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At the risk of angering the iPhoneography police, I recently started using my DSLR to improve the quality of my Instagram photos. Don’t get me wrong. I love the camera that comes with my iPhone 4s with its wide aperture and low light response, and I use it a lot, even when I have my DSLR with me.

I owned an iPhone 3GS before this, so the difference in quality between the two was dramatic to me. In fact, the camera was the main reason I upgraded to the 4s to begin with. It’s just a matter of time before the phone camera gives the point-and-shoot a run for its money.

With all the amazing apps available for iPhoneography, you can do some truly amazing work. With ProCamera and Camera+ for example, you can control exposure and focus separately, and shoot several frames in rapid succession. But there’s only so much a tiny camera in a phone can do. There are times when I need manual control over the aperture, shutter speed and ISO, or a low-noise sensor that shoots at high ISOs, or a fast lens with a good deal of reach. Someday perhaps, the camera in my pocket will do everything I need, but we’re not there yet.

The workflow for this is actually quite simple, but it requires a little thought and a few pieces of gear.

What You Need:

• A DSLR with a versatile lens that has a decent zoom range, preferably something like an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 or equivalent.
• An Apple iPad with enough storage to hold all the photographs you’ll be taking.
• An Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit.
• A card reader to use with the iPad Camera USB connector if your camera doesn’t use SD cards.
• Alternatively, you can use an Eye-Fi with the iPad app, but it may be less reliable or convenient, depending on the availability or quality of your wifi connection.
• Some iPad apps to tweak your photos if necessary, such as Photogene, Snapseed or Adobe Photoshop Express.
• Instagram installed on your iPad.
• Internet connectivity, either built into the iPad, or something like a Verizon Mifi.

What You Do:

• Shoot with your DSLR.
• Import your photos into your iPad using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit.
• Retouch your photos as necessary on your iPad.
• Start Instagram, choose the photos you want to share from your photo library, add effects as your heart desires.
• Share. That’s it!

Some Tips:

• Shoot right the first time. Be mindful of your exposure and composition. If you have to edit or retouch, it will slow you down.
• Remember that if you want to fill an Instagram frame, you will most likely have to crop the photo within the app, so plan your composition with that in mind.
• Do not erase the card after importing! Accidents can happen. You don’t want to lose any of those precious photos. Wait until you’re in a quiet place where you can organize all your images and be sure you haven’t left anything behind on the card.

For a more detailed technical workflow oriented towards live-tweeting events, check out my photo blog.

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There are some people out there who are downright sick of infographics. I don’t know why, but they are. I can understand that it gets a little overwhelming at times when seemingly everything is made into an infographic and then published on pretty much every website. We here at Bit Rebels try to switch it up a little in order to not get too repetitive. But every once in a while, there comes along an infographic that is not only interesting, but also visually crazy. Usually the format of an infographic is based on ordinary straight forward graphics and layout. There’s not too much to get excited about more than the actual data presented in it.

However, there are people out there who have a new approach to all of this. One such person is Paul Marcinkowski who decided that flipping it up a little would be a good idea for his school project. His approach was to make an infographic about tattoos. It’s not just any boring infographic though since it’s actually done by tattoos! Don’t get too crazy now because of course they are not real tattoos, they are just a creation made in Photoshop.

It looks really good though, and it is by far the coolest infographic I have seen to date. It’s really well done also. I find myself wondering what grade he must have gotten for this badboy since it must have been the coolest project in his class pretty much. Now, hopefully infographic designers of the world have gotten a boost of inspiration so they can start making up some new concepts for how an infographic should look. Even though I haven’t gotten tired of infographics just yet, I still feel they are becoming a little bit too repetitive in their format.

Via: [UFunk - French]

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These little tiny carpets for your computer mouse are just as cute as can be. After all, it’s important to keep your mouse comfy and cozy so it performs well for you all day long, right? They are called Mouserugs, and they resemble fancy oriental rugs that we sometimes see in people’s homes.

These aren’t just mouse pads that look like rugs either. Each one is designed as an exact replica of a full-size oriental rug, which means each one is created with millions of colored nylon microfibers woven together. If the original rug has a flaw, this one has a flaw also. It’s a really neat process.

