You don't need expensive camera accessories to take great photos. As an amateur photographer, invest in mastering the basics first, like composition and light. When you find that your skills are outgrowing your camera equipment, that's when you can start to splurge.

If you're strapped for cash, however, you can always squeeze a little more performance out of what you have by transforming everyday objects into nifty camera accessories. Yes, they might not do anything for your style, but they won’t hit your bank account either.

So, here’s a roundup of some useful digital camera hacks that won't burn a hole into your pocket.

1. DIY Bokeh Effects Filter

Bokeh Effect

What you need:

  • Sheets of black construction paper or poster board
  • Utility knife
  • Pencil

Bokeh, Japanese for "blur" or "haze", are artistic photo effects that appear as out-of-focus points of light. You can create them naturally with your camera settings and the placement of your subject. Or you can make DIY bokeh filters for custom shapes.

The best thing about creating your own bokeh filters is that you can give them creative shapes in various sizes. Creative bokeh kits cost around $20 or more.

2. DIY Photography Backdrops

What you need:

  • Cotton duct fabric or paper rolls
  • Dowel or curtain rod
  • Cup hooks (2)

A DIY photo studio should take you under ten minutes to set up if you are handy with a drill. You can buy cotton duct fabrics in any color, starting with the standard black or white. You can experiment with other cheap materials like colored paper, muslin cloth, velour, velvet, or even a non-creased tablecloth. Ideally, it should be wrinkle-free and reflection-free.

Also, once you learn how to control depth of field, you can lessen the comparative importance of the background material.

If you're looking for a rental-friendly alternative that doesn't screw into the wall, check out Chris Pieta's custom backdrop that clamps onto a workbench or table using items from the hardware store in the video above. Keep in mind that ready-made backdrop support systems can cost upwards of $50.

You can also create a custom photography background using a monitor.

3. Make a Rain Guard for Your Lens With a Plastic Bottle

What you need:

  • Empty plastic bottle
  • Clear plastic bag
  • Rubber bands

Whether you like it or not, you will be hit by the weather at some point; pun intended. Your camera might say it has an all-weather body, but it takes a brave photographer to risk it. The YouTube channel Cinematic on Budget has a tutorial to help you out.

You'll need an empty plastic bottle that will fit over your lens, a clear plastic bag long enough to cover your camera and the plastic bottle that extends beyond your lens, as well as rubber bands to secure it all.

This is a simple photography hack, and all you have to do is precisely measure out the diameters as instructed. Camera rain guards with lens protection can cost around $20.

4. A Camera Image Stabilizer You Can Carry in Your Pocket

What you need:

  • A short 1/4 inch diameter bolt
  • A piece of string slightly longer than your height
  • A large washer or other small weight

The above tutorial shows how you can build a tripod alternative with a few basic materials and give yourself some extra stops of exposure. It's a very simple how-to and should take you just about ten minutes to put together.

The idea is to attach one end of the string to a short screw that goes into the tripod mount under the camera, and the other end to a small weight held by your foot. The string is kept taut by the opposing tension created by the camera and the weight planted under your foot.

The instructor says that this is a good technique to keep the camera stable, and it works well for medium-exposure shots. It removes vertical shake, and you can also freely pan the camera horizontally. For long-exposure shots, you will need an actual tripod. But the best thing is its ultra-portability, and it should cost you less than $1.

5. Diffuse Flash With an Empty Plastic Milk Carton

What you need:

  • An empty plastic milk carton
  • A pair of scissors

Direct flash can cast harsh shadows, hot spots, or reflections. Flash blowout is a common problem in photography because internal flash units may not calibrate the right intensity of the light. So you may have to diffuse the flash instead of letting it fall directly on the subject.

Creating some distance between the camera and the subject is one way to do it, though it doesn't work in all situations. The second-cheapest way (and there are many) could be to use an empty plastic milk carton.

Make your flash spread out by using the semi-opaque plastic on a milk carton. The above tutorial shows you how to cut around the handle and make a neat-fitting flash diffuser. The curvature of the handle fits snugly over the camera flash and is small enough to fit in your pocket.

You can in fact experiment with a variety of materials to create your flash diffuser—from toilet paper to white foam sheets. Use white semi-opaque materials because their color affects the color temperature of the light that passes through the diffuser.

A branded plastic diffuser is not very expensive (around $5), but why waste even that?

6. Make a Flash Bouncer With a Business Card

Digital Cameras With Business Card Flash Diffuser

What you need:

  • A white business card
  • A pair of scissors

Bouncing flash off a surface is another way of diffusing light and preventing harsh, unnatural light to fall on the subject. Bouncing light also prevents hot spots and red eyes along with shadows when you are shooting indoors.

You can use ceilings and walls to bounce the flash. But that’s only possible if you have an external flash. Worry not, however, because here’s an almost free solution to bounce light off the ceiling with your own bounce card and the in-built flash.

Take a white business card made of cardboard and snip two cuts on the short end of the card, then attach it to the metallic hinges of the integrated flash, preferably at an angle of 45 degrees. Depending on your camera, you might have to play around with how you can attach the card, but it shouldn't take more than a few cuts to create your first template.

Professional grade bounce cards can cost you as much as $50.

7. DIY Remote Shutter Trigger

What you need:

  • 2.5 mm hands-free phone headset (earphones with mic and button)
  • Scissors
  • Nerves of steel

If you have a spare hands-free phone headset lying around somewhere, you can make a remote shutter trigger within ten minutes. This Autodesk Instructables tutorial shows you just how, and you can also follow the tutorial above.

You can do away with the earpiece by snipping it off, as explained in the tutorials. The camera shutter stays open as long as the button in the headset is depressed.

Remote shutter triggers actually are very cheap. You can buy one for under $10. But it’s still fun to make one in the spirit of DIY.

8. Reduce Camera Shake With a Bean Bag

Tote Bag Chickpeas DSLR for DIY Beanbag

What you need:

  • A bag of dry lentils, chickpeas, or beans
  • Old pair of jeans, tote bag, or discarded fabric

If you are coming from a point-and-shoot to a DSLR that weighs a couple of pounds or more (and that’s without a heavy telephoto lens), the first thing you have to learn is to stabilize your camera. High-end cameras have stabilization built-in, but you still have to be rock still if you don’t want your photos to end up with the shakes. You could buy a tripod, or you could try a workaround.

Instead of buying one, you can make your own bean bag with an old pair of jeans, a tote bag, or some other sturdy fabric. Some sewing skills will be required to create the bag portion. Then fill it up with your dry legume and close it up.

This will save you about $30 for a camera bean bag or tripod.

9. Create DIY Filter Effects With Household Objects

What you need (one or more):

  • CD or DVD
  • Loofa
  • Chains
  • Wire
  • Plastic tape
  • Neon marker
  • Any other household item that can bounce or filter light

Many of the bits and pieces you have floating around in your home can serve as a DIY lens filter. Whether it's an old CD, plastic tape, or a pot scrubber, they can all affect the way light reaches the camera sensor by bouncing it towards or away from the lens. So have a look around and experiment with what you find.

Be Creative, Become a Photography MacGyver

Every photographer has a long list of accessories they desire. But after splurging $2,000 on the latest camera, we could calm our wallets by turning to some digital photography accessories we can make ourselves.

If the experts can attach a piece of cardboard or plastic to their cameras, so can you. And it doesn’t hurt to try. So what will you try first?