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4 Kicka$$ Compositing Videos That Reveal The Art Within The Art

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When you look at a photo showing a fantasy world, there is often that moment of armament on how the final photograph looks so real and yet unreal at the same time. That is because good compositors use real elements from real photos and have the ability to blend them in well. Of course, there is more to this art than just selecting photo parts and throwing them together. In fact, watching how a composite comes to life is almost as looking at a piece of art that is disconnected from the final photograph.

Photographer and retoucher Renne Robyn records her process of compositing a photo and they are a delight.

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5 Tips and Tricks For Creating A Gown From Flowers

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Yes yes I know, There is another post about  expanding a dress” (thanks for remembering), this is however, a totally different…kinda…mostly…it is, you guys.  You see that post was about taking what is already a dress and showing how to make it larger and more glorious.  The knowledge I’m going to attack you with today is about creating a dress from scratch out of something that was not a dress…at all.

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So Over The “Overly-Retouched” Argument

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Ah, “photography”, you loosely defined word that everyone seems to have their own definition of. It’s amazing how polarizing you can be, isn’t it?

And one of your most polarizing aspects seems to be exactly how much retouching is considered reasonable. Purists claim no retouching of any kind is allowed (then they usually reference Ansel Adams, which is quite ironic considering the amount of dodging and burning he brought to the field), while others gladly accept Photoshop as a regular part of their photography tool-belt.

In general though, there’s a viewpoint around the photography community, that too much Photoshop is a bad thing. That it destroys photography as we know it, and those who retouch an absurd amount should be banned or beheaded or at least mildly reprimanded (depending on which Facebook group you happen to be in). But before we all start gathering our pitchforks, can we maybe examine this concept of over-retouching for just a second?

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Let These Mystical Photos Transport You To A Land Full Of Enchanting Fairytales

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A little creativity goes a long way when it comes to photography, and creativity is something that seems to be an endless resource to Ukraine born photographer, Anya Stoyan. Browsing through her portfolio of images, you feel as though you’ve been transposed into all those magical and mythical lands you recall so vividly from your childhood. For Stoyan, who works under the Anita Anti moniker, that’s a major part of what her photography is intended to reveal. Storytelling, of course, comes naturally to the artist, and her command on establishing mood and atmosphere to assist in that becomes more and more evident the further you dig into her collection of portraits. [Read More…]

How ‘Do What You Love’ Can Be A Realistic Career Option

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To quote a recent article I read titled “Do What You Love” Is Horrible Advice: “It’s easy to confuse a hobby or interest for a profound passion that will result in career and business fulfillment. The reality is, that type of preexisting passion is rarely valuable.”

Um…no.

If you haven’t read that article go ahead and take a trip over there when you get a chance…or not, if you’d rather not be fuming the rest of the day. The author is a great writer, with many other fantastic articles, but this one was just so…wildly inaccurate. I tried to just label it as one of those unfortunate things orbiting the internet, but it was just gnawing at me. How many potential artists are out there now, squashing their dreams because they’re reading fear-mongering articles like this on the internet?

Well hopefully not a lot, but still, the thought of some teenage kid selling his guitar because too many people told him music was a “hobby” and not a career choice just kills me. He’s a teenager. Anything is a career choice.

Of course people are all entitled to their own opinions, right?

Exactly, which is why I’m going to spout mine off right now.

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The Ride of your life – Centrifuge Brain Project

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Humans mount themselves on gigantic robots and enjoy to be centrifuged. That‘s what happens in amusement parks. ­Machines with the power of tanks and the voices of demonic entertainers offer 5 minutes of anti gravity therapy. An innocent attempt to escape from reality, driven by 10.000 horse­power.

Based on his childhood fascination for the strange atmosphere of amusement parks Till Nowak created the fictional documentary­ „The Centrifuge Brain Project“. He collected footage and used digital animation to create a series of non-existing thrill rides. It is a film about the search for happyness and our sometimes mislead ways trying to find it.

When I first saw “The centrifuge brain project”, I was kind of confused. Is this real?
Next thing was excitement – and I had to watch it over and over again.

After a few years, now I finally had the chance for a little talk with Till Nowak, the Mastermind behind “The Centrifuge Brain Project“.

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We Got A High End Strobe System For 4 Days – Here Is What We Did With It

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Multiblitz was very kind. They said: “Here is our catalog, choose wisely”.

So we did! We prowled through their catalog and picked a small yet very powerful set of strobes for us to play with for a few days (spec below). It was pretty exiting to choose what to take and set up our wishlist, we had big eyes as the packages arrived a few days later in our studio. It was only then that we realized that we still need to put a model on a crane in a junk yard; Take an amazing beauty shot and test the strobe speed with a pro diver.

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Dear New Photographer…

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I’m writing this post because I was up late last night on a Facebook forum, reading close to 200 comments about new photographers and what slime they are to the industry. How they’re stripping photography of it’s “art” and destroying any decent business practices. I read every comment, feeling more and more sick to my stomach the further I scrolled down the page.

“Who do these people think they are? Don’t they remember when they were new and making all the same mistakes?”

I know this year has probably had it’s ups and downs for you; the excitement of booking your first paid gig, the confusion of all that “must have” photography gear and the hurt and guilt of being single-handedly blamed for “ruining the industry.” I know the phrase “what to charge for engagement photos” is probably one of the first things to come up in your Google search bar, and secretly you’re still wondering why using the eraser tool in photoshop is such a horrible thing.

I also know that you’re afraid to ask for advice at every turn because for every established photographer that is willing to help, you’ve got 30 more breathing down your neck that are doing everything they can to cut you down. I’ve been there too – I’ve had my work ripped apart online by a “reputable” photographer (who went out of business earlier this year), I’ve bought things I didn’t need because some famous photographer endorsed them and I thought it would make a dramatic improvement in my work (it didn’t), and I’ve used the crap out of the eraser tool (layer mask, folks).

So what I wanted to do here is give you a heads-up. A bit of a rant mixed with some advice I wish I had known in the beginning, this is just about everything I wish someone had told me the first day I got that used and slightly beat up (but still very new to me) camera in my hands.

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This Video Sharing What Goes into a Crazy Overhead Shoot Will Make You Smile

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(previously here and here) creates fantasies using an overhead camera and a collection of everyday objects. The resulting photos will either make you laugh, nod in approval or make a little giggle.

While the photos may seem trivial to create, they are in fact pretty demanding, just from the sear scale of each photo. In the video above, guaranteed to make you smile Jan shares shat goes into creating this imagery*. If you like this stuff** check out Jan von Holleben’s wonk on his website.

[Jan goes on holiday | Jan von Holleben]

*hint: lots of towels

** hint: YES

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