glossyart.net - Blog

Michael Braun featured on Photokore

2011-09-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to announce that our own photographer Michael Braun is this month's featured artist on Photokore, Asia's new stock image site. Check out the interview with him here.

Search Visually Similar Images Using Google

2011-07-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

Using Google image search you can now use any image on your hard disk or on the web to start a search for visually similar images. This is particularly useful if you want to track down art thieves. Here's how to:

What's different to TinEye is the higher amount of results and your results can include non-image results like webpages that seem relevant to the image that you searched for. The elements of your results page will change depending on your search and on the information that's most relevant to that search.

There are four ways to search by image:

1. Drag and drop

Drag and drop an image from the web or your computer into the search box on images.google.com.

2. Upload an image

On images.google.com, click the camera icon, then select “Upload an image.” Select the image you want to use to start your search.

3. Copy and paste the URL for an image

Found an image on the web you’re curious about? Right-click the image to copy the URL. On images.google.com, click the camera icon, and “Paste image URL”.

4. Right-click an image on the web

To search by image even faster, download the Chrome extension or the Firefox extension. With the extension installed, simply right-click an image on the web to search Google with that image.

Read more about it on the Google help page

MYHABIT: 60% Off Hand-picked Styles Fom Designer & Boutique Brands

2011-06-23T03:16:00.000-07:00

Happy summer! We're excited to announce MYHABIT, Amazon's new private fashion sale site offering up to 60% off hand-picked styles from designer & boutique brands, featuring apparel, shoes, jewelry and accessories. New sale events start every day and typically run for 72 hours; product inventory is limited and is available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Customers who sign up to the site to become members will discover products and be able to make purchases. Signing up is free and easy, and it is possible to use your Amazon.com credentials to sign in.

MYHABIT also features fast, free shipping and free returns shipping in the US, 360-degree video of the clothing on live models, and hundreds of popular and designer brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, TUMI, Rebecca Minkoff, Juicy Couture.

Special Launch Promotion

$10 off Promotion Code: Through September 1, customers can save $10 on their order by entering the code MYHABITX at checkout*. Don't let this offer fly by!

360 Degrees

2011-06-23T03:02:00.000-07:00

Wenn Sie für Ihre Räumlichkeiten einen besonderen Auftritt im Internet wünschen, können wir Ihnen spektakuläre 360-Grad-Ansichten erstellen, die sich schnell und einfach per Java oder Flash in Ihre Webseite integrieren lassen. Diese Panoramen lassen sich im Vollbildmodus betrachten, sodass der Eindruck entsteht, man befinde sich direkt in der Mitte des Raumes.

If you want to present your interior in a spectacular way, we can create stunning 360-degree panoramas, which you can quickly and easily integrate in your website using Java or Flash. Check out the full-screen view, which virtually puts you in the middle of the room!

Photo Shoot with Anna Muzzy

2011-06-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

In this video you can follow the post-production process of a photo of the series above:

Photo Shoot with Kitty::Christine

2011-06-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

SIGMA Synthetic Face Kit & MAC Eyelashes Giveaway

2011-06-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

We've started another awesome giveaway on our Facebook page. This time you can win a SIGMA Synthetic Face Kit and MAC fake eyelashes. Check it out on Facebook!

Photography Tips: Make Every Wedding Look like a Royal One

2011-05-08T01:46:00.000-07:00

With William and Kate's wedding dominating the news for the last couple of weeks, it's now time to get back to normal. After all, they are not the only couple getting married. In fact, if you have a fancy camera, chances are that one day your best friend will ask you to become their wedding photographer (happened to me just now).

Now, you might want to know that wedding photography is one of the most difficult fields because you only have one shot (figuratively).

A wedding can't be repeated just because you ran out of memory cards, the batteries for your flash died, or you forgot to photograph the groom because you were too busy stalking the bride in her private dressing room.

Moreover, it doesn't matter if you work for free or not. The wedding has been planned months if not years in advance, so everything has to be perfect. So, the couple, (and especially the bride) expect nothing less than superb results.

Your life is constantly on the line if you don't deliver--the term 'bridezilla' was coined for a reason. Therefore, consider this tutorial as an attempt to save your life (and a guide to make the photos of any couple look royal).

1. Focus on the bride. Always.

The bride is the most important person at a wedding. Therefore, be with her before, during and after the ceremony. Never look away from her--especially if you want to sell your photos afterwards because the bride (directly or indirectly) generates the most income for you.

2. Manage your shooting time efficiently: Start with everyone and release people gradually.

If you take formal photos after the wedding ceremony, gather everyone you want to shoot around you. Otherwise you might have to wait for some people for a very long time because people tend to disperse after the ceremony. Start your formal photo session with the groom and bride (they might get stressed if they are the last couple to shoot and it takes too long; after all, they have a wedding reception to attend and have a lot of hands to shake). Then, move on to large groups and finish with small groups. Shoot groups with older folks first and release guests as you finish shooting.

Tip for large groups: Make sure you choose an aperture that puts everyone in focus, e.g. f/11 and smaller. Minimize accidents by focusing on the first row of people. If the first row is blurry, the whole photo is ruined.

3. The perfect light for the bride

Use available light as much as possible. For example, a nice portrait of the bride with her father before the ceremony, use a window where the sun doesn't shine through directly and place the bride about 1,5 to 2,5 meters away from the window to soften the light on her skin and dress. In this lighting condition it's really hard not to take a good photo.

Posing tips:

- For more intimate portraits (e.g. bride and father), make sure that the heads are close together.

- Tell the bride in formal portraits to slightly raise the shoulder facing the light source to create a diagonal line. Moreover, the bride should put her feet in a V-position.

4. Photographing movement, e.g. dances

Use a slow shutter speed and pan the camera along the dancing people to create a movement effect. Should you have forgotten this during the wedding, you can still add this effect in Photoshop: Filter > Blur > Motion Blur (use the eraser tool on people you want to appear sharp, e.g. the bride in the middle of a headbanging crowd).

5. Photographing details

A photojournalistic style is en vogue. You basically tell a story by creating a collage of different shots, and photographing details--especially behind the scenes and before the actual ceremony--is an essential part. Here's a list of things you should have on your list (you can use them as a background for the album as well):

The bride's shoes
The wedding gown on a hanger
The jewelry
The wedding invitation
The song book used during the ceremony
The guest book (with a few entries)
Glasses with sparkling wine
Name cards on the tables
The wedding rings (maybe on the wedding invitation with a couple of rose petals)
The flight tickets for the honeymoon
The CD for the first dance
The groom's flowers
The bridal bouquet
Details of the wedding gown

6. Make a list of things and events you have to photograph

Preparing a list of events and things you and your clients want to have taken a picture of is essential because a wedding is quite stressful for a photographer. Without that list you can be sure you forgot photos that the clients wanted badly.

7. Using the flash at church

Use the slow-sync function of your flash to freeze movement while making the background appear in natural light. If you want to do this manually, use a large aperture (5.6, 3.5, or even 2.8), set the shutter speed at 1/60s and use ISO 800. Now take a test shot. If the background is too dark, reduce the flash power. Ideally, natural light should be 30-35% and the flash should provide 60-65% of the light. If you work with high ISO settings you should use plugins/programs such as NoiseNinja to reduce the noise and smooth out the skin tones.

Advanced technique: Use a diffuser for best results or let the flash bounce off the ceiling.

8. Flash 'em in sunlight!

This might sound superfluous but even if the sun is shining outside you should use the flash. Why? It brightens the faces, which would otherwise be spoiled by harsh shadows from the sunlight.

Tip: Use flash compensation setting "-1" to make the flash less obvious but still effective.

9. Better too many than too few.

This rule applies to the amount of photos you take during the wedding as well as your equipment, and especially memory cards and batteries for both flash and camera. Get memory cards with a lot of storage to make sure you never miss an important moment because you had to change cards. Moreover, make sure batteries and memory cards are easily accessible (e.g. in the pocket of your jacket).

Despite all the stress, wedding photography is also a lot of fun. And isn't it a great feeling that you preserved the memories of the best day of a couple's life together?

You know you have done everything right when the couple invites you to come along on their honeymoon as well.

Photo Shoot with Anna

2011-05-01T11:23:00.001-07:00

Sigma Travel Brush Kit Giveaway

2011-05-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,

this month you have the chance to win a Sigma "Naughty in Black" travel brush set worth $49. It doesn't matter where you live, since the giveaway is open internationally. You can read all about it on our Facebook page or at Adia's blog.

Open Your Eyes: Rising Waters

2011-04-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

This image shows a deserted Maldivian island. It's amazingly beautiful. It's romantic with the waves hitting the white sandy beach, three palm trees in the background, cotton candy clouds hanging in the deep blue sky. The island is a dream.

It will also be gone soon.

In the picture you can see that if the water surface rises only 30 centimeters, the island will be wiped off the maps. But it's not just about this island. It's a metaphor for all the insular states around the world, whose populations will have to look for a new home soon. It's a metaphor of the effects of globalization, because whatever the Western states do for their gain affects countries on the other side of the globe in one way or another.

In this case, one state's gain is the loss of another state.

Open Your Eyes: From a Child's Point of View

2011-03-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

This boy is standing alone in front of a big shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand.
Why do his eyes look frightened? What does he see?

He sees... us.

He sees masses of anonymous grown-ups busily passing by, using their elbows to push others away. He sees a world where everyone just cares for themselves and the only rule is the survival of the strongest. He sees his own future. Or does he?

We all are responsible for the next generation. It’s our duty to be good role models and for making the children feel welcome in our world, so that they are guided to adulthood without having to be afraid of the future. It's not just the parents' responsibility.

