Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
The photo trickery of a levitation shot has been around for ages now, and is a great way to create a compelling image and get in a bit of Photoshop practice while you’re at it!
One of my favourite things is light painting with fire, and the idea of combining levitation into the mix was a fun challenge that was well worth the effort. Read on, and I’ll walk you through step by step how I pulled it off!
I just love those moments when I scroll through my Facebook feed and a beautiful photo stops me in my tracks. This is exactly what happened when I saw this image by Robbie Harvey. So, I reached out to him wanting to hear more about it. I was impressed to hear that it was taken in a single shot, and Robbie agreed to share more details about his photo with DIYP readers.
Levitation photography is a relatively new topic, only really taking off in the last 20 years or so since digital cameras ousted film. But it’s become a very popular one. Often it’s done by balancing on top of objects or suspending from a string that will be photoshopped out later, but there are ways to do it without Photoshop.
Many of the ways to do it without Photoshop just involve good timing (or a little luck). You need to capture somebody mid-jump or an object as it hurtles through the air, but there are other tricks you can do to make it look a little more like levitation. In this 5-minute video, COOPH looks at a number of ways you can help to sell the effect without Photoshop.
For this production with Or Samson we wanted to do something that we did not see before, but we also wanted to raise the technical bar so the photos will not be easy to reproduce.
I was chatting with Adi Kropik (my go-to MUA), and we thought that levitating a female magical goth would both pose a good challenge, but also create some great photos. The art side was “easy”, we are not strange to magic. The technical side, however, was not trivial. We needed to suspend a model high up in the air, while she feels comfy enough to look good.
We did a quick goth in the forest search in google images, just to make sure we are not repeating anything familiar theme, and BOOM! no one has done it before. Getting inspired by Lord of The Rings we went for two looks, a black Goth and a white princess.
A team was assembled (see bottom for full credits) and the production went underway.
Light painting can give a sense of otherworldly to your images, and so can the levitation. But when you bring those two together – it can take you to another dimension. Pennsylvania-based photographer Swen Cubilette brought levitation and light painting together to create an image that captured my attention immediately. He kindly shared his image with DIYP and chatted with us about how he created this captivating photo.
Photos of flying or levitating food can look epic, but they seem intimidating to create. However, it doesn’t have to be difficult. In this video, Skyler Burt of We Eat Together will show you an easy way of creating flying food photos.
We’re only a few days away from “Rogue One” premiere, so we decided to present you with a photo editing tutorial that can help you turn anyone into a Jedi. Mathieu Stern has published this comprehensive and easy tutorial on his website, and all you need are a Jedi, a few props, a tripod and a camera. And some Force, naturally.
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