Photography

Project 365: Week 4 + How to take Through the Viewfinder Photos

January 27, 2012

This post is part of my Project 365 where I am taking one photo every day for a year. Click here to see all of my photos in the series– and if you want to join, feel free to do so anytime! 🙂

20/365: ISO: 800 f/1.8 Shutter Speed: 1/60

1-20-12 Curling up with a new book before bed. I just started reading a book on flash called Sketching Lightby Joe McNally. I really love his writing style– he has a clear and funny tone even when he talks about something as technical as flash.

21/365: ISO: 400 f/1.8 Shutter Speed: 1/125

1-21-12 Frosty bricks. A rare thing this year.

22/365: ISO: 800 f/4 Shutter Speed: 1/100

1-22-12 A bleak birdhouse on a foggy Sunday.

23/365: ISO: 800 f/1.8 Shutter Speed: 1/80

1-23-12 Last week I talked about a version of “Through the Viewfinder” that I created with my Argus Seventy-Five camera. This week I actually did the whole shebang.

To take a “Through the Viewfinder” photo, or TTV, you need to build a shaft around the viewfinder of a twin-lens reflex camera. (Mine’s not so pretty, I know. But it works!) 🙂

This allows your camera to focus on the viewfinder of the vintage camera with your digital camera. You have to make sure the shaft is light-tight.

Materials for the project: cardboard, a stapler, the sleeve of a dark t-shirt, tape, and a twin-lens reflex camera. You can find these camera for dirt-cheap prices on Ebay or in thrift stores. Better yet, ask an older relative. Chances are someone has one up in their attic somewhere.

After I taped the cardboard around the camera so that it became light-tight, I took the sleeve of my t-shirt and stapled it to the top. This is so that you can block out all the light by wrapping the shirt around your digital camera’s lens. I did not staple the end of the sleeve that has the hem, that end will come in handy for the next step.

After you have it all stapled on, make a little slit in the hemmed end of your t-shirt sleeve. Then you can slide a little piece of string or ribbon inside the hem’s tube of fabric so that you can pull the shirt tight around your lens. Think of it as like the top of a laundry bag closing around your camera lens. Then look through your digital camera’s viewfinder and focus on the viewfinder down the cardboard shaft. Snap away! 🙂 (More TTV below. I just didn’t want to get my Project 365 out of order. Gotta stay true to the project!)

24/365: ISO: 800 f/1.8 Shutter Speed: 1/80

1-24-12 My antler necklace rack with a bracelet I bought in the Salt Lake City airport when I flew back home from roadtrippin’ out West this summer.

25/365: The profile photos for Scarves Dot Net’s Google+ page!

1-25-12 This is a special one. I made this animated gif at work for the brand-spankin’ new Scarves.Net that went live this week! (Eeee!) If you head over, you can see the photos that I took for the homepage. 🙂 Photoshoots with the scarf girls are so fun, but what workday wouldn’t be fun with a bit of confetti and some glitter? 😉 *PS: I’ll write a tutorial on how to make your Google+ profile images animated in the next few days or so.

We’ve also made a video for the launch.

And now the final photo for a very discombobulated week 4 post… (sorry bout that) 😉

26/365: ISO: 1600 f/1.8 Shutter Speed: 1/80

1-26-12 More tinkering with the TTV technique. I bought one of these globes at a thrift store. The other I had growing up. You can find my black and white chevron rug here. 🙂

*Whew!

For more photography tips, see this post on digital photography tips for beginners. You can also check out the rest of my photos from the year for my Project 365!

If you want, you can always join the project!