So if you’d like to change the decor on your desk from geek-chic to upscale-fancy, maybe one of these Mouserugs would be perfect for you. If you are going to do that though, you might want to ditch that can of beer and pour a glass of red wine instead. Also, I suggest you toss out that lame ballpoint pen and replace it with a Montblanc, and clean up all those sticky notes everywhere too. Nah, the more I think about it, I don’t think this is for me. If you like them though, you can pick one up for about $19 at Firebox or Mouserug.

Via: [Technabob]

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Yup, we are slowly getting accustomed to the new Facebook Timeline and the whole redesign. Personally, I quite like it. It gives us more freedom to pimp it out in various ways, and that is key if you want to be original and impress people with your profile. For all you marketing people out there, this new way of expressing yourself is also a good opportunity to show your genius. I know, my own profile is lame, and I should really do something about it. I need to work up some kind of master plan to redesign my whole header image and see if I can make some good likes that way. But as always, time isn’t exactly growing on coconut trees.

Until now, there hasn’t been too much info or many tutorials about how you could possibly “hack” the Facebook header image and make something really unique. The person to deliver it is Nico Grienauer who writes for Ausgertock. He actually created a template that will give you the freedom to make whatever header image you want, lame or cool, to impress all your friends and subscribers on Facebook.

I have been searching for a good template for this new Facebook profile page that will enable me to “hack” it, visually that is. So now that I have found it, there is no excuse why my profile page looks so darn lame anymore I guess. There are countless numbers of cool, funny examples of new and refreshing profile page designs for the new Timeline design out there. All you have to do is search for it using any of the leading search engines, and you will be presented with tons of great ideas. But as they say, to be original you can’t be a copycat. You have to find your own approach, and when you do, people are definitely going to notice you. Let your creativity flow! You can find the PSD Template over at Ausgetrock.

Via: [Dude Craft]

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One of the things that separates an average photographer from a great photographer is the ability to create magical, intriguing photos from every day things that could be otherwise considered boring and not worth a second look. It’s truly a gift when talented photographers do this. It’s like they are able to see with a different set of eyes than the rest of us.

Take this collection of abandoned cars for example. It’s called From the Backseat of My Car by photographer Alicia Rius. She writes, “I did not plan this project. I never looked for these cars, and in fact, I think they found me. I wanted to immortalize their beauty and turn them into something romantic.”

These photos are truly stunning, and everything about them from the rusty seats to the purple wildflowers to the old tires are completely given a new life. I love those big old-fashioned steering wheels. The lighting and the colors in these photographs really makes them pop and come alive. I would love to know where she first saw these abandoned cars. This just goes to show that what one person considers trash; another person considers a treasure. You can view more of Alicia’s photography on her website.

Via: [Junk Culture]

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This retro TV is such a beauty in its original form, but when it’s transformed into this super sweet bar, well, it’s goes from retro brilliance to retro badass. I’ve never seen one of these televisions since they were before my time, but I have pictures of my grandmother watching one in her living room.

Back in the old days, when these old-fashioned televisions were popular, people used to gather around it and watch shows together. Now that we all have our mobile devices and social media sites, I don’t know of any family who gathers to watch regular television shows anymore. Most families I know spend most of their time doing this instead of watching TV.

If you’ve got one of these TVs in your attic or basement taking up space, here’s a great way to give it a new life and purpose. You can turn it into your own geeky bar with a retro touch. According to The Spotted Fox, you just have to gut the inside, cut a piece of glass to fit inside for the shelf, load it up with your favorite liquors and add some Christmas lights for decoration. If I was to do this, I’d probably need help with gutting it. I mean, knowing me, I’d blow something up or something. Regardless, this is such a cool mod!

Via: [Craft]

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How would you like to dine at a restaurant built right at the base of a waterfall? I don’t mean you’d be sitting a safe distance away from the waterfall, I mean… your table, your feet, and your entire experience (including the sounds) would all revolve around the rushing water. That would create a memory to last a lifetime.

There is a restaurant in the world where you can have this actual experience. It’s at the Villa Escudero resort in the Quezon province of the Philippines. At this restaurant, not only are visitors encouraged to try traditional Filipino menu items, they are also invited to take off their shoes and shirts to get as close to the waterfall as possible.

