This video tutorial, courtesy of Jeff Farmer of XNCreative.com, is a testament to what someone can do with just four still images, Photoshop, Motion, and a whole lot of creativity. The images were shot using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i, and all of the editing and effects work was done in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended and Apple Motion. Although Jeff makes it seem very easy, words like “meticulously” clue you in to the amount of time this must have taken to make.
Be sure to stick around till the end when Jeff shows you how to turn the whole thing “otherwordly,” putting a sci-fi spin on the fly-thru.
Here’s a cool little product worth mentioning that could save you time, headaches, and a few electrical shocks. The Quirky Pivot Power surge protector is a power strip with a twist — or as many twists as you want. Unlike normal power strips, this surge protector is flexible, allowing you to twist and bend it into whatever shape fits your work space and all of the DSLR battery chargers you have lying around. The $30 price tag definitely makes it more expensive than it’s straight edged brethren, but the convenience may just be worth it.
After the death of Osama bin Laden and the subsequent dumping of his body into the sea, a number of groups have called for the release of photographs captured during and after the raid — particularly the images showing his corpse. A year ago we reported that the Associated Press had taken legal action to obtain the images. Yesterday federal judge James Boasberg put an end to all the requests by ruling that there were legitimate national security interests at stake and that the photos would not be released. He writes,
A picture may be worth a thousand words. And perhaps moving pictures bear an even higher value. Yet, in this case, verbal descriptions of the death and burial of Osama bin Laden will have to suffice, for this court will not order the release of anything more.
They say that when it rains it pours, and nowhere is that more evident than with the troubled, once-great photography company Kodak. After filing for bankruptcy, narrowing its focus to printers, and selling the Kodak Gallery for pennys on the dollar, we sort of hoped the company would start to see some rays of sunshine break through their perpetual cloud cover. Unfortunately, their quarter’s earnings report is anything but sunny. Read more…
The portrait serves a testament to the subjects’ prosperity and personal relations, and yet, despite the time and care people take when having their pictures taken at commercial studios, the resulting photographs are rarely considered aesthetic objects. They are documentation. Herting’s work questions what, exactly, we are documenting in this benign, constructed way.
The studio-portrait experience has a structured set of parameters that form a stylistic equation. When participating in this process we become blind to its constructs. Artists disrupt and violate codes and, in doing so, bring them to our attention. Herting breaks the rules of the studio portrait, and the resulting photographs no longer fulfill their role as social symbols. Images programmed to be evidence of happiness or prosperity become painful, ugly or embarrasing, possibly revealing something unseen before.
If you can wrap your mind around this, please leave a comment with your translation or interpretation.
If you or someone you know really loves their Instagram photo collection, check out Printstagram’s Mini Stickers: they’re a great, cheap gift idea that’s sure to make you/them smile. The whole point of Instagram is sharing your cool creations, so why not stick them to every surface imaginable? And at $10 per book of 252 stickers, you really can afford to stick them to everything.
Photographer Randy Scott Slavin creates spherical panoramic photographs of various cityscapes and landscapes. He makes the surreal images by shooting hundreds of photographs of a scene and then stitching them together into a stereographic projection. He calls the work Alternate Perspectives. Slavin writes,
The photographing of the images is the actually least time consuming part of the process. What takes the longest is finding the places that are worthy of shooting and getting to the spot that’s best to shoot them from. You can’t light landscapes so it’s important to figure out what the best time of day is to take a photograph. Sometimes this means long hours of waiting and watching.
Sony is due to announce a new addition to its NEX cameral line, and it looks like the first picture of that new addition has just hit the rumor mill. Sony Alpha Rumors is reporting that the NEX-F3, which will replace the NEX-C3, will be officially announced sometime next month. Read more…
Here’s a clever advertisement idea done by Brazilian ad agency Y&R Sao Paulo and photographer Lúcio Cunha. They took the iconic posters of famous movies (Kill Bill, Forrest Gump, and Pretty Women) and created photos showing what they would look like if viewed from behind. Read more…
You wouldn’t think the world of instant film could learn much from the world of beer — and on most counts you’d be right — but in this particular case, a little bit of Coors inspiration may have played a role in The Impossible Projects new line of COOL Polaroid films. The specialty instant film, part of The Impossible Project’s Spring 2012 line, are kept in a temperature-sensitive package. In order to maintain its shelf life, the packaging will warn you when you’re storing it in too warm an environment by displaying the message “Keep Me Cool.” Read more…