Interestingly enough, tribal societies used to raise children as if they were all the parents of that child. It didn't start being an individual process until recently. However, some still do that today. And if you ask me, they are the richest societies.

Open Your Eyes: Stormy Life

2011-03-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken in Bangkok during the rainy season.

Warm summer rain, how romantic.
Surrounded by speeding cars and their exhaust fumes, the woman has to carry a heavy load through the rain to the shop she’s working at, which is about 500 meters away on the other side of the road. No-one is there to help her carry a little of her burden.

But even though she works her hands to the bone she hardly earns enough to have a colorful life. She can’t afford a car or a carriage, which would make her work easier. She can’t even afford a good pair of shoes, so she has to walk through the rain on a pair of cheap slippers. She lives to work, and works to live. There is nothing else.

However, she is strong enough to walk through all the rain showers and strong headwinds life blows in her face. She keeps going, alone, patiently. And why?

How to Create a Bobblehead Portrait

2011-03-07T02:07:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial I'll show you how you can create a funny bobblehead portrait. Since we're using the liquify tool you'll need a newer version of Photoshop.

The bobblehead images were used for a yearbook because the seniors wanted something special and it kinda fits their attitude--just nod all the time when the teacher is speaking...

This is the original shot:

1. Using the magnetic lasso tool (L), I selected the head and created a new layer via copy. Now we have a head layer and a body layer:

2. Using the move tool (V), I resized the background, so that the body shrinks. After that I used the crop tool (C) to cut the transparent background:

3. Now on the head layer we use the eraser tool (E) to erase parts of the neck and get a smooth transition to the body layer:

4. Should the neck be a little too big for the body you can fix it in warp mode. To do that, select the head layer, click on any transformation handle on the selection and then click on the warp mode icon in the top right-hand corner:

In order to fix the neck now you have to grab the handles at the bottom corners of the head layer and drag them toward the center, as indicated in the image above.

5. After that it's time to give the guy the comic-slim body. Select the body layer and open the liquify tool (Filter -> Liquify -> Forward Warp Tool). Depending on the image size you have to change the brush size so that the brush diameter is about the size of the body. Then you can squeeze the body the way you like. Practice makes perfect, and if you made a mistake you can always click on "reconstruct" or "revert all".

After the warping my image looks now like this:

All you have to do now is crop the image one more time to get rid of the white space.

Here's the final image as it appeared in the yearbook:

Open Your Eyes: A Child's Imagination

2011-03-06T13:51:00.001-08:00

This picture was taken in a slum area in downtown Bangkok. A dog and a cat are strolling around, looking for food in the piles of trash. With temperatures at around 34°C the smell of warm rain water is in the air. Between dirty shacks two children are talking to each other on their mobile phones made of a piece of plastic they found somewhere around their home.

However, for a short moment the children are not poor. For a short moment, they are rich people, having fun on the phone. For a short moment, the girl even forgets that she has a broken arm. For a short moment, they are happy.

In a child’s imagination, everything is possible; children are always able to imagine a better world in their play, no matter how bad the circumstances are they find themselves in. A child’s imagination is powerful. However, somehow we lose this ability when we grow up.

Old-School Photography: Tutorials from the 70s and 80s

2011-02-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

In the days before the Internet, newspapers were a good source for photography tips and tutorials. Although the following articles were written in the decades of film photography they are still helpful in the digital age because they focus on old-school aspects every photographer has to know:

Open Your Eyes: Lost Individualism

2011-02-26T00:58:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken from the top of the Golden Mount in Bangkok, where you have a great view over the whole city.

The front of this condominium is filled with windows, and there is not much space between them. Each window stands for one person living behind it. This image is a symbol for the overpopulation in our cities, for the restrictions and the loss of individualism, which are inevitable in our modern world. We are pressed into patterns and forced to comply with standards of the system. On which side of the windows are you?

Open Your Eyes: New Photo Blog Series

2011-02-26T00:56:00.000-08:00

What I like most about photography is that you start taking a closer look at things and you appreciate the world around you more. With this in mind I'd like to initiate a news series about the things in life we take for granted and therefore don't look at anymore. Every week I'm going to post a photo and an article. Here is the first entry:

What associations do you have with the word 'home'?

I took this picture at a home for the elderly in Bangkok. An old woman, apathetic despite the presence of the camera, sitting on a thin plastic mattress in a dark cell, which is not larger than maybe two square meters, looking through the net into the other empty cell, shielded from the light of a bright sunny day, grunts of other people and the smell of warm urine in the air. The floor is relatively clean, but this is an old building, the decayed walls tell. It looks cold although it is thirty-one degrees; there is no air-conditioner. The heavy sliding door is open, but the woman won't come out and take a walk, or just talk. All she does is clap and sing the Thai national anthem with a smile on her face, over and over again. The woman is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and will spend the rest of her life in this cell, because there is no family to take care of her. She was put into the hands of strangers, and what's even more striking: She doesn't even realize because of her disease. Maybe that's the reason why the inmates in this ward receive only minimal attention.

The woman once had a family. She worked. She was someone. She lived. Now the circle of life closes, she needs care like a baby because she can't do anything herself, just like all the other elderly in this department. Her whole life is now restricted to two square meters. Eating, sleeping, washing, defecating, all in this cell. Her home.

Not only is this picture iconic for the way our society changes. The younger generation loses their connection with the senior members of our society. What's almost the norm in Western countries becomes more and more apparent in Asia as well, which therefore sees the stereotype of a caring extended family being weakened.

This image is also look into your future, which makes you think once you leave the state of speechlessness. Anyone could end up like her. There is no guarantee that someone will take care of you later. And what have you done?

Tight-knit. Awesome. Artastic: Share your Art on Shadowness!

2011-02-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

On Valentine’s Day 2011, the ninth version of the art community Shadowness.com was launched. To find out more about the person and the website, I interviewed its founder, designer and coder of the site, Meng To.

Mike: Meng, could you briefly introduce yourself?

Meng: I'm a user interface designer/developer. I've been doing this for as long as 10 years and Shadowness has been my main inspiration for all my works and growth. I love art myself -- I do graphic design and photography as a hobby.

Mike: How would you describe Shadowness and how does it set itself apart from other communities?

Meng: Shadowness is very tight-knit, with a focus on selective art and highly customizable unlike many other art communities out there. We deeply integrated Facebook connect and their social plugins. Finally, people on SN, as we affectionally call it, are very friendly, active and extremely responsive to comments. They thrive on constructive feedback.

Mike: You've just launched version 9 of Shadowness. How would you describe its development over the years and what are the unique features of this version?

Meng: Funny story: I did no expect to find the time to work on a new version and I was basically in between jobs, waiting after a chance to work in San Francisco or New York (I live in Montreal), but I knew something had to be done because I've always felt inspired every time I work on Shadowness. The last version was a flop -- it was nicely designed, but lacked totally in the interaction department. Then, many old school members came to me about reviving the community, and we started throwing ideas... The general consensus was that V4 was awesome and everyone loved it. So V9 is basically a revival of V4, but done right this time. If I was to specifically name features: I'd say the EXP system where users would feel rewarded as they get active. We also have a chat, where all hell breaks every night... Many customizing features such as the background wallpaper, header and HTML.

Mike: This version definitely has come a long way. In how far does SN reflect your development as a person?

Meng: As anybody with some development background can tell you, it takes a lot of discipline to start a social driven site like Shadowness by yourself. If not for my passion for art and for this heartwarming community that I love, this would never reach this level of deep integration. It literally takes 12-15 hours of my time every day for the past 2 months, weekends included, to get to this point, and all that design/coding totally from scratch. Not only that, but I participate in every single discussion, greet every single new member and try to comment on virtually all the new pieces. Everyone has been great and very supportive and they're the reason why I'm so involved with this community. They keep me disciplined and driven.

Mike: With all the work you put in, what do you want to get out of your endeavor?

Meng: I'm hoping that this project would allow me to be self-sufficient and go at it full-time, for years and years to come. I hope to bring tremendous exposure and opportunities to the many deserving artists that call this place "home". I hope to inspire the artists and persons on Shadowness on a deep level of learning and culture as they learn and be completely aware of their skills and where to grow.

Mike: So it's like a big, supporting family of artists.

Meng: Yes, many would agree that we're like a big family where people literally treat each other like friends who have known each other for years... because the reality is that they did. Shadowness has existed for 10 years now. Some members even started their own Panda, Monkey and Tiger clans. That's how personal and fun it gets. :)

Mike: Isn’t a large number of people joining a threat to the tight-knittedness of the community?

Meng: We started as a beta initially and many have known Shadowness for years. Basically, they ensure that the culture and tight-knitness is kept intact. Also, with scaling comes responsibility that deserving content is filtered right, so we have a Following system that doesn't require dozens of clicks. Simply click once on your Feed and browse based on your closest friends and favorite artists. Everything becomes unread in that one single click.

Mike: If you could sum up the essence of Shadowness in one word, what would that word be?

Meng: Tight-knit. Awesome. Artastic? ...wait, are we allowed for multiple one-words? Otherwise, so far we have Tight-knit art community or Facebook for artists. Art shared beautifully.

Mike: With that we conclude this interview. Thank you, Meng, for your time and insights.
And you folks, if you want to see how beautiful art can be shared, if you want to become a part of the Shadowness family of supportive artists or if you just want to download the hottest wallpapers on the net, head over to Shadowness now and have a little chat with Meng yourself! He’s always around.

