Can We Change our Behavior to Make Us Happier?

This is a fun and creative title sequence for “The Happy Film” (scheduled to be released in 2012). It was directed by reknown designers Stefan Sagmeister and Hillman Curtis, produced by Ben Nabors, and cinematography by Ben Wolf.

Notes about the movie (from official website):

The Happy Film takes a look at the strategies serious psychologists ‘recommend to improve one’s personal well-being and overall happiness. Questions such as ‘Is it possible to train our mind in the same way’ that we train our bodies?’ and ‘Can we change our behavior to make’us happier?’ will be put to the test in this highly visual documentary.

Designer Stefan Sagmeister will attempt a long list of various strategies – ‘from the sublime to the ridiculous – and report back on the results. ‘The documentary’s experiments and explorations are loosely based on Stefan’s book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far. Though the focus will be on the ability of meditation, cognitive therapy, and pharmaceuticals to significantly alter well-being – the maxims from his book will ‘serve as access points to a larger exploration of happiness, it’s cultural’ significance, our constant pursuit of it, and its uniquely ephemeral nature. Throughout these experiments, our team will work closely with a group’ of health professionals to properly define and assess Stefan’s happiness.

Links via: Film stills © The Happy Film Link via Boooooom  &  

Illusion.com

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Augmented Reality Cinema App Brings Movies to Real Life

via (Gajitz)

True movie lovers know that there aren’t many things more thrilling than visiting the very locations where your favorite movies were shot. Call it cinematic tourism or just giving your movie experiences a brand new layer; either way, it can be a fun and interesting way to enhance both your movie experiences and your vacation. A new smartphone app called AR Cinema will use the power of GPS along with augmented reality to actually bring you into your favorite films.

Visit a street corner or landmark where a movie was filmed, hold up your smartphone and the app will show you the scene(s) shot there. The demo video shows films set in London, but the developers want to add additional cities. Of course, the people who live in those cities might not be thrilled with the cinema tourists holding up their phones in the middle of the street to watch movie clips, but this awesome idea could add a whole new layer to the tourism trade in cities like London, New York, Toronto and other frequently-used shooting locations.

via read more here: http://gajitz.com/augmented-reality-cinema-app-brings-movies-to-real-life/

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30 Outstanding Tutorials for Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

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Designers love to be able to use Photoshop to create interesting and amazing things. Photo manipulation allows you to use your creativity and put it to use with Photoshop. There are lots of great tutorials available online that take you through the process of creating a specific photo manipulation. In this post we’ll showcase 30 tutorials that are great for learning more about photo manipulation. You may also be interested in an our older (from 2009) collection of photo manipulation tutorials.

Photo Manipulate a Falling Angel

  

Create a Superhero Movie Inspired Photo Manipulation

  

Don’t Leave Me

Blend a Planet Transparently into a Photo Manipulation

  

Roses Bouquet Splash Effect

  

For many many More tutorials: Go Here

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Minimalism: Using Negative Space In Your Photographs

Sometimes it’s nice and refreshing to just strip a photo or scene down to it’s absolute bare essentials. Often times, I get too caught up in trying to fill every part of the frame with something interesting. The problem is, sometimes when we try to fill up the entire frame with objects, lines, people, shapes, etc, we actually overcomplicate things and leave the viewer wanting a place to rest their eyes.

The trick/secret is this: Negative space can be just as interesting in a photograph as anything else, if done right.

I encourage you to consider this the next time you go out shooting. Incorporating negative space into your images can be very rewarding, and at the same time quite challenging. Sometimes situations will present themselves where it’s clear. Other times you will have to get creative with a subject to find the proper framing to create this type of image. Here are a few examples of negative space and minimalism to get your creative juices flowing…

Image by Brian Matiash

 

In the above image, Brian Matiash actually set out to create a series of minimalistic, black and white images around Staten Island. This is just one image from that series. This is also a great example of successfully breaking the “rule” of photography about not placing your horizons in the center. Sometimes the composition of the image and the leading lines within the frame demand it. I believe that if Brian had composed the scene with less sky and more water, the reflections of the old pier would be complete in the scene, and he would lose that anchor to the bottom of the frame. On the flip side, if he had composed with more sky and less water, the image would lose interest by cutting out key parts of the reflection.

Image by Mike Olbinski

 

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/minimalism-using-negative-space-in-your-photographs#ixzz1FaGS2zUF

by James Brandon

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Free Slideshow Plugins For WordPress – Best of

via Hongkiat:

 

Slideshow is a brilliant method to stack and present series of items (such as images) in your website especially when space is a constraint. It is also commonly used by webmasters and bloggers to showcase portfolios, artwork, products, latest posts, etc. It saves time and efficiently draw visitors’ attention. In WordPress, installing and adding slideshow to posts can be done in a breeze, thanks to developers among the WordPress community. We’ve ran through all WordPress slideshow plug-ins we can possibly find and compiled this list of best and free WordPress slideshow plug-ins. We hope it will come in handy for you whenever you feels like putting up one. Full list after jump!

