In photography the lighting techniques you use can make the difference between a good shot and a great one.

Professional photographer’s studios are packed with tons of lighting equipment and to us amateur photographers; it’s enough to make the mind boggle.

That’s before you start talking about how much all the equipment costs!

If you can’t afford a full lighting rig there are many cheap DIY hacks that can mimic the types of lighting gear that pro photographers use.

Flash Diffuser

This great little piece of equipment is designed to diffuse the light from your flash. This leads to some unique lighting effects and because it is made from a milk bottle, it will probably lighten your wallet by a few hundred dollars compare with professional light diffusers.

Party Bouncer Card

Another flash diffusing technique, this time using a piece of card. The party bouncer card is designed to bounce some light off the ceiling while also diffusing the light going forward. This will reduce the harshness of the flash can even produce more light as the card reflects the flash in different directions.

Turkey Pan Beauty Dish

Beauty dishes are great pieces of equipment that usually retail for a hundred bucks or so. The beauty dish helps disperse the light evenly making a softer image. Although is hack may not be as effective as a professional beauty dish, the results are still pretty good.

Multi-Super-SB-Ring Light

If by any chance you have a bunch of external flashes laying around, what better way to use them then rigging yourself a Multi Super SB Ring Light?

The idea is quite simple, take your flashes and mount them on a cut coffee can. Connect 3 pocket wizards with splinter to the flashes, use duct tape to hold everything in place…start blinding the public.

This is great hack to give a massive boost to your flash, excellent for product shots and portraits.

Flash Mounted DIY Softbox

Another piece of equipment used to disperse light evenly over a subject is a softbox. The softbox sits over the flash and ensures that resulting shadows are softer.

Similar to the light tent this hack is quite involved, it requires white card, white fabric (silk if possible), some tape, and this time a bit of Velcro to hold it all in place.

Click to enlarge the Softbox template, save and print the image to create your own.

The great thing about the DIY softbox is that it is portable, professional softboxes are big and for that reason, they usually end up stuck in the studio.

Inexpensive Light Tent

If you have wanted to create those crisp clean product images that seem to be floating on white background, an expensive light tent could be the solution you are looking for.

This hack is more involved some of the others so we wont go into it too much here, but you get the idea; cardboard box, white paper, fabric, scissors, tape and a light = an inexpensive light tent that is extremely effective.

With a few new additions to 800hightech digital camera range, I thought we would take some time to take a look at what Nikon digital cameras have to offer for those interested in photography. Nikon has long been a leader in photography and still remains a professional camera brands in the digital photography realm. Nikon produces a wide range of cameras to suit everyone’s needs. We at 800hightech have selected and made available three different models, the compact digital CoolPix P5000, the D40x Digital SLR and the D80 Digital SLR, which are ideal for military members who are interested in photography and cover technical ranges from beginner to professional.

Digital SLR Cameras

A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that operates on the same optical and mechanical principles as a modern electronic autofocus 35mm film single-lens reflex camera. The key difference is that the film is replaced with a CCD or CMOS image sensor plus accompanying electronics, thus creating images digitally in-camera, without the need to first chemically develop a latent image on film.

We will explore advance Nikon Digital SLR and SLR-like Cameras. The Nikon CoolPix 5000 is a SLR-like Digital Camera, while the Nikon D40X and the Nikon D80. Considering taking up or enhancing your photography hobby? Here are some new cameras that will take your photography to a new level that takes advantage of the newest digital photo technology!

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