Photo How To

Since you're a photographer, we're sure you've always wondered how to use various household items as a camera lens. For instance, instead of your fancy zoom, maybe a potato could be a camera lens? Or how about putting a toilet paper roll on front of your $5000 camera and using that as a lens?

If you're that type of photographer, then this wacky and ingenious video shared by Unilad is for you. Called "Using Different Items as Camera Lenses," the clip shows you the step-by-step process of how to modify and mount a potato, an old shoe, a roll of toilet paper, an Elmo doll, a Pringles can and other objects as lenses.

The video is from Simon Meyer, who first posted parts of it on Tik Tok. Unfortunately, the full Unilad video is not embeddable but you can watch the clip here. You can also watch Simon's potato lens Tik Tok video below.

"Meyer is a director based in Germany who creates custom pinhole photography," Unilad explained. "Typically, cameras have lenses to take photos. However, pinhole photography doesn't use a lens. It uses a small pinhole to produce an image that gives a retro, organic feel."

Along with showing you the process of using these objects for pinhole photography, Meyer shares his results both for still images and videos. While the results are a bit rough, they do have a unique, throwback quality to them that you may like. Not everyone on Facebook where the video was shared was thrilled with the image quality, however.

"It's a very good tutorial [on] how to take sh*tty photos," one wise guy wrote. Perhaps, but Meyer's tutorial is all about the fun of the process. If you want to learn more about pinhole photography, check out this post.

@simonmeyer_director I made the real potato camera work! #photographytricks #potato #camera ♬ Eleanor Rigby - Cody Fry