10 Great & Free Photography Books on Google Books

2011-01-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

1. Photojournalism: the professionals' approach, Volume 1

2. Photography: a cultural history

3. India Unveiled

4. Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers

5. The Photoshop Elements 7 Book for Digital Photographers

6. IPhoto '09 - The Missing Manual

7. Photographic Lighting: Essential Skills

8. Photoshop Elements 7 - The Missing Manual

9. Complete digital photography

10. Adobe Photoshop CS4 Revealed

Making of the Hotel Room Shoot with Maya

2010-07-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Maya I was able to conclude my work in Thailand with a set of outstanding glamor photos. Here's the making-of:

The setting was a small hotel room in the Novotel, Siam Square, Bangkok, something like this:

Since the room was rather small we only worked with the window and the beds. The sun was shining brightly, so the window together with the white curtains served as a huge soft box. This available light looked good enough, so by using fast lenses I was able to shoot completely without a flash or tripod.

For the first set, we were going for a backlight effect with Maya standing right in front of the window. There were about 40cm between the floor and the window, so Maya had to stand on an ottoman, while I was standing on a table at the other side of the room to get the perspective right (imagine this and Maya's sister sitting on the bed watching TV and you get a picture of our set ;).

In order to get the model bright enough, I chose the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and used the manual exposure setting (the auto modes would have underexposed the model due to the bright background) at ISO400, 1/100s-1/160s and f/2.8, which is just enough to leave some parts of the curtain visible in the background and to make Maya's body shape glow, giving it a more glamorous appearance. By holding the curtain in different ways Maya was able to vary the background and feel of the images:

Scarves added some more color:

For the second set on the bed I used the Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens at ISO400, 1/125s and f/2.2-2.8, which kept the face sharp while blurring the rest of the body, thus making the model appear extra soft:

Although the raw images looked quite good already, I nevertheless retouched them with Photoshop. The most common procedures were brightening the body, decreasing the vibrance, and desaturate red tones in order to get softer and more natural skin tones. Here's one example:

You can view these and more photos in our portfolio section or on Facebook.

Photos from Hong Kong

2010-07-09T01:58:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of our short trip to Hong Kong.

Announcements

2010-07-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Dear visitors,

Since we'll be moving to Germany this month, we're no longer available for photo shoots in Bangkok. However, as soon as we're settled in, we'll let you know how you can book us in Germany.

I want to take the opportunity to thank all models and agencies we had the pleasure to work with in Thailand, and I hope we could positively influence your career a little bit ;)

In order to give the models the exposure they deserve, I revamped our photo gallery, which is now a Cooliris 3D image wall containing a whole lot more photos. Additionally, there are now Facebook and Twitter buttons so that you can share the photos with your friends, and it boasts a fullscreen mode for you to just sit back and enjoy the show.

Talking about enjoying the show--there are two new wallpapers online in widescreen resolution:

There will be more (macro) wallpapers coming soon, so check back once in a while for updates. But for now, enjoy the new photos and have a good time :)

Sincerely,

Michael

Leaving Thailand

2010-06-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Please note that we're going back to Germany on 25 July 2010. We'll be at your service in Bangkok until 20 July 2010, so hurry up if you want to make a last-minute booking before all available slots are taken ;)

Call us now at +66847337137 (English, German) or +66816487702 (Thai, English) or drop us an e-mail. More contact info here.

Photo Shoot with Radhika

2010-06-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Photo Shoot with Marta

2010-06-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

World Fashion Shoot Video

2010-04-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that the video of our photo shoot on Maiton Island, Phuket, Thailand, for World Fashion Channel is now online on Youtube:

Fashion/Catalog Shoot Featuring Scarves

2010-04-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

Fashion/catalog shoot for triqita.com featuring silk scarves.
Stylist/make-up artist: Sergey Sirin.

All images (c)2010 Michael Braun.

World Fashion Photo Shoot

2010-02-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

A selection of photos from a 4-day swimwear photo shoot for World Fashion on Maiton Island (aka Honeymoon Island) near Phuket, Thailand.

All images (c) 2010 Michael and Chompunoot Braun.

Photo Shoot with Lelani

2010-02-11T01:37:00.000-08:00

Photo Shoot with Sharon

2010-01-20T03:05:00.000-08:00

All images (c) 2010 Michael Braun/glossyart.net. All rights reserved.
Make-up artist: Sergey Sirin.

Photo Shoot with Fionn

2010-01-11T02:01:00.000-08:00

Winter in Germany

2010-01-08T02:27:00.001-08:00

We took these images in Bavaria, Germany between the 19th December 2009 and 2nd January 2010. Full view for full flavor ;)

Enhancing Contrast and Colors with the Overlay Blending Mode and Eraser Tool

2010-01-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

In this Photoshop tutorial I am going to describe a technique that allows you to enhance the contrast and deepen the colors of an image with extreme level values without over- or underexposing any areas. For this purpose, we're going to use the blending mode "overlay" and the eraser tool.

Above is my original picture. As you can see, the sun is bright while the tree areas are rather dark. If you tried to adjust the levels for the whole picture at once you'd probably just increase these extremes, causing the bright areas to be overexposed. Here's how you can avoid that:

1. First, open the picture in Photoshop and duplicate its layer by right-clicking on the background layer in the layers window (F7) and on "Duplicate Layer...".

2. In the layers window, click on the duplicated layer (default name: "Background copy"). Now the drop-down menu on top of the layers window becomes clickable. Click on it and select the "Overlay" blending mode. My picture now looks like this:

3. Next, select the elliptical marquee tool (press M or select it from the toolbar) and enter a value in the "Feather" field in the top toolbar that's high enough to ensure a seamless color flow. For this example image (800px wide) I used the feather value 100. Larger images require higher values.

4. The next step is a trial and error procedure. First, make sure your "Background copy" layer is still selected. Then, using the marquee tool, I selected parts of the sky where I wanted to enhance its contrast and had Photoshop auto-adjust the levels (Image > Adjustments > Levels > Auto). Now my picture looks like this:

5. I did the same thing with the ground area to increase its contrast, making the picture look like this:

6. Now, in order to brighten up the areas that are too dark, I used the eraser tool (E) and erased the dark areas from the "Background copy" layer, mainly trees and dark spots on the ground. I also erased some areas around the sun which were overexposed by the overlay mode.

Make sure the eraser tool's hardness (similar to the feather value) and size are adequate. In order to change these values, simply right-click on the image after selecting the eraser tool. Additionally, reduce the "flow" value for the eraser tool in the top toolbar.

Now my picture looks like this:

7. Finally, in order to reduce the noise in the sky and to enhance the details I applied the Noise Ninja plug-in. And there you go:

Here are some other images I processed using this technique:

Our Photo Essay in the Bangkok Post

2009-11-16T01:46:00.000-08:00

It is with great honor that I can announce that our photo of an Alzheimer patient in a home for the elderly in Bangkok has been selected to appear in the Bangkok Post on 3 December 2009 in a photo essay called "Photo Break". Read the story behind the photo here.

New Wallpapers

2009-11-15T06:20:00.000-08:00

After our trips to Phuket and Saraburi, Thailand, we've just updated our wallpaper collection. Check out our stunning additions and spice up your desktop now!

58 Free Photography Book Gems at Google Book Search

2009-09-25T02:46:00.000-07:00

Need to brush up your photography skills or get some inspiration? Here's a list of interesting photography books, which are all available for free at Google book search. Even if most of them are only available in limited view, they complement each other, so that you can get the whole picture by browsing a couple of books per section. Additionally, while most of them focus on film photography, topics such as posing, lighting and composition can be applied for digital photography as well.

General/Accessories

1. The Essential Photography Manual by Tim Daly
2. Langford's Advanced Photography by Efthimia Bilissi, Michael Langford
3. The Photographer's Guide to Light by Nigel Hicks
4. The Photographer's Guide to Filters by Lee Frost
5. Digital Photography Hacks by Derrick Story
6. An Advanced Guide to Digital Photography by Vincent Oliver
7. Photographer's Filter Handbook: A Complete Guide to Selection and Use by Stan Sholik, Ron Eggers
8. Photography: The art of composition by Bert P. Krages
9. Digital Photography for Dummies by Julie Adair King
10. The Complete Guide to Night & Low-light Photography By Lee Frost
11. Mastering the Basics of Photography by Susan McCartney

People/Fashion/Glamor

1. Lighting Techniques for Fashion and Glamour Photography by Stephen A. Dantzig
2. Rolando Gomez's Glamour Photography: Professional Techniques and Images by Rolando Gomez
3. Fashion Model Photography: Professional Techniques and Images by Billy Pegram
4. A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Glamour Photography by Duncan Evans
5. The Portrait Book: A Guide for Photographers by Steven H. Begleiter
6. Photographing People: Portraits, Fashion, Glamour by Roger Hicks
7. High School Senior Portrait Photography by John Giolas (with good tips on how to get clients)
8. 50 Lighting Setups for Portrait Photographers by Steven H. Begleiter
9. Black & White Model Photography: Techniques & Images by Bill Lemon
10. Swimsuit Model Photography by Cliff Hollenbeck (with a good props list)

Nude

1. Creative Techniques for Nude Photography in Black and White by Christopher Grey
2. Glamour Nude Photography by Robert Hurth, Sheila Hurth
3. Digital Nude Photography: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Perfect Photos by Roderick Macdonald (no photos but good tips)
4. Professional Secrets of Nude & Beauty Photography: Techniques and Images in Black and White by Bill Lemon
5. Classic Nude Photography: Techniques and Images by Peter Gowland, Alice Gowland
6. Black & White Nude Photography by Stan Trampe
7. Glamour Nude Photography at Home by Mark Lidikay
8. Master Guide for Glamour Photography: Digital Techniques and Images by Chris Nelson
9. Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple by Rolando Gomez
10. Fully Exposed: The Male Nude in Photography by Emmanuel Cooper
11. My Nude by Tom Jacobi
12. The Art of Pregnancy Photography by Jennifer George

