Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Adding creative lighting effects after the shot has been taken is easy, but nothing beats doing it properly.
There are a million-and-one ways to add creative flares and effects to your shots in post-production after you’ve taken the image, but nothing beats the look and feel of an image that has used in-camera flares and bokeh effects.
There are plenty of ways to edit your videos and enhance them in post. But, there are also many tricks that help you do it in-camera. In this video, Jakob Owens of The Buff Nerds shares five simple ways that will let you add interesting effects to your videos as you film them.
Jakob uses these techniques for music videos, but you’ll find them handy for other types of video work as well. I personally think they’d look great in B-roll, and you can even use them in photos.
Ok, so, the title says “any location shot”, but it’s probably more like any outdoor location shot, when you think about things practically. Sure, you could use these tips indoors, too, although they wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. But Ted at Indy Mogul talks to Phil Rhodes, writer at American Cinematographer in this video, to chat about water and how it can make a big difference to your shot.
If you’re in search of sound effects, here’s something great coming from the BBC. Their library of more than 16,000 sound effects is now available, and you can download anything you like for free.
In 2014 movie Interstellar, Christopher Nolan managed to create the first scientifically accurate black hole. Some sources claim it’s not the case, but nevertheless – I think the movie and the special effects are fantastic. This movie has inspired filmmaker Thomas Vanz to create a short film named INTRA, which takes you on a journey from a black hole to the Big Bang in only four minutes.
Inspired by the “White Hole Theory” and Interstellar, Thomas created this abstract, immersive video using mainly practical effects and chemical reactions. And the final result is impressive.
Shooting with 200mm f/2, 135mm f/1.8 and 105mm f/1.4 lenses is the dream of many portrait photographers. But such lenses are not inexpensive. We may only have a kit zoom that will never give us the look we really want. But, there are other options. Stop down for sharpness, then simulate that shallow depth of field in post. It won’t look quite the same as doing it optically, but it’ll can get you pretty close with a little effort.
In this video, Unmesh Dinda from Piximperfect shows us an easy way to simulate a shallow depth of field in Photoshop. The technique involves using a depth map. This tells various plugins how far away something is. This allows us to get that blur falling off as we get further from the camera. It allows you to get that soft blurry background in just three simple steps.
When you’re a filmmaker or a photographer, you can get various effects by using filters, or in post. But there are plenty of cheap DIY ways to make photos and footage more interesting and achieve the mood you want. Ted Sim of Apurture shares five DIY lens tricks you can do for under $10, or even for free. These will give your movies or photos different looks and feels, and you won’t need to spend a lot of money or a lot of time editing.
It’s like going through the Stargate, or at least down the water slides at the local pool. This very neat effect was created by YouTuber digi47. He says that he “didn’t realise it would create such a cool effect”. But a cool effect is exactly what it makes.
I wouldn’t recommend trying this with a DSLR unless you have an underwater housing. Even then, though, the lens itself might be too large to really get the full effect, and the larger sensor might not even allow you to focus so closely. But if you have something like a GoPro, or a relatively water resistant phone, then sure, why not?
Getting your flash away from the camera is the obvious way to start moving from snapshots towards portraits, and there are many techniques to add drama to your images with lighting alone.
In this short behind the scenes video from our friends at SLR Lounge, we see three fantastic techniques for pushing those dramatic portraits just a little bit further.
In late 2014 I was given a few pieces of piping. What you might call trash, but I call the ring of fire. It ended up being an incredibly useful tool in my photography. I quickly decided to add it to my (now literal) bag of tricks along with Prisming, Lens Chimping, my Broken Freelens, Anamorphics, etc).
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