Photo How To

Every so often we come across a photo technique that’s so simple and effective that we say to ourselves, “I wish I would have thought of this before.” And we bet you’ll have a similar response after watching the quick video below.

Regardless of the type of shooting you do most, sooner or later you’ll want to try your hand at tabletop photography, capture a few shots of a new camera, or photograph a product for posting to eBay. This simple trick will enable you to do that with ease, and help you make some great macro shots too.

Photographer and instructor Peter McKinnon is a YouTube superstar, with over five millions subscribers to his channel, and the trick he reveals can be accomplished just about as quickly as it takes him to demonstrate the two-minute technique. He also suggests a few DIY “accessories” that will help you get great results and add some pizazz to your images.

McKinnon begins by showing how a cheap piece of matt black Foamcore makes a perfect background. After rating his original image as a “five out of 10,” McKinnon uses Photoshop to import a photo of map to merge with the background, adds a bit of flare, and warms up the tones to take his original shot to a whole new level. He rates this one as a “nine out of 10” because it now has a theme and a style that it didn’t exist before.

You can find more great tips on McKinnon’s YouTube channel, and be to watch our earlier video explaining how to build yourself a cheap DIY “photo studio” that’s great for tabletop and macro photography.