Nature/Landscape/Travel

1. Digital Landscape Photography Step by Step by Michelle Perkins
2. Step-by-step Digital Landscape Photography by Tim Gartside
3. Travel Photography: A complete guide to how to shoot and sell by Susan McCartney
4. Black & White Landscape Photography by John Collett, David Collett
5. The Art of Outdoor Photography: Techniques for the advanced amateur and professional by Boyd Norton
6. Beginner's Guide to Nature Photography by Cub Kahn
7. Essential Skills for Nature Photography by Cub Kahn
8. Landscape and Nature by Michael Freeman
9. 100 Ways to Take Better Landscape Photographs by Guy Edwardes
10. Outdoor Photography: Landscape, Action and Wildlife Photography by Jon Sparks

Street

1. Street photography: From Atget to Cartier-Bresson by Clive Scott
2. No Rules Street Photography by Nitsa

Infrared

1. Digital Infrared Photography: Professional Techniques and Images by Patrick Rice
2. Infrared Portrait Photography by Richard Beitzel

Press Photography

1. 5000+ Days: Press Photography in a Changing World by British Press Photographers Association, Harold (FRW) Evans
2. Photojournalism: The professionals' approach by Kenneth Kobré, Betsy Brill

Underwater Photography

1. The Underwater Photographer: Digital and traditional techniques by Martin Edge

Pet/Animal Photography

1. Professional Techniques for Pet and Animal Photography by Debrah H. Muska
2. Animal Portraits with the Digital Photography of John Crippen by John Crippen

Sports Photography

1. Sports Photography: How to Capture Action and Emotion by Peter Skinner

Fine Art

1. Fine Art Photography: Creating beautiful images for sale and display by Terry Hope

Wedding Photography

1. Wedding Photography: Creative Techniques for Lighting, Posing, and Marketing by Rick Ferro
2. The Best of Wedding Photography by Bill Hurter
3. Master's Guide to Wedding Photography: Capturing Unforgettable Moments by Marcus Bell
4. The Best of Wedding Photojournalism: Techniques and Images from the Pros by Bill Hurter

Photo Shoot with Shiwan

2009-09-12T22:21:00.001-07:00

Some new pictures from a photo shoot with Shiwan last weekend:

Harlem Globetrotters Slammin' it in BKK

2009-08-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time. 25 years after the last show in Thailand, they finally visited the kingdom again on 22 August 2009 at the Impact Arena in Bangkok. Winning once more against the Washington Generals, it was a good show by the Harlem Globetrotters, the world-famous exhibition basketball team founded 84 years ago. I deliberately write 'good' instead of 'great' because some advertised signature tricks and shots were missing (e.g. the dunk over the referee) or missed (the mid-line shot), and because the crowd was just too lame, passively consuming the action, although the trotter's maskots Globie and Big G tried very hard to warm up the audience and keep them entertained. There were times when I actually felt sorry for the players because nobody actively cheered for them. Nevertheless, in the two-hour match the team showed spectacular dunks and alley-oops, fast passes and ridiculous moves which stunned both the Generals and the audience. See for yourself...

Two of the many alley-oops:

Special K and his team messing with the referee:

Switching from Basketball to American football:

Getting Started with Animal Photography

2009-08-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

Animal photography is one of the most difficult fields of photography. However, with these basic explanations of vital skills, technical requirements and composition techniques it’s easy to get started.

Vital Skills

The most important skills you need for animal photography are patience and constant alertness. Unlike humans, who can be told how to pose (and especially how long to pose until you got the shot!), animals are hard if not impossible to control. Therefore, waiting for the right moment and then being ready to press the shutter is the base everything else stands upon.

Another essential skill is anticipation. The better you know how the animal will behave and react in its environment, the better you can plan your photo and take the necessary preparations, i.e. choosing the right lens and aperture.

Technical Requirements

Depending what kind of animal you want to take a picture of, the technical requirements vary greatly.

For example, shooting a pet or a savage animal in the wild is a makes a big difference. Your pet will probably not run away when you come a little closer, but savage animals such as deer instinctively flee as soon as they see or hear you or your camera shutter. Therefore, in order not to intimidate the animal and scare it away you should choose a telephoto lens, which allows you to take the shot from a greater distance. Camouflage is also an advantage.

If you like insects a macro lens will come in handy to discover the world of smaller life forms. Divers and underwater enthusiasts will go for a waterproof camera case or a special underwater camera.

Depending how fast the animal is moving you may want to freeze the action, e.g. when taking a picture of a bear capturing a fish, a dog jumping through a ring, or a flying insect at a flower. For action photography like this you require a lens with a low f-stop number, and a camera with a fast shutter speed and/or a high ISO setting.

Composition Techniques

If you do not want your photo to look like a lucky snapshot, there are several composition techniques to consider.

First of all, an animal photo taken from the human eye’s level usually looks ordinary and boring. Therefore, if possible take the photo from the animal’s eye level. Thus, the shot will become more intimate and interesting. You could even add a more dramatic effect by taking the shot from the perspective of the animal’s prey.

Next, find the right balance between focusing on the animal and including the right amount of surroundings. Apart from zooming in or cropping the image to eliminate distracting surroundings you could narrow the depth of field, which will result in a sharp animal and a blurry background. You can maximize this effect by choosing a low f-stop number, a short distance to the animal and a high zoom level. This technique is particularly helpful when you go to the zoo and want to blur the metal bars of a cage.

Finally, make the photo special by capturing a special scene, which could be caused by interesting lighting, a distinctive prop, or something the animal is usually not doing. This will help your photo stand out from the huge crowd of animal photos.

Photo Shoot with Warren

2009-08-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

Photo Shoot with Matt

2009-07-31T08:56:00.001-07:00

Photo Shoot with Chloe

2009-07-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

Latest Wallpaper Additions

2009-07-22T22:20:00.001-07:00

Here's an update on our downloadable wallpapers.

This image was taken at the Amari Vogue Resort, Krabi, Thailand:

This one here was taken at Bamboo Island (near Phi Phi Island), Thailand. It's an HDR image of three different exposures, and the sky color has been altered with Photoshop:

For more information on the image locations please check out our Panoramio account. There you can see the photos in Google Earth.

The last one was taken at a photo shoot with Maya, who previously worked with runway diva J. Alexander, who's also a judge for America's Next Top Model. You can view more photos of Maya in our photo portfolio.

Download these and many more wallpapers here.

Photo Shoot with Maya

2009-07-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the latest photo shoot with Maya. There's a great location near Ekkamai BTS station with various spots and wall colors--photographer's paradise ;)

glossyart.net Revamped

2009-07-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

For some time already I've had the impression that our page was a little too plain and pale. That's why I changed the design to something grungy, which also fits my favorite picture of Anthony in the decayed restroom (the cigarette in his hand has now been censored).

In order to complete the revamp process, we also designed a new logo.

Oh, and in case you want to show your affection to us you can now become a fan on Facebook ;)

Mike

Better Black and White Photos with Channels

2009-07-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best things are already there, waiting to be discovered ;)

In this tutorial I will demonstrate how you can use Photoshop to extract a channel from a picture for better black and white conversion.

This is my original shot:

The first thing you have to do is open the channels window by clicking on the 'Channels' tab (next to the 'Layers' tab in the layers window or Window > Channels). As you can see, in an RGB image we have the red, green, and blue channel:

All you have to do now is choose the one you like the most (in my case I prefer the green channel) and click on it.

Next, convert the image to grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale), otherwise you won't be able to save it as a black-and-white image.

Finally, you might want to increase the contrast a little. You can do so by duplicating the layer (click on the 'Layers' tab or Window > Layers, right-click on the background layer > duplicate layer) and choosing the 'soft light' blending mode from the drop-down menu:

If the contrast is now too much, you can gradually decrease the opacity of the duplicated layer until you get the desired effect. My final result looks now like this:

Now it's your turn--see the world in black and white!

How to Take Great Cat Photos

2009-07-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Cats are known for their laziness. However, this very treat poses a great challenge for a photographer--how can you take an interesting shot of such a lazy subject? And how can you capture the cat's cuteness without making the picture look like a random snapshot? In short, how can you create something special? Let's find out.

1. First rule: Do not place the cat in the center of the image. Or positive: Place the main object off-center. Since cats are usually lazy and still objects, placing it in the center like in the example image on the left makes the picture look static and boring. (Other flaws in this image: the shadows in the cat's face are distracting. Moreover, the cat's eyes are almost closed and the background doesn't look artsy either.)
However, you can place the cat in the center if you want to accentuate symmetry.

Just to see the difference, here's a shot where the cat's head is placed off-center:

2. Make it special by capturing something special. Although it may look cute, a sleeping cat is nothing special. However, with the right surroundings, props and lighting you can make it even look mystical:

Additionally, it pays off to watch out for reflections:

3. Go down to the cat's eye level. Most cat pictures are taken from the perspective of the human eye, which looks boring. It's better to take the picture from the cat's eye level--or from the prey's perspective, as you can see here (although it's still not perfect because the cat is slightly blurry while the background is sharp):

4. Choose the right depth of field (i.e. the area that's sharp). The picture above has a wide depth of field, which means that everything from the cat to the background is sharp--but this also means that the picture includes a lot of distracting surroundings. In contrast to that, take a look at these examples of a narrow depth of field:

All these images focus solely on the cat by blurring the background and foreground, thus leaving out unnecessary distractions while including just the right amount of surroundings. You can narrow the depth of field by using a low f-stop number (i.e. open up the aperture) and/or a large zoom factor.

5. Focus on details. Similar to portraits of human beings, taking a detailed shot can spice things up, as you can see here:

6. Try black and white. Black and white colors make a photo of a kitten appear more intimate and emotive:

7. Catch the cat in action. Even the laziest cat will jump once in a while (if not, a popping balloon will help). If it does, be ready to catch the action.

