How-to

Photographer Francesca Sara Cauli of Bologna, Italy, says that it’s easy to make fun, upbeat portraits: Just hang out with fun, upbeat people.We know that’s not always possible. Luckily, her por-trait of Alma Gitanna here exemplifies other techniques for energizing your people pictures. Here are a few:• Tilt the camera to throw the horizon line off-kilter. This can add a serendipitous kick.

Filmmaker John Downer is like the MacGuyver of nature documentaries. Using clever camera disguises, he's able to get a camera where no photographer would ever be able to shoot. For his latest project, Winged Planet, which airs on Discovery Channel October 6th, he got an up close look at wild birds using a whole arsenal of clever camera hacks. Yes, that includes mounting cameras directly to the birds themselves.

In these times of sophisticated digital retouching, making images with special effects that are created with old-fashioned, low-tech contrivances offers its own kind of of charm. The images come off as sweetly disingenuous, wickedly ironic, or a delectable blend of both. This low-tech/no-tech approach is championed by Florida self-portraitist Alexis Mire, whose special visual effects come without the help of software. (See the undisguised threads holding up her “cloud” in this photo?)