About three days ago, we started seeing a new gimmick on Facebook, images that appear to “move in 3D” when you scroll through them or move your mouse cursor over them. This is a parallax effect and it can be accomplished by providing Facebook with a depth map (e.g. “arches_depth.png”) along with the original image (“arches.png”). The two need to have the same resolution and the depth map needs to be generated in a way that close objects are white and far away objects are black.
9 reasons why learning 3D software can help you as a photographer
What’s the most important lesson that shaped you as an artist? For me it’s this. If a photographer only looks at the work of other photographers, his artistic growth will eventually stagnate or even decline due to boredom. Instead we should direct our attention to a much broader spectrum of visual art. Drawing and painting, illustration, sculpture, animation, film, comics and even performance arts.
Some of these other fields help us by inspiring new ideas for photographic work. Others present us with new perspectives, like “how to see the world with the eyes of a landscape painter”. And finally there are some fields that can have a direct impact on our own skill set and portfolio. Today I’d like to talk about one of these fields, the world of 3D.
I’m still rather new to the 3D realm, so this article won’t be about me talking about myself. Instead I would like to show you exactly why diving into 3D could be interesting for YOU. I’ll try to be as honest about it as possible by pointing out advantages as well as disadvantages from a perspective of a photographer. My goal is to give you these insights so you can make an informed decision wether it will be worth your time (and money).
Let’s start by looking at the “plus points” first.
How We Shot This Photo Of A Floating Woman With A Simple Lighting Trick
Do you remember your first eye-opening experience with lighting in photography? I think it happend to me while watching one of David Hobby’s tutorials, realizing that the justification for flash lighting is so much more then just “being able to shoot at ISO 100”. Lighting sets the mood, creates separation, defines spacial relation and, sometimes, makes the impossible possible. Today, let’s look at a lighting trick, I’ve only recently come across together with photographer (and good friend) Ethan Oelman while joining him on one of his personal projects. If you love to experiment with mobile flash equipment as well, check out “The Strobe” section bellow – you can win one of the awesome new Elinchrom ELB 400 strobe packs!
DIYP Interviews The Amazing John Flury
The Retouching Academy just released Part 2 of their series “Storytelling in Concept Photography” with John Flury. I had the chance to ask him some questions about his amazing work and the ideas behind it.
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