Read more about action photography here (under "The Right Timing").

8. Take the photo with a special camera. This one is certainly special (and this last tip not to be taken too seriously):

Photo Enhancement: Sunsets

2009-06-29T02:29:00.000-07:00

I'm about to start a new series in my blog called "Photo Enhancement", which is designed to give you tips and tricks how to make your photos look better and how to avoid common pitfalls. I'll focus on the common subjects first, and today we'll take a look at sunset shots.

The picture on the left is my sample image (found at sxc.hu; feel free to download it and try out the steps below with the actual photo).

One major flaw is the crooked horizon, which can be found in many sunset photos (and landscape photos in general). However, it's easy to correct. In Photoshop, click on Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary and rotate it 0.8 degrees counter-clockwise (CCW). After the rotation process you'll see the white canvas at the edges, so we also have to crop the image a bit. According to the eye-pleasing golden mean, the best crop ratio is 1.6:1, which means the longer side should be 1.6 times the shorter side. Therefore, I cropped it like this:

Cropping the image like this has another advantage, which again is due to the golden mean: The horizon is not in the center (a 50:50 ratio of sky and ocean looks static and boring) but it divides the line from top to bottom roughly in the ratio of 1 (sky) : 1.6 (ocean). A mathematically and aesthetically perfect composition.

So, we've solved the first problem of the crooked horizon. Another flaw of the image is the washed out colors. In order to fix this, I added a vibrance adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Vibrance) and increased the vibrance to +100. The result looks like this:

However, the contrast remains dull and the colors are still not vivid enough. Thus, I added a curve adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves) and modified the curves like this:

Simply grab the curve in the middle and drag it down until you get the desired effect.
The picture now looks like this:

Not bad, but in order to make it perfect we also have to reduce the noise (this is especially important for low-level shots at high ISO speeds). I used the NoiseNinja plug-in to do the job, which also sharpens the image a little more to give it that professional finish:

Finally, you might like to remove the distracting branches on the right side of the image. This is easily done with the clone stamp tool (hotkey: S) and the spot healing brush tool (J), so that the enhanced image looks like this:

Home for the Elderly

2009-06-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

What associations do you have with the word 'home'?

I took this picture today at a home for the elderly in Bangkok. An old woman, apathetic despite the presence of the camera, sitting on a thin plastic mattress in a dark cell, which is not larger than maybe two square meters, looking through the net into the other empty cell, shielded from the light of a bright sunny day, grunts of other people and the smell of warm urine in the air. The floor is relatively clean, but this is an old building, the decayed walls tell. It looks cold although it is thirty-one degrees; there is no air-conditioner. The heavy sliding door is open, but the woman won't come out and take a walk, or just talk. All she does is clap and sing the Thai national anthem with a smile on her face, over and over again. The woman is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and will spend the rest of her life in this cell, because there is no family to take care of her. She was put into the hands of strangers, and what's even more striking: She doesn't even realize because of her disease. Maybe that's the reason why the inmates in this ward receive only minimal attention.

The woman once had a family. She worked. She was someone. She lived. Now the circle of life closes, she needs care like a baby because she can't do anything herself, just like all the other elderly in this department. Her whole life is now restricted to two square meters. Eating, sleeping, washing, defecating, all in this cell. Her home.

Not only is this picture iconic for the way our society changes. The younger generation loses their connection with the senior members of our society. What's almost the norm in Western countries becomes more and more apparent in Asia as well, which therefore sees the stereotype of a caring extended family being weakened.

This image is also look into your future, which makes you think once you leave the state of speechlessness. Anyone could end up like her. There is no guarantee that someone will take care of you later. And what have you done?

Website Changes

2009-06-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

We've simplified our home page and focused on what's important--by getting rid of the ads and cutting the text into half. Now you can see at a glance what we do and what the site has to offer.

We also added some new wallpapers to our wallpaper section.

Enjoy :)

Breakdance and Popping Contest at Siam Center, Bangkok

2009-05-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Breakdance and popping competition in front of the Siam Center, Bangkok, on 30 May 2009 (2 on 2 B-Boy battles).

glossyart.net Joins Forces with Amazon

2009-05-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

As a special service in our tutorial section we've now included links to products sold by amazon.com so that you can start creating breathtaking images even faster in case you don't have a necessary accessory yet. For example, if you've read our infrared tutorial but you don't have an IR filter yet you can just click on the link and buy one at amazon.com, wait one or two days and you're ready to go :)

Tutorials Revamped

2009-05-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Our tutorials section has been revamped. Now when you click on "Tutorials" in the top menu bar you're taken to the tutorials home page, where you can choose to either walk through the photo enhancement wizard or click on an item on the index list to go directly to the tutorial section you're interested in.

Tsunami on 22 July 2009 and we're all going to die!

2009-05-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, from the exaggerating title you have probably deduced already that I find this whole paranoid forwarding of e-mails stating that a tsunami will hit Southeast Asia simply ridiculous.

In these e-mails or forums you can read that a tsunami will be spawned in the Pacific east of Japan on 22 July 2009, hitting Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, hey wait--aren't the Maldives in the Indian ocean and can't be hit by a tsunami from the Pacific? Whatever, we shouldn't question this, everyone's going to die!!

Oh wait, there's Internet rule number one: We should--no, we MUST question everything we read on the Internet. Do some research before you freak out and spam a forum or your friends' email accounts.

First of all, even with the latest technology it's not possible to predict an earthquake a couple of months in advance. It's hard enough to predict an earthquake a couple of days in advance!

Second, even if there's an underwater earthquake in the Pacific that doesn't automatically mean it will cause a tsunami. And not all tsunamis are lethal.

Third, most of these emails say that the earthquake will be caused by a long solar eclipse. Duh, earthquakes happen because of tectonics, not because of some miraculous stellar or lunar constellations. By the way, the fact that some people freak out when the moon covers the sun might explain why lunar and lunatic are almost the same words...

So in general don't freak out when you get an email like this one. Don't believe things easily, and look things up on reliable websites when you're in doubt before you decide to forward emails. Anyone can create a hoax like this one. And don't you think that the authorities would warn the public with an official press release in the news rather than starting a mass email that easily gets out of control?

Anyway, even if there's the biggest tsunami of all time and you happen to be around, check out our tutorials about how to take better photos. These tips might come in handy when you want to sell your images to the media ;) And good luck!

You can also check out this topic at snopes.com.

Feel free to question this article ;)

Photos from the Maldives

2009-05-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

View all photos from our honeymoon on the Maldives at adiabraun.com.

Meng To about Shadowness 8

2009-05-02T19:10:00.001-07:00

Meng aka 7shadows, the Shadowness guy, gave me the chance to check out the design of the all-new Shadowness 8. In return he forced me to interview him and post the interview uncensored. Let's take a look behind the scenes and discover the concept, the technology, what's new and how Meng's brain is wired.

In a nutshell

"The idea of followers is very essential to the new version. You follow because you subscribe, and you build your fan base which is the most important thing for an artist."

"The new concept is an open and promotional-driven portfolio community. Everything will be by the power of the users."

"We offer micro blogging for artists; collections will serve as a platform to gather resources and post as a blog or microblogs. RSS-driven. Users will be able to submit updates across websites: multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook, RSS."

"I just want to offer the best and easiest to use tools and anticipate ways to promote as much as possible. The biggest deployment is to open it to Twitter and have a language/format that bloggers, Facebook and Twitter understand, making it easier for artists to share their posts."

"The beauty of the new Shadowness is that you don't have to post images. You can post links, and credit to other people's work, create a collection for yourself. You don't have to be talented to be interesting."

The site will go live "hopefully in a month."

Click here to read the full interview.

New Domain and More!

2009-05-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Dear visitors,

Due to inaccessibility of our old server at glossyart.com we've just moved to glossyart.net, so make sure to update your bookmarks ;)

We've changed some things around the site, with the most prominent change being the revamped tutorial section. Now you get tons of helpful tips during your workflow.

There are also a couple of new wallpapers in the wallpaper section, and we've updated our gallery as well. Got a couple of killer shots from a photo shoot with friends at an abandoned building in Bangkok!

On the home page you can now follow our twitter microblog for the latest quick updates.

Finally, our contact e-mail has changed. You can now reach us at mike@glossyart.net or adia@glossyart.net. We'd love to hear from you :)

Thanks for sticking with us!

Mike and Adia
glossyart.net

New Wallpapers

2009-01-30T03:45:00.000-08:00

We just added some new infrared wallpapers to our collection. The images were taken on Koh Kood, Thailand. We also tweaked the code and reduced the file size of the thumbnails, so the page should load a lot faster now.

As always, feel free to use the wallpapers for your desktop but remember that they are not public domain so any other use is strictly prohibited. Read more about our copyright policy

glossyart.com auf deutsch

2008-12-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

Zuerst einmal möchten wir allen deutschen Besuchern unserer Internetpräsenz ein frohes Weihnachtsfest und ein glückliches neues Jahr wünschen :)

Pünktlich zum Fest ist nun auch die deutsche Seite online, mit den wichtigsten Informationen über uns auf einen Blick. Sie kann mit einem Klick auf das Flaggenicon oben rechts aufgerufen werden.

Sollten Sie tote Links oder sonstige Bugs entdecken (oder auch Lob loswerden wollen), lassen Sie uns bitte eine Nachricht im dafür vorgesehenen Kontaktformular zukommen.

glossyart.com is now available in German. Simply click on the German flag icon in the top right corner or click this link to beam to the German site. Should you discover any bugs or broken links please let us know. We hope you enjoy your visit and wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

fotocommunity.de Contest "Wintergeschichten" (Winter Stories)

2008-12-17T02:18:00.000-08:00

After the jury voting at fotocommunity.de my image "Balance" (large image on the left) is ranked second out of 1397 submissions. The prize: 10,000 copies of the image will be distributed by photodose.de as a free giveaway with a link to glossyart.com. That should bring some more traffic to our site ;)

Moreover, "Lake of Tranquility" (small image on the right) also made it in the top 100 (but didn't win a prize).

