Showing posts with label special effects. Show all posts

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Create Fantastic Looking Pictures With Trick Photography And Special Effects

This second edition of Trick Photography and Special Effects by Evan Sharboneau is not only a great introduction to photography but will also take you to the next level as you learn how to create fabulous pictures that will amaze everyone that sees them. This e-book has nearly 300 pages, 9 hours of video tutorials and 300 high quality photographs that are hyper-linked to their original location on the internet. This means you can click on any photo in this e-book and it will direct you to the original photo on the web where you can comment on the photographer's great work and ask them questions if you want to know more about their image.
If you want to learn how to use the top secret photography techniques to create fantastic photographic images then Trick Photography and Special Effects is an exciting publication which guarantees to help any photographer improve their potential to take great pictures using the methods outlined in this downloadable e-book.
You don't have to own expensive equipment to take high quality special effect shots so If you're new to photography and have just bought a regular digital camera try experimenting with some of the techniques in this e-book, you'll be taking better pictures very quickly.
The Trick Photography and Special Effects e-book will reveal the tricks of the trade the professionals won't want you to know.
Here are just a few examples of the things you will come across in this e-book:
1 Learn how to take breathtaking special effects with just your regular camera
2 Setting the Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO and White Balance
3 Improve your "regular" photography skills and to take better photos instantly
4 Long exposure effects including creating star trails
5 Photoshop projects
6 Light drawing with Maglights, Laser Pens, Fibre Optics, Glow Sticks, Sparklers and much more
7 Blending multiple exposures
8 Blurring waterfalls and beach scenes
9 How to take panoramic pictures
10 Taking HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo's
This e-book contains three main sections:
1. Long Exposure Effects and Light Painting.
Starts off going through the basic's like Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO (film speed) and White Balance (lights produce different types of color temperatures), knowing how to get the right settings can be crucial in what your photo looks like. Try changing the White Balance on a few photo's and see the difference it makes!
He then shows you how to use what you've just learnt to produce stunning light painting images with Maglights, LED's, Fibre Optics and Laser Pens. The advantage that Maglights bring is the natural looking white light. The cap can be twisted to adjust the beam into a spotlight or a floodlight.
With each effect Evan goes into great detail showing how you can produce fantastic photographs.
2. Trick Photography and Special Effects.
Once you have got to grips with the basic effects in the previous chapter then the second section moves on to more complex special effects like Forced Perspective, HDR Photography, Panoramas, Infrared Photography and much more.
Taking 360°x180° panoramic photo's is one of the projects covered in great detail. Making a 360°x180° panorama means that you have to shoot pictures for all directions, including sky and ground, in order to be able to reconstruct that sphere he shows you how to use a program called Hugin to stitch the images, and Flexify to manipulate them even further. This technique requires some patience at first but in the end it is definitely worth it. You can then go on to stun your friends, family and clients with your fantastic looking pictures.
3. Photoshop Projects.
If you've never got around to using many of the features in Photoshop then these projects will show you how. Using layer masks is a great project to start with. The mask hides and reveals certain areas of your picture so if you have ever wanted to remove someone from a photo then these projects will show you what to do. Links to video tutorials are also included to help you get a better understanding of them.Some of the other projects include Shadow Illusions, Multiplicity Photography, Levitation Photography, The Invisible Man and Mixing Day with Night.
Becoming a good photographer can be hard work, not only in finding the right shot but getting a particular effect.The Author makes everything easy and enjoyable to follow so you'll be taking great pics in a short space of time.
I recommend it to everyone who wants to learn not just photography but adding that special something to a picture.
For more information on how to buy this e-book and to see some of the stunning pictures you can take then please go to my blog.
© Jonathan W Davies

Landscape Photography Ebook

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Review of a Trick Photography And Special Effects 2nd Edition E-Book

