the article »

A lot of pinhole photography stuff recently, but that’s because it’s cool, yo!

My old mate over at PhotoThoughts keeps coming up with these groovy, outlandish camera mods, and I love him for it: Read the rest of the article »

Ice can bend light, as every late-night part-time alcoholic no doubt will have noticed. So why has nobody ever thought of making a photographic lens out of ice? Read the rest of the article »

Lens hoods are great devices - basically, they allow you to shoot more directly into the sun (i.e at a more acute angle compared to the sunrays) without getting the dreaded solar flares.

Unfortunately, lens hoods can be silly expensive. But, as you all know when I make a statement like that, there is a cheaper way of doing things - in fact, a much cheaper way! Read the rest of the article »

Not strictly photography, but this project carries the Do It Yourself torch with such passion that I couldn’t let it go! Besides, if you decide to buid one of these, all you have to do is to add a photo camera to the end (it’s as easy as taking a compact camera and gaffer-taping it to the end of one of the eye-pieces), and you can use it for photography purposes!

A stereo-zoom microscope is a stereoscopic microscope in which the variation of magnification is continuous. The advantage is that you are able to adjust the magnification to suit yourself. You can pass gradually from one magnification to another, without losing sight of the sample. What makes this type of instrument astounding is that increasing the magnification will make it appear as though you are “diving into” the sample. The first time you do this, it will take your breath away. Read the rest of the article »

A digital camera sees more infrared than we do, and all you need to do to capture it, is to block out all the visible (non-infrared) light. You can buy filters that do this, but they can be ridiculously expensive - and buying stuff removes all the fun of creating stuff, n’est-ce pas? Read the rest of the article »