Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
It was only a matter of time: non-fungible tokens or NFTs have seen a massive drop in sales since the beginning of 2022. In only nine months, the NFT sales have dropped by a whopping 97%.
The drop in sales alone isn’t the only problem, nor it came to being on its own. As it turns out, a bunch of NFTs has been fake or stolen and many accounts have been hacked, so it’s no wonder that people are rapidly losing interest and trust in digital collectibles.
Did you ever wonder where the Girl with a Pearl Earring might have been when Vermeer ‘captured’ her in his famous masterpiece? Well, now text-to-image AI DALL-E has announced that it will let users extend their creativity beyond the borders of an image by using outpainting.
The example given shows Vermeer’s masterpiece The Girl with a Pearl Earring standing in an old-fashioned kitchen. The kitchen is depicted in a similar painted style to the original and preserves the same tones and lighting. All in all, it’s pretty impressive.
For a digital artist like me getting those unique ideas for my images is one of the most important things. I see the ideas in my dreams, when I read a magazine, when I’m out for a walk, or pretty much anywhere. I have learned that ideas are everywhere if you just allow yourself to see them. When I get the idea I see it in my head as a “flash”. I see pretty much every detail but I need to sketch out that idea fast to my notebook so I won’t forget it.
I started in photography as a stepping stone into digital art. As with most photographers, I started taking pictures of everyone and everything. It was not fun hiking with me; I was the guy stopping every five minutes to take pictures of trees and rocks.
During that time I was mesmerized by 3d artworks and by the incredible landscapes and props other artists were creating. Even though I was eager to start creating 3d artworks, the technical difficulty and the steep learning curve kept me from it. Or at least it was a good excuse. But then… the donut tutorial came out, and then, everything changed. We’ll it sounds a bit dramatic, but it really was a good starting point to start delving deeper into 3d.
I believe there are few people who haven’t seen the “Disaster Girl” in one of a million memes circling around the internet. The adorable girl is now 21 (yes, we’re old) and she found a way to make money from the viral photo of her. She sold it as an NFT and earned almost half a million dollars.
An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token. The token refers to a digital token or certificate that is stored on a secure distributed database referred to as the blockchain. NFTs are therefore unique digital assets that can be bought and sold, with every transaction being permanently recorded in the blockchain.
One way to think about NFTs is that they are like a certificate of authenticity that is permanently embedded into a database, along with any future transactions that transfer ownership. You can see who minted the NFT, who bought it and so on, in perpetuity. NFTs are a new technology, and we are only seeing a small portion of their likely future potential.
As a digital artist, I create images that are usually almost unimaginable, optical illusions, interesting concepts, and fantasy worlds. For this, I have to have tools to achieve my visions and this is where my retouching background comes into play. I have been using Photoshop for over 20 years and I know plenty of tricks and tips on how to achieve needed things to produce images just to the way I want.
When Karen Alsop started The Christmas Wish Project, she wanted to bring the Christmas spirit to children’s hospital beds around Australia. Along with many volunteers, this photographer and digital artist has brought smiles back on the faces of many sick children. The project has been growing every year, it went global in 2018 – and now you can join it, too.
Karen and her team are running workshops around Australia to train up new volunteers for future projects. But no matter where you live, you can join the project to edit photos and help create magic for children who will spend their Christmas in the hospital.
Rahim Mustafa in his own words is a fun loving, go-giving British photographer, digital artist and youtuber.
DIYP: Tell us a little of how you got into photography, and who your influences are?
RM: I got into photography at the tender age of about 36! As a day job, I am a freelance TV editor and as part of my training, I learned how to film. So, I learned about exposure, framing a shot, lighting etc. Even though I didn’t realize, this gave me a foundation in photography.
About four years ago my father-in-law asked me to take some photos at a small coffee shop he owned. He wanted to get more people through the door, so suggested I do child portraits, as there were a lot of parents there on a regular basis. I said I’d give it some thought.
While some of us still struggle to embrace the concept of cryptocurrencies, the others are taking a step forward and merging it with art. Artist Kevin Abosch brought blockchain technology and photography together and created a piece of digital art titled Forever Rose. The artwork was based on Abosch’s photo and sold for $1 million worth of cryptocurrencies, which makes it the world’s most valuable virtual artwork ever sold.
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