Many people are buying expensive digital cameras nowadays and they would like to make great and beautiful photos that everyone will admire. Unfortunately, most of them remain just average or below average photographers and their photographs suck. Main reason for this lack of quality in their pictures is not the lack of talent but the inadequate training and ignorance.
I was one of those "bad" photographers for a long time too. In fact I improved my skills and knowledge just recently. My friends and family members where amazed and positively surprised when I showed them my recent shots and they wouldn't believe me at first that these shots where made by myself.
The secret behind my recent improvement lays in an e-book called "Trick Photography And Special Effects", written by Evan Sharboneau. This is not just a regular e-book, but a whole course with videos and instructions to guide you, step by step, through the various techniques and tricks of modern photography.
Of course that this is not the only good book about photography out there and I don't claim it's the best. There are many good courses available online and probably in your local area too. It's just my favorite book at the moment, it helped me a lot and that's why I like it so much.
If you are a professional photographer this book might not be for you as you might already be familiar with lot of things in it. But if you are an aspiring amateur photographer or hobbyist like me who just got his first DSLR camera this might be the best purchase you ever made!
The second edition of the "Trick Photography And Special Effects" e-book is divided in three parts and it has nearly 300 pages and 9 hours of video tutorials. It includes more than 300 high quality photographs made by the author himself and by many other, very talented photographers from all over the world. The book is very easy to read and to understand even for a complete beginner.
In the first part of the book you can read abut long exposure effects and about the technique called light painting. It teaches you how to make photos with your DSLR camera in low light situations using various lighting methods and equipment. After this part you will be able to make some really incredible pictures that will astonish everyone who sees them.
In the second part of the book author introduces various trick photography techniques and many special effects. In this part you will also start using Photoshop to manipulate and enhance your photos to add drama to your images and to create surreal situations and settings.
In the third part of the book you can learn much more about Photoshop and how to create some really shocking images. The author of the book is a Photoshop expert and he will show you how to create some awesome effects in a simple and straightforward way.
All things considered, the "Trick Photography And Special Effects" e-book is a great choice for many people looking to learn more about photography and to improve their skills in a fun and interesting way. Some people may not consider techniques used in this book to be standard or traditional, but images created in such way will definitely draw lot of attention and make you a better photographer overall.

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Trick Photography Ideas and Special Effects on Tall Tale Postcards From the Past

Did you know that trick photography and special effects has been around way longer than us? The pioneers made a fortune from their skills at creating trick photos for the masses. This was way back before digital photography and photo editing software, so not everyone have the skills to do it. If you had digital camera and photo editing software back then, you'd be a very rich person!
Introducing the tall tales postcards
Among the earliest examples of trick photography ideas are the "tall tales" postcards that appeared during the American Golden Age of photographic postcards, produced between 1905 and 1915. Photography itself had been around for a full fifty years by the time the tall tales postcards arrived, but for many in the rural populations it was still a novelty. Picture postcards became very popular in the United States by the beginning of the 20th century as it became a quick and convenient way to communicate with people over long distances. In fact, for some it was the only way to communicate.
Food and agricultural abundance
Picture postcards from oversea or cross-border relatives offered a glimpse of the outside world for those unable to travel, so it was the next best thing for actual travel. Creative photographers manipulated and modified the photos, sometimes to exaggerated proportions, and it became known as tall-tale postcards. Initially a humorous novelty, people eventually realized that these postcards can be used to create a desired "image" or perception about a town or region.
Old trick photo ideas
Food were a recurring theme, so the tall tale postcards had super-sized potatoes, fruits, and animals hauled in by the local farmers. This is supposed to give people the idea that these rural communities had agricultural abundance, thus encouraging people to move and settle. The exaggeration was so extreme that it looks almost surreal as you look at the weathered black and white post cards depicting people catching ducks the size of cars. Unfortunately the reality was far from what the trick photo postcards portray. These days you can't go to a popular tourist destination without seeing flattering postcards for sale that you can mail home. In a way you're actually paying to advertise for them!
William H. Martin - a successful and rich trick photographer
It is around this time that one of pioneers of trick photography and special effects in postcards was William H. "Dad" Martin. He had a studio in Ottawa, Kansas and came upon the idea of using photo tricks to create exaggerated post cards for sale. His post cards were of quality that it was difficult to detect traces of manipulation or how it was joined together from various photos. The meticulous attention to detail and the creativity of his post cards became a huge success.
His post cards were so popular that he sold his studio to concentrate on the post cards. By May of 1909, the Martin Post Card Company reportedly churned out some ten thousand cards a day. A year later a newspaper reported the company was producing seven million post cards a year. In three short years his trick photo ideas made him a very rich person. So rich in fact that he sold off the business in 1912 and founded another company.
It is almost surreal to realize that trick photography and special effects existed more than a hundred years ago. If you ignore the black and white weathered look and early agricultural themes, these trick photos don't look out of place besides a collection of modern trick photos done using Photoshop software. Shows you just how far we've come!