Take a look at the top 100 here.

You can also download wallpaper editions of the photos here.

Got Some Questions for the PAD

2008-09-09T04:29:00.000-07:00

When you talk to the people who besiege the government house in Bangkok you hear a lot of interesting things. I want to share some of them with you and ask some questions.

My first question is, how can the PAD, a lobby, not even a party, think they have the right to take politics in their own hands the way they do? They did not question the election in 2007, and now they fight against Samak with road blocks, government house, TV station and airport raids, thus harming not only the economy (scaring away foreign investors and tourists) but also the unity of the Thai people. As far as I know, the definition of democracy is that the majority of people decide what's happening (and when I talk about people I mean all Thai people, not just the Bangkok population). It does not imply that if a minority of people is not satisfied with the government they have the right to throw them out with measures that are far from the political stage. As I pointed out in a blog entry earlier, its behavior leads to the conclusion that PAD is actually an acronym for People Against Democracy. Now I add: The PAD is on a huge and irresponsible ego-trip, not thinking about the consequences of their actions.

The PAD's goal is actually noble. "We want to root out corruption entirely, and not just get rid of Samak but of all corrupt politicians" is what one protester told me. Good idea, and good luck. My question to the PAD is: But who would you put in charge then? And what exactly is your plan?

One man told me that the pro-government protesters got 1,500 Baht to come to the rally at Sanam Luang. I'm wondering if there's any difference to the PAD giving food, water, and ice away for free at the government house compound.

A retired navy officer told me that it costs the PAD between two and three million Baht (around USD 60,000-90,000 or EUR 40,000-60,000) to keep things going. But who's paying for the supplies? It appears that one key financier is the CEO of TPI POLENE, Prachai Leophairatana, who, according to insider information, donated 250 million Baht to the PAD about two weeks ago. But did he do that to save democracy, root out corruption, or for some other noble reason? Of course not. It's all about personal gain. During Thaksin's rule he lost major parts of his company TPI. Now he only owns the concrete branch--but with Thaksin/Samak's party being cut off and Prachai-friendly people in power there would be a real chance to get his whole company back (by the way, that was also the reason why he enstablished his own party just before the election in 2007).

Another thing that makes me worried is this: The PAD says they want to protest peacefully. Indeed, if you want to enter the government building compound, your bags are searched for weapons. But how come there are people running around with golf clubs? How come roads are blocked with tires?

However, what's even worse is the fact that the government is not really better. No clear line on both sides can't be good for Thailand.

Copyright FAQ

2008-09-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Please note: This article is based on U.S. copyright law. If you upload pictures to U.S.-based websites such as deviantART, flickr, myspace etc. this law applies to you, even if you do not live in the United States.

Advertisement

>> FIRST OF ALL: IS THERE AN EASY RULE HOW I CAN MAKE SURE THAT I DON’T GET INTO TROUBLE BECAUSE OF THE COPYRIGHT?

Yes! Be original and create everything yourself. And if you use stock material or material that is free for use, always cite the source where you got the material from. If possible, provide a direct link to the material (such as stock images or brushes), not just top-level domains. It’s just like writing a paper where you have to cite your sources in detail, too. Then you should be safe.

>> OK, BEFORE I READ WHAT IS FORBIDDEN—WHAT IS ACTUALLY ALLOWED?

Basically, a lot of things are allowed if you keep them private. For example, you can download any picture you want from the Internet and play around with it, alter it, practice manipulating and drawing techniques with it, copy it and so on—as long as you do it for your personal and private use only. However, it's a whole different matter if you go public and publish the original or modified picture on the Internet. If the material you copied from the net is not free to use, you will get into trouble because of copyright infringement. “Going public” refers to everything that is done outside your home (or hard disk!).

You can, however, copy and manipulate material for public use if you got them from the public domain such as a stock photo site or if the material is really declared as free to use. BUT: Always make sure that you read the copyright notices of those websites because you can only use their material if you comply with their terms and conditions. It may be that they offer their material for non-commercial use only or that you may only use the material if you do not manipulate it, for example.

>> WHAT CAN ACTUALLY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?

“Copyright protects ‘original works of authorship’ that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. The fixation need not be directly perceptible so long as it may be communicated with the aid of a machine or device” (copyright.gov). This means that any material including pictures stored on a hard disk, CD, film etc. is protected immediately after creation. A special choreography, for example, is not protected until being filmed, for example. Other things that cannot be protected are “themes, ideas, most titles, names, catch-phrases and other short-word combinations of no real substance“ (CIPO).

>> WHEN IS MY WORK PROTECTED? DO I HAVE TO REGISTER SOMEWHERE TO PROTECT MY WORK?

No. As soon as you have created a piece, you're the owner of it and thus the owner of the copyright. In over 140 countries of the world it is not necessary to register your work in order to assert the copyright. “The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright“ (copyright.gov). Note that it depends on your country how the copyright is handled.

>> DO I HAVE TO ADD A CERTAIN SIGNATURE WHATSOEVER TO MY PICTURES TO SHOW THAT I'M THE OWNER OF THE COPYRIGHT?

In most countries, no. Usually, it’s not necessary to add a formal signature whatsoever to your pictures. However, it is recommended that you clearly show your ownership, for example by adding a (c) followed by your name and the date in a corner of your picture.
The U.S. Copyright Office: “A copyright notice is an identifier placed on copies of the work to inform the world of copyright ownership that generally consists of the symbol or word ‘copyright (or copr.),’ the name of the copyright owner, and the year of first publication, e.g., ©2003 John Doe. While use of a copyright notice was once required as a condition of copyright protection, it is now optional.”

>> PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DOMAIN WTF—ISN’T THE INTERNET A PUBLIC DOMAIN WHICH MEANS I CAN COPY ANY PICTURE I WANT?

No. If you leave the front door open, people are still not allowed to steal anything from inside your house even if they could access it easily, right? The same applies to the Internet: even if billions of people can access the Internet, the material it contains is not automatically placed in public domain. Public domain means that the material is everyone’s property. “Material found on the web may be copied freely only if the information is created by the federal government, if the copyright has expired or the copyright has been abandoned by the holder” (whatiscopyright.org). Read the copyright notices of the websites where you want to copy the picture from to make sure that you are really allowed to use it for publishing at another public website such as deviantART.com.

>> SO I CAN’T USE THE PICTURES FROM A PICTURE SEARCH ENGINE?

Right. Although picture search engines are really convenient, you are most likely to violate the copyright when you take material from them because all they do is link to other peoples’ websites and thus other peoples’ property.

>> IF I GET THE PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR TO USE HIS/HER WORK, CAN I THEN CLAIM THE COPYRIGHT FOR THIS MATERIAL?

No. The permission to use material provided by others does not make you the owner of it. Still, you have to cite the original source or the author’s name and give proper credits. Make sure you tell the public that the material you used is owned by someone else. In fact, “if you failed to properly protect someone else’s work that you are using and it turns out that someone else swiped it due to your misuse or negligence you may be subjecting yourself to a claim” (whatiscopyright.org). So, you can only claim the copyright for material that you really created yourself. For example, you take a photo and add some brushwork with brushes you downloaded from someone’s personal website. You can then add a “© 2006 Your Name” because you created the photo but you also have to add a “Brushes © Other Name” because you did not create the brushes.

>> TALKING ABOUT BRUSHES AND OTHER DOWNLOADABLES THAT ARE PROVIDED ON SOME PERSONAL WEBSITES: ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS? AFTER ALL, THE STUFF IS CLEARLY PROVIDED FOR FREE DOWNLOAD.

Depends. You should refer to the copyright notices and terms and conditions of the website you downloaded the material from. For example, you may use Photoshop brushes provided at an artist’s personal portfolio website but frequently the creators of the brushes demand that you give them the credits for their material. Otherwise you are not allowed to use them in public. For commercial use, you often have to pay a fee. So even if you may download material from a website, make sure that you comply with the conditions of using it later.

>> IF I MANIPULATE THE PICTURE OF SOMEONE ELSE SO THAT IT CHANGES COMPLETELY, DO I THEN HAVE THE COPYRIGHT FOR THIS PICTURE, WHICH IS MY WORK AFTER ALL?

No. You've already violated the copyright by copying the original picture, and by changing it you've violated the copyright one more time. Additionally, the new picture is not completely your work--obviously, the copied picture was your basis. And if you claim the new picture to be your own, you violate the copyright again, because you steal someone else's property.

In any case, if you want to use someone else's work which is protected by the copyright, you should ask the owner of the copyright for a written permission to use his work.

It's completely different with stock pictures or pictures which are explicitly marked as "free for use". Then manipulating etc. is legal, but make sure they are really free.

>>IS IT ALLOWED TO PUBLISH A DRAWING OR PAINTING WHEN ANOTHER ARTWORK HAS BEEN USED AS REFERENCE?

Similar to fan art, it depends if you use a copyrighted image as a reference. If you do, you may not publish your drawing in public. If you used a stock picture (i.e. a picture that is public domain) or a picture that you have taken yourself (i.e. you have the copyright), you can do whatever you want with your painting. Again, even if the reference picture is not your property, asking the author of the original work can enable you to use it in public if the author gives you permission. However, in such cases you still have to cite the source and give proper credits.

>> IS IT AT LEAST ALLOWED TO COPY A SMALL PART OF A PICTURE--FOR EXAMPLE THE SKY OR A TREE?