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/page-flip-image-gallery/

Image gallery with page flip effect.
http://pageflipgallery.com/online-demo/ |http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/page-flip-image-gallery.0.5.12.5.zip

Featured Content Gallery

Creates an automated rotating image gallery of your posts or pages for use anywhere within your theme.
Demo | Download

kPicasa Gallery

Displays your Picasa Web Galleries in a post or in a page simply by creating a post or a page with a special keyword.
Demo | Download

Lightbox Gallery

Turns all gallery photos into lightbox view.
Demo | Download

Grand Flash Album Gallery

Full integrated (flash skin based, slideshow) Image Gallery plugin with a powerfull admin back end.
Demo | Download

For many more demo-galleries go over here: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/free-wordpress-slideshow-gallery-plugin/

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Klipp Future Camera by Mac Funamizu

Mac Funamizu is back with a new concept.

 

Highly inspired by the WVIL concept camera demonstrated is CES 2011, Mac conceived of a similar device that looks smaller and thinner. Klipp, the future camera concept by Mac Funamizu is totally idyllic. The idea is pretty clear. The lens has a clip behind it so that you can place it over various places. The lens system is literally self-contained with all the necessary things required to take SLR high-quality photos. Regardless of where you clip it, the lens system sends the pictures to a hub device – a transparent screen, wirelessly.

Designer : Mac Funamizu

via: http://www.tuvie.com/klipp-future-camera-by-mac-funamizu/

Great Stop-Motion Video

The animation is made from coins : painstakingly made frame-by-frame by Daniel Larsson and Tomas Redigh.

Film stills © Daniel Larsson and Tomas Redigh
Link via: http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/world%E2%80%99s-most-kick-ass-insert-coin-animation-with-real-coins/

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Examples of Stunning and Beautiful Night Photography

Image via Wikipedia

Night photography refers to photographs taken outdoors between dusk and dawn. Night photographers generally have a choice between using artificial light and using a long exposure, exposing the scene for seconds or even minutes, in order to give the film enough time to capture a usable image, and to compensate for reciprocity failure. With the progress of high-speed films, higher-sensitivity digital image sensors, wide-aperture lenses, and the ever-greater power of urban lights, night photography is increasingly possible using available light.

Night Photography often got its own attraction and capturing a good night photography requires your skills and a camera that is capable of doing good night photography. You may need a camera which able to keep its shuttle open for a longer time. In this article I am going to present to you 50 awesome and stunning examples of night photography that will truly inspire you. (via tripwiremagazine)

 

Victor Shilo

crystalbeta

Eiffel Tower at night

Singapore

Oliver Wu

Kevin McNeal

Boracay Fire Dance, Philippines

Toby Keller

For many more examples head over here: http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/01/50-examples-of-stunning-and-beautiful-night-photography.html

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Passionate & Inspiring Photographs From Artist: Elizaveta Porodina

 “”Inspiration is energy that never ceases to stun me , to amaze me, to make me move on in the right direction, this “Woah,i can’t believe someone has created something so great and powerful – I want to achieve this, too!” –feeling.””

She is young, she is passionate about her work- and you can just tell by looking at her Photographs that she has the Art X-Factor …..and it is exactly that what i am looking for in artists who i like to know more about.

Eliza, or Elizaveta Porodina to be exact, is a Photographic Artist who i happened to ‘meet’  :)…I saw her work and was immediately touched by her way of translating her passion into Photographs so refined that i had to find out more about her and her background and her mindset….usually she works with  Fashion-designers or  Musicians who contact her about their project and if it is something she can identify with a collaboration comes into existance.  (Contact-Info for Eliza can be found under this article)

So here: do read -and enjoy this quite in depth and open-interview with Eliza.

 

 

 

1. Please tell us a few words about yourself.

Well, my name is Elizaveta , but my friends call me Eliza. I am 23 years old, I live in Munich, though my hometown is Moscow. I came from Moscow to Germany when I was 13 years old – which definitely has formed me as a person.

I am also  a fashion and people photographer and a student of psychology in Munich. I am passionately in love with movies, fine art and  experimental music (and talking about these). I like cats, dark chololate with coffee in the morning, the night life (and I don’t mean clubbing, just how the city looks and feels at night), winter and snow and all kind of celebrations which demand disguise.  

 

2. How would you name your photography style?

I guess it is a mix of art photography, fashion photography and sometimes surrealism or even comic art. I really don’t know.I guess this is a question that should be answered by someone who has a lot of experience and knowledge about different styles.

 

3. What is the oddest-nicest- and most hideous description of your work you’ve ever  heard?

 The oddest one came from a boy who said that my photographs calm his cat. (Which is not really a description, but is definitely odd enough).

