One of the things Photoshop sells itself on is automated tools, the tools where it uses AI or an algorithm to do the work for you.
Just like everything in life, these tools are not as easy to use as they would make you think. Every time I use the Quick Selection tool or Refine Edge tool, I still have to do lots of work after to refine.
Mario Olvera is a photographer, digital artist, and friend from Mexico. He creates surreal conceptual composite images and commercial works.
One thing to remember when creating composites is that a couple of extra little details can make a huge difference.
Composiing is all about selling the fake. If you are creating jungle scene, then add some light rays through the leaves or flying insects. If you are at sea, add splashes and wind. It is these little things that help your composites sell the fake.
Ever find yourself needing the inspiration to create an image, but you just can muster up any from anywhere?
If you are like me and you are at the beginning of your transition from stills to video then you will also like me, be eating up as much free education on YouTube as possible. I feel like my every spare second at the moment is spent either watching YouTube videos or groaning at the annoying adverts in between the videos.
When creating composites using various images from multiple photos, each part has its unique color balance. This is where most beginners tend to fail when creating a composite.
At the beginning of the year, I worked on a client job for York Fashion week with local agency NIMA and videographer Beetroot Box. The brief was to create a teaser campaign for the upcoming event.
Being a freelance photographer and digital artist, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not always be able to use my own photography in the images I create for clients.
Cyberpunk is very "in" at the moment. With the impending release of the video game and the rise of Synthwave music, a lot of cyberpunk art is being created.
At the beginning of the year, I was contacted by Synthwave musician Megan McDuffee, who commissioned me to create some cyberpunk composites for her new marketing campaign.
One of the most asked subjects people contact me about is how I color my images. Everyone expects a simple answer that solves everything, but unfortunately, it does not work like that.
If you have worked in this industry for at least a couple of years you will have more than likely come across a whole plethora of interesting and curious characters whilst on shoots or at networking events.
Richard Terborg is a conceptual fashion, portrait and fine-art photographer from Holland. Known for his bold and crazy colors, Richard is just as bold and crazy in real life. In a fun way, not a ruin your life way. Terborg got into photography for documenting purposes.
Sometimes it is good to step away from commercial work for a little while and practice styles or techniques you would not normally use or would like to get better at. The internet is full of sites with free stock for you to dust off your Wacom and get busy.
I am lucky enough to have hosted or been a part of workshops around the world. One thing I teach in my workshops is that photographers should not look at other photography to be inspired.
Dodge and burn are one of my favorite go-to techniques. It can be used in so many different ways by using numerous techniques. You can use dodge and burn to retouch, to globally guide a viewers eye around an image. It is great for adding contrast to specific areas for detail, as well as stylizing your images it gives it that painterly feel. The list goes on and on.
Colin Anderson is a composite photographer from Australia whose work is super stylistic and conceptual. He has worked with many large companies including Adobe, the Discovery Channel, and IBM.
He is also on my list of top composite artists, which is why you should all be happy that we have a full-length tutorial from the master himself on YouTube.
Nemanja Sekulic has amassed a huge following on YouTube with his fantastic photo-manipulations and tutorials. Not only that, each tutorial is expertly put together in commercial looking video. And he gives them away for free. I honestly can not think of many photo-manipulators that offer as much value in their videos.
In this YouTube video, Brendan Van Son discusses with us the feelings and thoughts of what happens when you are working on assignment and your photos suck.
Van Son is a talented travel photographer who creates amazing imagery, but even he sometimes fails to deliver when he shoots on location.
Creating fantasy composites is always fun: you get to invent your very own worlds and characters. Technically, in a composite sense, you can also get away with more unrealistic elements.
In this short video, videographer Max Yuryev puts the Sony a6400 and the Fuji X-T30 to the test to compare and see which one has the best colors straight out of the box.
We are now four parts into the art of composite series, and this week we touch upon style and influence.
So let me start with a bold statement. Adrian Sommeling is probably the most famous composite artist in the world. If you have not seen one of his images before, you are either short-sighted or you live in Scunthorpe. I do not think modern technology has blossomed there yet.
Humans are the greatest adaption machines in the world. We are, by nature, made to adapt.
Anya Anti is an internationally published photo artist from the Ukraine who now lives in the Big Apple. If you have never seen her work, you are missing out on a whole series of quirky, interesting, and fantastical images that stir up emotion and imagination.
For some people, photography is more than just work. They put their blood, sweat, and tears into passion projects for which they get no payment.
Welcome back to The Art of Composite Photography. In the previous parts, we have covered pre-visualization, planning, and unbreakable rules.
Everyone in the industry must know who Pratik Naik is by now. And if you don't, then you should. In ten years Pratik has become one of the most famous retouchers on the planet.
What's up? Glad you could make it for part 2 of my Art of Composite Photography series. Last week we spoke about pre-vis and planning. I hope you found it helpful and most importantly I got my point across that it is not the tools you have that count, it's the vision. This week I will be discussing the three unbreakable rules of composite and why background comes first.
Over the past 7 years since I first bought my camera, I have been lucky enough to meet a fair amount of the people that I looked up to in the industry. Some of them I have become very good friends with. Enter Renee Robyn, ex blue-haired rock chick. The face of an angel, the mouth of a sailor.
Do you have an image that is more popular with people than any of your others? One that stands out head and shoulders above all your work?
For me, it is my Ablutophobia horror image. In this Photoshop walkthrough, you can see behind the scenes of what went into the editing side of this image.
I always say, once you have the core foundations of Photoshop down you are pretty much set. There are plenty of neat tricks to learn, but most of the time the tricks are one-offs. It's the core foundation where you should put your focus and master. So what are the foundational tools? Things like Layers, Layer Masks, Curves, Gradient Map, and Selective Colors.
If you have dipped your feet into the movie poster or book cover industry, like me, you will know that one of the most underrated aspects of the poster and the cover industry is typography. The typography you use can make or break an image.
As you can probably tell by my work I am a huge fan of composite photography. I chose the path of the composite warrior for a couple of reasons in the beginning. One: My ideas were too big for me to afford all the locations, models, props, and costumes. Two: In the beginning, I wasn't the best photographer (shh!).
In this composite walkthrough, I take you through the various processes it took to create this advertising image. Throughout the video, you will hear my thoughts and why I decided on certain aspects.
Last October, I finally made the jump from part-time freelance into the world of being a full-time creative. It has been a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions, but here are the things I have learned so far.