In most countries, copying small parts of images does not violate the copyright. However, since you chose this small part and consider it special, someone could indeed sue you for copyright infringement. If you want to be on the safe side, choose a free source.

>> WHAT ABOUT TAKING A PICTURE OF A MCDONALD'S SIGN--AM I VIOLATING THE LAW THERE?

Theoretically, yes. Logos and unique shapes are protected by the copyright, including that McDonald's sign, cars like a Rolls Royce, the French TGV, certain toys, Disney dolls and even the cypress on Pebble Beach or the Eiffel Tower (taken at night when its lights are on). If you then publish the picture or sell it (i.e. exploit it commercially), you're most likely to violate the law. If you want to take pictures of this kind of objects, you should at least be familiar with the laws of your country. Ask an expert.

>>DO I HAVE TO CONSIDER ANYTHING WHEN SUBMITTING FAN ART?

Indeed. Signature creation and fan art are probably the most common kinds of art that don't care about the copyright at all--simply because people believe that if everyone does it, it must be legal. However, this is wrong. Fan art by definition violates the copyright because it uses copyrighted characters as models. You may do some fan art for practice at home, for example, but as soon as you want to publish it in public, you violate the copyright. If you really want to publish your work, make sure that you have the explicit permission of the author of the characters that your work is based on. If you get the permission, you still cannot claim the characters to be your property because getting the permission to use material doesn't make you the owner of it. Therefore, you have to credit the original artist or cite the source. If you do not have the permission to use the copyrighted characters, you may not publish your picture in the Internet, sell it, enter a contest with it, or use it for any other purpose in public. Read more about this issue here.

>> WE ALWAYS TALK ABOUT PICTURES. WHAT ABOUT JOURNALS AND THEIR HEADERS/OTHER GRAPHICS/CSS CODES?

Similar to using material for your picture, you must not use protected works for your profile site either. This includes protected codes as well as graphics. But of course, the page design and the graphics you created are copyrighted, too. If you want to use parts of other people's profile pages that they created themselves you have to get their permission first.

>> OK, BUT DIGITAL DATA IS TOO INSECURE AND CAN BE COPIED TOO EASILY. I REALLY WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT MY WORK IS PROTECTED.

It’s true that digital data can be copied easily, and in fact, if you have to people with the same picture it’s really hard to prove who the real creator of the picture is. Time is the key here—so who publishes the work first is also the owner of the copyright. If you think that image metadata is too insecure (after all, metadata can easily changed with a hex editor), you can burn your work on a CD, put it in an envelope, seal it and send it to yourself by postal mail. Thus, you have an official timestamp on a tangible form of your work and can prove you’re really the one who created the piece first.

Or you do it the safe way, as the Canadian Copyright Office suggests: “Since you obtain copyright automatically, you are automatically protected by law. However, it is still a good idea to register your copyright and to indicate notice of copyright on your works“ and „registration gives you a certificate that states you are the copyright owner. You can use this certificate in court to establish ownership. (The onus is on your opponent to prove that you do not own the copyright.)“ So if you really want to be safe, you can register your work at the copyright authority of your country.

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>> CAN I ASSERT THE COPYRIGHT FOR IMAGES PUBLISHED IN THE INTERNET?

Not directly, because you cannot check who has access to your website. In any case, read the policies of the webspace provider if you use free webspace, because it could be that you accept giving the copyright away.

>> CAN I BE PUNISHED IF I UPLOAD PICTURES ON THE WEB?

Yes. If your pictures violate the laws--because they're pornographic, for example--and you're bound to these laws (by submitting a picture at devaiantART, you’re bound to the laws of the U.S.), you can be sentenced. At least, the webspace provider can remove the pictures.

>> WHAT ARE ROYALTY-FREE IMAGES?

If you want to use royalty-free images, you pay a fee once and then you can use the pictures for your own--even commercial--purposes.

>> AND WHAT ABOUT STOCK IMAGES?

Stock pictures are usually free for private use. You can download them and do whatever you like with them. If you want to use stock images commercially, you frequently have to pay a fee. In any case, refer to the terms and conditions of the stock image website to check if there are any restrictions for using the stock.

>> IN THIS ARTICLE YOU QUOTED EXTERNAL SOURCES. SO YOU VIOLATED THE COPYRIGHT, RIGHT?

Not necessarily. The answer gives another quote: “The Copyright Act provides that any ’fair dealing’ with a work for purposes of private study or research, or for criticism, review or news reporting is not infringement. However, in the case of criticism, review, or news reporting, the user is required to give the source and the author’s, performer’s, sound recording maker’s or broadcaster’s name, if known“ (CIPO).

Sources and Further Information:

Canadian Intellectual Property Office: [link]

U.S. Copyright Office: [link]

What Is Copyright: [link]

Too Late for Thailand?

2008-08-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

People are camping in front of the government building, TV stations are stormed, airports are closed. What's happening in Thailand right now is pure chaos, and nobody knows what will happen next. But it reveals that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is anything but a strong leader, mainly because his hands are tied because of his very own past.

First of all, after the coup d'etat in September 2006 an election was held one year later. Samak won and became prime minister. This is called democracy, and nobody ever questioned the election. But Samak doesn't act as a strong leader or even as a prime minister who had been elected by the majority of Thais. If he would, he would have taken measures against the PAD (People's Allicance for Democracy) rally right from the start.

Since I'm a German citizen I always compare the situation in Thailand with Germany. If a group of people started a demonstration without permission by blocking roads in Berlin for several days the government would not think twice. The police would disperse the crowd (with water cannons, if necessary), and arrest the leaders of the group. After all, national security is at stake.

Now if Samak had done the same in Bangkok he would have prevented a lot of trouble. Of course, for a couple of days there would have been a clash between the protesters and the police, and maybe some people would have been injured. But Samak would have avoided the unpleasant situation the country is in now. The equation is as follows:

A couple of protesters and policemen injured (if any)
The PAD leaders and other hardcore protesters arrested
Possibly unrest for some days

against

Roads in downtown Bangkok blocked for months, thus causing unimaginable traffic jams
Schools around the government district closed for several days
The economy and stock market going down after foreign investors became too scared and sold their shares worth hundreds of millions of US dollars
A TV station hijacked (NBT)
Airports closed, thus pissing off thousands of tourists in Krabi and Phuket, causing massive damage to the country's tourism image, scaring potential tourists, which causes significant financial damage because tourism is one of Thailand's most important sources of income
Train traffic stopped due to a strike of train workers, thus pissing off even more tourists and causing even more financial damage
The government building made useless after it was taken over by the protesters
A general unstable situation where nobody knows what's actually going on or what will happen next, with people fearing bloody violence and another coup d'etat
A country basically split into half (government supporters and PAD supporters)

But why is Samak not doing anything against the PAD protests? The answer lies in his blood-dripping past. In 1976 he played a major role during the coup d'etat:

"Although in 2008 interviews with CNN and al-Jazeera Samak denied involvement in the 6 October 1976 massacre that left officially at least 46 dead, Samak insists only 1 person was left dead. Accounts from witnesses, documents and published reports clearly identify Samak as chief operator of the "Armoured Car" radio programme, an ultra-right wing broadcast that constantly expounded anti-communist and pro-right propaganda. Samak used this programme to stir up hatred against Thammasat University students, and intentionally disobeyed the Prime Minister's orders at the time to "stop creating divisiveness." In defending the return of 1973-ousted Field Marshal Praphat over the radio, Samak told listeners that students demonstrating against the dictator's return were committing suicide." (wikipedia.org)

If he sends the police and/or military in (after all, he's also defense minister) to fight the PAD, this would bring back the memories of 1976, escalate the situation and almost inevitably lead to a blood bath. So I think what he's doing now is trying to turn the public against the PAD by pointing the finger at the PAD and their actions, thus making them responsible for the country's downfall--at least that's what it looks like. He hopes that (given enough time) the problem will solve itself. And indeed, seeing how harmful its actions are to the country, it is no surprise that the PAD is losing support by the public. Indeed, it has shot itself in the foot. Maybe Samak thinks that the half that's not supporting the PAD will be able to convince the half that supports the PAD to stop their protest and go back to actual democratic measures. But that might not be so easy--after all, the PAD is not even a party; it's more like a lobby consisting mainly of members of the Thai elite who are fed up with Samak's politics and who think he's just a puppet of the old (and corrupt) PM Thaksin. Taking the issue in their own hands is therefore not democratic but anarchic.

Nevertheless, the government's passive stance is very dangerous because it divides the country into two parties. But as I said, this difficult situation could have been avoided by tackling the People Against Democracy a long time ago. Now it seems too late.

Split Toning Tutorial - The Making of "Dog Tag"

2008-08-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial I want to show you how I used split tones to create this picture:

For taking the shot I used a Canon EOS 40D with a Canon 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM lens, a large softbox, and a small spotlight (same set-up as for "Touch"). The softbox was placed right next to me and raised to about 1.80m above the ground, while the small spotlight was placed about 50cm above the ground and used to brighten up parts of the black background, thus making it dark gray. You can see the exact arrangement here:

I used the following settings:

RAW mode
Focal length: 40mm
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter speed: 1/250s
ISO: 100
White balance: 5900K

And this is the photo I took (by the way, the models are Andrea and Tara from J.I.M. Modelling Agency, Bangkok):

The best thing about this technique is that it's extremely fast and easy. The first step is double-clicking on the original raw file. By default, the Photoshop component "Camera Raw" will open the image and you'll see this screen:

The first tab, which is selected by default when you open Camera Raw, is "Basic". I changed the settings as follows:

Tint: -1
Brightness: +50
Contrast: +25

The next one is "Tone Curve":

In "paramteric" mode, I boosted the contrast with these settings:

Highlights: +43
Lights: +10
Darks: -24
Shadows: -57

In the "Detail" tab I changed the sharpening settings as follows:

Amount: +47 (all the other settings are default settings)

The next step is the actual split-toning process. I selected the "Split Toning" tab and chose a green hue for the highlights and a blue hue for the shadows. All I had to do was changing the parameters to these:

Highlights:

Hue: 101
Saturation: 58

Shadows:

Hue: 219
Saturation: 35

That's it! This is how the photo looked after processing it with Camera Raw:

The only thing I did afterward was removing the noise, smoothing the skin, and increasing the sharpness and contrast a little. All of this can be done in just one step using the Photoshop plug-in NoiseNinja. I case you don't have it yet I strongly recommend you get this plug-in because it will significantly increase the quality of your images.