 The nicest was the one that came from a photographer from Rome  – he wrote a very long critique about a serie of mine  in Italian (a language i don’t speak, unfortunately) – it sounded so beautifully  in the original language that after all, I did not really want to translate it.

Seriously- I guess I like when people say that they are touched by my photography, that a picture influences their emotions somehow.  

The most hideous – hmm, that’s hard because I tend to forget bad critiques. J There was a guy in a russian forum about photography who commented on the gold project in a very dirty, sexual way – it did not only offend my idea, but also my friends who were models for the project.

 

4. What are your most favourite works of yourself,  and why?

 I like the King Volcano and the Prayers for Rain series very much;

 

 

      

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayers for Rain

 I guess I see some weird ambivalent emotions in the facial and body expressions that make me truly believe in the existence of the stardust civilization I’ve created in the GOLD PROJECT.

 

 

 

 

 5. What does inspiration mean to you? And where do you get it from?

 Inspiration is everything. Inspiration is energy that never ceases to stun me , to amaze me, to make me move on in the right direction, this “Woah,i can’t believe someone has created something so great and powerful – I want to achieve this, too!” –feeling.

I get my inspiration from everything and everyone,but mostly from people. I walk through the streets with a manic “Is this place a possible location? Is this girl a good model” way of looking at things. I try to think in many different directions , get to know different ways of producing art. I watch a lot of movies, I analyze pctures, I read books, I talk to people about my ideas.

 

6. Who are your influences?  What Artists inspire you? Can you show example of…?

Modigliani:

 

 

 

Alberto Giacometti:

Avedon:

 

The Cure &  David Bowie

 

 

 

 

7. Are there any Art-Photography-styles you would like to try where you have not yet tried?

Of course – for example, architecture of landscape photography is something I’m just nor really interested in. (yet).

 

8. Do you have any tips for other Artists and Photographers in general or specifically?

Trial and error, practice, practice, practice. Trying to become a more open person. Being open for everything, every kind of contact, every kind of idea, posing. Don’t call anything crazy – it could make a good photo. 🙂

 

9. Is there one Photograph which holds a very special memory for you, could you show and tell why?

There is a picture I made of a friend of mine. She is an actress and definitely the bravest person nI have ever met. Some people would probably call her completely nuts, but that’s what I love her for. J One day we decided to take some pictures spontaneously on the roof of the house she lives in. When we started, I recognized that I did not really like the landscape – it was too “normal”, too boring somehow. That was the moment when Simone said “would it help if I climbed on the chimney and posed there?” It was a stunning, but also an extremely dangerous idea as the roof (or the chimney) were absolutely NOT safe. There she was, standing on the small narrow chimney, throwing herself in amazing poses- a demonstration of the total lack of fear. It is definitely one of the most beautiful memories I hold from a shooting.

 

Eliza, I want to thank you veryvery much for sharing your inspiring insight into your live and fcourse for the interview…I am sure you’ll continue with succes and passion and i wish you all the Inspiration in the world 🙂

XO  Hester

Oh, and here are some more photo’s of Eliza which i find personally very Arty:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact info:

lisa.porodina@gmail.com

Websites etc :

www.flickr.com/photos/elizavetap

http://designerscouch.org/in/Elizaveta/

http://www.facebook.com/#!/elizaveta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Setting Up Your Digital Camera For HDR Shooting

(via link)

Introduction

You’ve probably heard of High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography, it’s made quite an entrance into the world of digital photography.

If you haven’t, the HDR process is accomplished by taking multiple exposures of a high contrast scene (usually a landscape or cityscape), at different levels of brightness, and then combining the best light from each exposure into one image.

The end result is a stunning image that very closely resembles how the human eye views a scene. This process of digital manipulation has caused a bit of controversy and debate in the world of photography, especially with images that are “over-cooked.” One thing is for sure though, HDR is here to stay. When done right, this unique and in depth processing technique can produce beautiful works of art that mimic the way we view and remember a landscape or scene.

The above image is an example of what HDR processing can produce. This image, taken from the Big Island of Hawaii, would not be possible without HDR processing. It was taken around noon, the harshest light of the day. The first image is the best image my camera could produce given the situation. While still beautiful, there are obvious problems. Get ready, this article is going to show you how to take your digital camera and turn it into an HDR shooting machine!

Step 1: Locate Your Camera Manual

 

I know, we all hate manuals. But if you want to become the best photographer you can be, you need to become best friends with your cameras manual. Spend time with it, take it with you on trips, read it in the airplane, memorize every setting on your camera so you know it inside and out, make your significant other jealous of it. And for this lesson, have it handy as a decoder in case you have a different camera model. If you don’t have your manual, simply do a Google search for: (your camera model) manual. You should be able to easily find a pdf version to download.