How to Do Trick Photography And Special Effects

Saturday, January 26, 2013

How Trick Photography and Special Effects Can Make You a Better Photographer

Think about how most people try to become good at photography. They take their camera, go out, and snap away. Nothing wrong with this, but if you have a clear goal to master a specific technique then the learning process is focused and therefore accelerated. The bonus is that you will specialize and get beautiful and interesting photos along the way.

Understanding light

You'll find that understanding light is probably the most difficult aspect of photography. It is also the most important. You can't have a photograph without light, so you need to understand how light behaves under different shooting conditions. Great photographers pay great attention to the study of light so that they can recognize and create a particular mood or effects with light. Not all light are the same, as they can be harsh, soft, warm, or cooling. The direction of light can be as important as the quality of light. You can use different illumination such as direct, backlit, or side-lit to extract different texture, shadow, and details from your subject.

Light paintings or drawings are among some of the trick photography techniques that is done using long exposure photography. The results are often spectacular but deceptively simple. It is simple to start, but can take a long time to master. Light paintings or drawings are created by taking a long exposure photo and manipulating the light source to create an effect. The more common examples are of people drawing their name using a flashlight with a photo taken at night. The more creative you get with this simple idea, the more interesting pictures you'll get. So when you start taking trick photos like these and experiment, you'll gain a greater understanding of light.

Understanding your camera

The other side of it is to understand how to capture light. All digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) has a shutter between the camera's lens and sensor. Pressing the button on your camera to take a picture opens the shutter for a duration of time, and then shuts it back up. This basically controls how long you let light flood the sensor so you can freeze a moment in time.

Aperture controls how wide the hole in your camera lens are. The bigger the opening or diameter, the more light hits the sensor. With aperture you control how much light to let in to the camera sensor, but also the depth of field. You also control how sensitive the sensor is to the incoming light by setting the ISO. The higher it is, the less light is needed to capture a scene with the risk of introducing noise to the picture.

A good way to master your camera is to learn to take levitation photos. These trick photos usually depict people floating or flying without any means of support or digital manipulation, so the action is captured in the camera as-is. The secret to creating these pictures is to simply jump and freeze the action with your camera. Again, a technique that is very simple to use but takes time to master.

The main element in freezing time with your camera is the shutter speed, but other settings like aperture and ISO matters. A fast shutter speed freezes a moving object, but requires more light. You'll need to balance and adjust these elements to ensure that you can freeze an object without blurring it, otherwise it ruins the illusion. Doing this exercise pretty much forces you to understand and experiment with your camera till you get it right. Along the way, you'll have greater understanding of how to make the most of your camera.

Start taking trick photos and grow fast

You can speed up photographic learning process by just applying these two trick photography techniques. When you have mastered them, you'll have understood more about the relationship between light and camera than most photographers!

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Improve Your Stock Photography With Trick Photography and Special Effects Techniques

The bar for entry into the stock photography business continues to be lowered as more people get access to affordable digital cameras that are loaded with technology. People are now able to take high quality photos using their ordinary digital cameras that they can sell on multiple dedicated stock photography websites.

If you're not familiar with it, stock photography is used when the owner of a website, newspaper, or magazine wants to use a certain image or picture but decided not to hire a photographer to take the photo. They would go to stock photography websites and pay several dollars each for the pictures that they want, along with the proper license so that there will be no infringement of copyright. It is truly a business where anyone with a camera can get started.

Standing out from the crowd

However, many people who get into the stock photography business discover that it is not as straight forward as it might appear. One major reason is that your photos need to stand out against the sea of photos submitted by countless other photographers, who might be amateurs or professionals. If you want to succeed, then you need to make sure that you are able to stand out from the crowd. Stock photography usually have to convey a very specific message so what better way than to use special effects and camera tricks to create the exact message that buyers are looking for. When you combine stock photography with trick photography and special effects, you'll have a better chance at getting more sales with your photos.

How do you leverage on trick photography and special effects for stock photos?

The key about using tricks and special effects is that they grab people's attention. A funny, disturbing, surreal, or plain weird photo can sustain people's attention long enough to deliver a message. If you think about it, buyers typically browse through a lot of photos on a stock photography site so you'll need to catch their attention at the first glance. Experiment with different techniques from different angles to create unique photos. By trying out different techniques, you'll discover which you will enjoy using and which that are unsuitable for your style.

Trick photography and special effects adds so much more to your pictures than you might expect. All you need is to be open to try these techniques and let your imagination flow. Stock photography success stories are often reserved for those who are constantly learning and trying different techniques to see what works best for them.

Photography Posing Secrets