Make Yourself a Star Filter and Lens Hood with This Fun and Easy DIY Project (VIDEO)

Star filters provide a unique look to your nighttime images by turning specular highlights and pointed light sources into stars. They’re particularly handy this time of year for photographing indoor and outdoor holiday decorations, and you can make one yourself by watching the video below.

DIY expert Eva Landry reveals how to etch some lines in a CD jewel case to create the filter, and as a bonus shows you how to make a custom lens hood from one of those free coffee cup sleeves from Starbucks.

Keep in mind when making your filter that the wider the distance between the etched lines, the fewer the number of stars you’ll see in your images. Commercial thread-on star filters typically have a rotating ring like a polarizer, so the orientation of the stars will change as you turn the ring.

With this homemade filter you can just hold it in front of your lens, rotating it until you get the effect you’re after, or glue it to your cardboard hood for a bit more stability and rotate the hood.

After watching the video you can find more fun projects on Landry’s YouTube channel.

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