How to Use Pinterest to Get More Trick Photography Ideas

When you've done all the "standard" trick photo examples you see online and want to create something truly original, where do you turn to? We see a lot of examples of levitation photos, forced perspective, tilt-shift, light paintings, etc. but they usually look the same. Creating an original or unique trick photos require a lot of creativity (and sometimes technical skill), especially if we're aiming for something radically different and impressive. It only takes a brief moment of inspiration to create a spark of creativity that will turn a "standard" trick photo into an amazing piece of work.
I'd like to share with you a neat tip to get some wonderful inspiration and think-outside-the-box ideas for trick photos. More often than not we spend hours online looking at other people's photos to get some ideas and inspiration, looking through websites, photo-sharing sites, or even doing a Google image search. And one of the hottest photo-sharing sites right now is Pinterest.
Pin your interest to your own virtual pin boards
They describe themselves as a virtual pin board. The idea is that you can create boards to organize and share interesting things you see online. You create different boards for different things, so you could create a pin board for things like "pictures of dogs" and another for "pictures of cats" that you see online or that are uploaded by you.
Get lost in the amazing photos that people share
When you upload or see something interesting online, you "pin" it to your pin board. After some time of using it, you'll have a nicely curated gallery of photos that is open for anyone to see. Everyone else is doing the same, so you can discover what other people are sharing. If you like something from other people's board you can "re-pin" it to your own. It is very simple to use and have a nice and clean layout optimized for photos. Because each person is basically sharing, organizing, and tagging their board, it makes it very easy to look for you to search and discover photos that interest you.
Create trick photography and special effects pin boards
Our interest are cool ideas and examples of trick photography, so you can create pin boards dedicated to this. You can upload your own trick photos or whatever you stumbled upon online and pin it to your pin board. Later on when you're scratching your head looking for ideas then your pin board can serve as your inspiration. While you curate your pin boards you can re-pin from other people's pin boards, so it's a great way to collect great ideas and gorgeous photos to learn from them. Each pin on your board can have comments so you'll also start to get comments from other people with the same interest as yours. This is a great way to meet like-minded people and learn from each other!
Follow and learn from other people
In addition to comments, another unique feature of Pinterest is that you can "follow" other people's pin boards, a bit like subscribing to their pin boards. You'll be able see new additions so if you like a particular person's board you can follow them. This is great if you like a particular photographer's work and want to see their latest pictures.
Using Pinterest I've been able to explore and generate great ideas for my own trick photography efforts. You can get lost there for hours just looking at hundreds of amazing pictures taken by other people. The social nature of the site makes it very easy for amazing photographs to spread far and wide. Use it as a gallery of amazing trick photography and special effects ideas.

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I'd like to share with you a neat tip to get some wonderful inspiration and think-outside-the-box ideas for trick photos. More often than not we spend hours online looking at other people's photos to get some ideas and inspiration, looking through websites, photo-sharing sites, or even doing a Google image search. And one of the hottest photo-sharing sites right now is Pinterest. Never revealed photography tips, huge potential in an ever growing digital photography world. 40% commission and very low refunds make this a fantastic marketing potential. Read More

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

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! Become Unique, Creative, And Artistic By Taking Breathtaking Photographs That Blow People's Minds Away! Dozens Of Rare Trick Photography Ideas Are Included In This 295 Page E-book, Along With 9 Hours Of How-to Photography Video Tutorials. Read More

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

Understanding trick photography and special effects is about understanding the limit and potential of your camera in relation to light. If you want to quickly become a great photographer, then consider starting a photographic project to take trick photos and special effects.

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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