Step 2: Discover Auto Exposure Bracketing

 

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) is the main component in creating an HDR image. Bracketing is the term used to describe taking multiple exposures of a scene, the key element to capturing all of that wonderful light in a scene.
Why is this necessary? Well, take for example your typical post card from Hawaii, with a silhouetted palm tree hanging in from the side of the frame, and a beautiful sunrise as a backdrop. While beautiful, the silhouette is actually caused by the failure of the camera to produce the full dynamic range of light in that scene. The sunrise is simply too bright and there is too much of a contrast between the sky and tree. Therefore, the tree is reduced to pure black.

Your cameras AEB setting will take an exposure for the sky in the background, an average exposure of the entire scene, and finally an exposure for the palm tree in the foreground. Or in technical terms, a bracketed sequence of exposures listed like this: -2, 0, +2. This sequence simply means one exposure that is two stops of light underexposed, a proper exposure according to the cameras light meter, and one exposure that is two stops over exposed. Depending on your camera model, you may only be able to do 3 exposures in AEB at the most. Others will allow 5, 7, 9 and up. The more exposures you can get, the better, because the potential for capturing all the light in the scene increases. A bracketed sequence of 7 exposures would look like this: -3,-2,-1,0,+1,+2,+3.

Go into your cameras menu settings and find the option for AEB. On a Canon 5D Mark II for example, AEB is located under the second menu screen, and is labeled “Expo.comp./AEB.” To change from one exposure to three, highlight the menu setting, click the SET button, then turn the dial on top of the camera to the right.

 

Step 3: Set Your Camera to Av Mode and Determine an Aperture

 

Aperture Value (Av) Mode is really the only setting that will work for HDR shooting. This setting lets you determine the aperture of the exposure, and the camera determines the shutter speed. When shooting multiple exposures, you have to consider what needs to stay the same during the brackets.

If you set the camera to Time Value, the camera will make sure the shutter speed stays the same through all the exposures. Therefore, in order to create dark to light images, the camera will adjust the aperture, and that is no bueno. The aperture controls depth of field, or how much of your scene will be in focus. If that value is different in every frame, combining them later just won’t work.

The manual setting won’t work either, as the camera will still possibly change the aperture through the bracketed sequence. Set your camera to Av Mode and forget the others.

Once you are in Av mode, it’s now time to determine what aperture you want to shoot at. Again, aperture controls depth of field. So for a landscape, you will most likely want the entire image to be in focus, with no blur in the background. When determining your aperture, remember this: The higher the aperture, the greater the depth of field. Want to know a little trick you can use to determine aperture (although it isn’t 100% accurate)? Imagine you have 20 people in a line, and the line is going away from your camera.

The people are staggered so that you can see each of them, but each person is further and further away. If you want just the first person in the line to be in focus and all the rest to be blury, set your aperture to 1. If you want the first 10 people in focus, set your aperture to 10. If you want all 20 people in focus, set your aperture to 20. Pretty simple concept right? With that said, just about any aperture value above 11 will have your entire frame in focus (most of the time). Start at f/11, and experiment your way up and down from there.
 

 

Step 4: Determine Your Metering Mode  

Metering is one of the more complicated settings on your camera, and one that I get a lot of questions on from new photographers. In a nutshell, your metering mode is simply how your camera samples light to determine the proper exposure for the image. The camera has to see the scene before it, analyze the light in the scene, and determine what your camera settings should be.

If you are new to photography, you should know that in most cases, Evaluative Metering will work just fine. But don’t take that bit of knowledge and forget about metering. There is also partial, spot, and center weighted metering. Each of which have their time and place where using them will drastically improve your image. Make sure you take the time to understand each setting, but for now, set your metering to Evaluative.

 

 

Step 5: Set your white balance

 

  

Again, this is a topic that confuses some people. It’s also a topic that some photographers get lazy with. White balance is incredibly important to your images color balance. If your white balance is off, your entire image will be off. Auto White Balance (just like Evaluative Metering) will work most of the time. Cameras are smarter and smarter these days, and the automatic settings work more often than not. But just like the metering modes, you need to know the different white balance settings.

If your camera fails to capture the colors in the scene like you see them, it’s time to change the setting. The quickest and easiest way to correct white balance is using Custom White Balance. Simply find something in the scene that is pure white (a white wall, a piece of paper, a white shirt, etc) and take a close up picture of it so that the color white completely fills the frame.

On a Canon 5D Mark II, go to your menu, scroll to the second list of settings, select Custom WB, and follow the prompts to select the last image taken on the card. Your camera will then take that image and use it to create a color balance where that image is pure white. Your next picture of that object should look as white as snow. Remember, white is your foundation in color balance. Get white set, and the other colors will fall into place.

 

 

FOR STEPS :6 to 11   Head over: HERE

 

 

 

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