I bet this would be a fun place to work too. I imagine each time there is a strong wind, water sprays on everyone. Since I know the weather in the Philippines is typically pretty hot, I’m sure it’s really refreshing to sit close to the water too. As you can see in the pictures, the waterfall is relatively small, and the resort is hacienda-style. Yup, staying at the Villa Escudero and visiting this restaurant is definitely going on my bucket list. What a great reason to finally travel to the Philippines.

Via: [Oddity Central]

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There are a million ways you could make your home just a little bit more epic. Some people make it look like a Star Trek inspired apartment while others take a more subtle approach and just switch out the living room carpet. If you are looking to impress people, you should really put your back into it. Sure, custom making everything in the Star Trek apartment must have taken years of hard work (and to know it might be disassembled is just heart breaking), but if you want to really make people’s jaws drop when they walk into your home, you need to do something really spectacular and original.

One approach might be to create an epic floor like South Korean artist Do Ho Suh. Don’t expect it to be super easy though since it might take you years to complete it. Why? Well, because the 40 tile floor piece is created out of 180,000 plastic figurines holding up the glass floor. It’s a marvel to behold, and the intense visual is something that will stick with you for days. Trying to place 180,000 figurines as close as possible to each other is one thing, but to model them all at the same height so they can hold up the glass might just be as epic as it can possibly get.

I mean, as an artist, what are you going to create after you have shown people this art piece? They won’t possibly be impressed by yet another “ordinary” painting, will they? I guess the only way to up the ante is to create something even more time consuming. But what the heck would that be? We’re talking about 180,000 plastic figurines holding up 40 glass sheets here. I am as impressed as I can get right now. Sure, there is always someone out there that will take things just a little further, but this is certainly worthy of the word epic in every sense of the word. I wonder if Do Ho Suh was a little bit hesitant to step on those sheets of glass when he was finished with the artwork to take a picture. It’s not like you could just redo it in a couple of minutes or so.

Via: [My Modern Met]

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Some people keep their Christmas lights strung around their house all year long because they are too lazy to take them down. Christmas is long gone, but I even saw a car on the highway yesterday with lights still covering the hood. Some people, like me, like to keep those lights handy all year round too, but it’s not because we are lazy, it’s because we simply love the look of those lights, especially the colorless ones.

Those lights look so pretty at night lining the deck alongside my house, and I don’t understand why it’s not really socially acceptable to enjoy those all year long. Why are we supposed to just have them lit during December? When I was at University, I kept a completely decorated artificial Christmas tree in my dorm room for a few years. All my friends used to love coming to my room to hang out near the Christmas tree, even in the spring.

When I saw these bottles full of lights, I knew I would have to try it. What a great way to enjoy those Christmas lights year round. The look of this bottled light is truly stunning, and it would look so beautiful on a fireplace or a picnic table outside in the evening. What a wonderful addition these would make to any party or dinner at home with friends. These were made by Gabrielle Blair from Design Mom. You can get her full tutorial over at DIY: Bottles Full Of Light.

Via: [Dude Craft]

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Are you looking for a creative little project to do with the kids this weekend? I’ve got the perfect thing for you to try. This takes very little effort, but creates a really fun effect. All you need is some coffee, milk, and a couple packages of those small paper cups from the supermarket.

This is coffee and milk art, which was featured as one of the latest little art installations on Low-Commitment Projects. You can create all kinds of color shades by simply mixing different amounts of coffee into the milk. If you set these cups on the floor, and then stand on a stool with your iPhone to get a picture from above, your kids will get a good view of their creation on your phone since it’s hard to see the design when you look at it up close.

According to the artist, Tae, you don’t have to stop with just coffee and milk. If you prefer, you could also try this with different colored sodas, like strawberry soda mixed with Sprite, etc… Of course, it might be wise to put a tablecloth or old sheet on the floor beneath all these cups because spilling is part of the fun. I wonder who will drank all that coffee when this project was finished. If you want to see another very fast and easy project from this same team of artists, click over to 9 Creative Sandwich Designs That Require Very Little Effort.