After all these steps, my picture looks like this now:

Much better than the original, don't you think? ;)

Psst... check out another way of processing this image: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/08/making-of-touch.html

Making of "Touch"

2008-08-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

This article is actually a combination of two tutorials--how to set up basic lighting in the studio and how to give a portrait the glossy magazine look.

For taking the shot I used a Canon EOS 40D with a Canon 24-105mm 1:4 L IS USM lens, a large softbox, and a small spotlight (same set-up as for "Dog Tag"). The softbox was placed right next to me and raised to about 1.80m above the ground, while the small spotlight was placed about 50cm above the ground and used to brighten up parts of the black background, thus making it dark gray. You can see the exact arrangement here:

I used the following settings:

RAW mode
Focal length: 55mm
Aperture: f/5
Shutter speed: 1/250s
ISO: 100
White balance: 5900K

And this is the photo I took (by the way, the models are Andrea and Tara from J.I.M. Modelling Agency, Bangkok):

Now let's get rid of the faithful skin color and change it to cool white!

The first step is to open the raw photo in Photoshop. I use Photoshop CS3 because only CameraRaw 4.5 (which works only with CS3) supports RAW files from the 40D and I don't want to disturb my workflow by converting my RAW files with the DNG converter. Anyway, doubleclicking on the RAW file will open a screen that looks like this:

(Click to enlarge)

As you can see, the colors are different from the original shot because I changed the parameters already. The image above shows how I set the parameters in the "basic" section:

Tint: -1
Blacks: +5
Brightness: +50
Contrast: +25

After that I moved on to the tone curve and changed its parameters to these:

The next step is changing the red primary and green primary parameters in the "camera calibration" section. Reducing the saturation of red and green is the secret key to shiny skin colors:

I didn't change anything else, so I just clicked on "open image" to -- well, open the image in Photoshop and do some final touch-ups. Here's the shot after applying the RAW settings:

To make it even shinier, I had Photoshop auto-adjust the levels by pressing Shift+Command+L (Windows users use Shift+Ctrl+L):

Then I removed the birthmarks and cleaned up minor skin irregularities with the spot healing brush tool (press J to activate this tool). Now the image looked like this:

The final step is using NoiseNinja for removing the noise, smoothing the skin, and increasing sharpness and contrast a bit more. All these things can be achieved by opening the NoiseNinja plugin (Filter -> PictureCode -> Noise Ninja), clicking on "profile image", and change the settings in the "filter" tab to these:

Smoothness: 14
Contrast: 15

(Click to enlarge)

If you don't have NoiseNinja I strongly recommend you get it because it will significantly increase the quality of your images, as you can see here:

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial :)

Psst... check out another way of processing this image: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/08/split-toning-tutorial-making-of-dog-tag.html

Thailand Graduate Fashion Week 2008

2008-07-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

Click here to jump to the photo gallery.

Awe-inspiring ideas are among the significant factors to move the vivacious non-stop fashion industry. In order to discover the striking and unique designs of aspiring fashion students, the Thailand Graduate Fashion Week 2008 (TGFW) was initiated. The event is held at CentralWorld, Bangkok, to offer an opportunity and a stage to countrywide BA fashion design students who graduated in 2007. Students from over 20 universities present their talent and work, e.g. Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Silpakorn, Srinakarinwirot, Kasetsart, Burapa, Rangsit, and Bangkok University (just to name a few).

The event includes the following (locations in brackets):

TGFW Academic Catwalk Shows (Theatre A and B)
Fashion Academic Showcase: Exhibition showcasing outstanding designs selected by nationwide fashion students (Atrium)
TGFW Fashion Talks: Seminars and talks by fashion veterans
Education Days: In small booths, nationwide fashion institutes present their curriculum and students' works (Eden)
TGFW 2008 Awards for the most talented students
College Flea Market (outdoor area)

Here are some impressions from the Thailand Graduate Fashion Week 2008. Click an image to open it in full view:

Education Days in the Eden area: Each university presents itself in a small booth.

Tourists enjoying a live concert. Live bands and the MET107 DJs are rocking the crowd at the Central Court zone.

Click here to view all images.

PicLens: Browse Images with Style

2008-07-16T03:44:00.000-07:00

The PicLens browser plugin is for those of you who want to browse images with style: It presents images on a shiny, endless 3D-wall, providing an immersive full-screen experience for viewing photos and videos on the supported sites and on sites that support Media RSS.

For example, you can use PicLens for amazon, Youtube, deviantART, Picasa, flickr, Photobucket, Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, hi5, all major image search engines, and many more websites.

Gone are the times when you had to hit the "next" button to go to the next page of images because PicLens loads images from the next pages automatically. You just keep on walking along the wall.

If you feel like exploring recent events PicLens with its "Discover" button slaps the latest news, sports, fashion, entertainment, and other images as well as videos, movie trailers etc. on your screen. With style, of course.

I just realized that my blog entry sounds like a praise--but there you can see how much I like this plugin! I give you an example: Google image search only displays 18 images, then I have to click the arrow button to see the next batch, which takes time. With PicLens, I basically have just one wall of images, which I can move quickly to scroll through the search results.

It also looks quite cool on deviantART when you can scroll through the masses of images with ease but unfortunately the drag and drop function (that's used for faving an image) gets lost.

Anyway, if you like images and shiny interfaces you should definitely give it a try. On their website http://www.piclens.com you will find the free plugin as well as a program to create PicLens-friendly photo galleries.

glossyart.com Wallpaper Collection

2008-07-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

All our wallpapers in one place!

Feel free to download the wallpapers and put them on your desktop but please remember that everything except private use is copyright infringement (e.g. resubmitting the images on the Internet, selling the images).

More to be added soon!

TinEye: Image Search Engine and Art Theft Detector

2008-07-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

TinEye should be interesting for people who want a powerful tool against art theft and copyright infringement because by uploading your original image or entering the URL of the image you can instantly see who has stolen your image (which some people say is also a good indicator of how famous you really are ;)).

According to the official FAQ, TinEye seems to be really promising. These are only excerpts:

What does TinEye do?

TinEye does for images what Google does for text.

Just as you are familiar with entering text in Google to find web pages that contain that text, using TinEye, you enter an image to find pages where that particular image (and modified versions of it) appears.

Can TinEye find alterations of a query image?

Yes. As long as they are alterations of the same query image, TinEye can find them and include them in your search results.

Note that search results are ordered by ‘relevance’ (i.e. how well the result images match your query image), so image alterations are typically found at the end of your search results.

What sorts of image alterations can TinEye find?

It depends upon the image, but TinEye frequently returns image results with colour adjustments, added or removed text, crops, and slight rotations. TinEye can also detect images that are part of a collage or have been blended with another image.

(Check out the whole FAQ at http://tineye.com/faq)

The only downside of this project is that it's still in beta. This means that the number of images in their database is to be expanded (although it can search 580 million images by now), and you need an invitation to sign up and use it. However, on the TinEye home page you can enter your e-mail address to request an invitation and roughly after one day you'll get one.

Taking and Processing Infrared Photos

2008-07-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial you will learn how to take and process infrared (IR) images.You probably came across some infrared photos already without noticing it and were stunned by their beauty and maybe wondering how their special appearance was achieved. Most photographers choose a blue tone for their infrared images because then they will get a winterly look but sepia tones are found as well. However, the most important characteristics of an IR shot are the white trees and plants because they reflect IR rays almost completely. Enough said now–time for some action!

1. Requirements

If you want to take infrared images you first need an IR filter and a camera that can “see” IR light. Since some cameras have a built-in filter that prevents IR rays from coming through, you have to check if your camera can see IR light by pointing a remote control to the camera (with no filter attached). If you can see the infrared LED of your remote control glow then your camera is capable of taking IR shots.

There’s a variety of IR filters available. A good standard filter is the Hoya R72 infrared filter. The “72″ indicates that it will block light of wavelengths of more than 720 nm. You can also buy a colored IR filter for better contrast in different situations but if you have Photoshop you don't really need one because all the level adjustments can be done there.

2. Taking the shot

You can hardly see anything when you look through an IR filter. Since it blocks a huge amount of light the best shots are taken in bright sunlight with the sun in your back for maximum IR reflection. But even if it’s bright, you will have to use a tripod because the exposure will be much longer than normal.

Tip: Due to the long exposure time, you should also use a remote control or the self-timer to avoid vibrations. For best results, wait until there is no wind and the leaves on the trees are not moving so that everything is sharp on the image.

I experienced that a white balance of 2500K G9 works best for my camera but different camera models might require different settings. Since the Hoya R72 IR filter is almost black it always takes some time to get a sharp image with the auto focus. Once the focus is good enough I set the camera to manual focus (to "lock" the focus) and shot several images with different exposures in RAW mode. Thus I can choose the best exposure later because the display of the camera might not show the brightness accurately. Moreover, many different exposures allow me to create an HDR image if desired.

However, if the lighting conditions are not good enough problems with the autofocus may occur. In such cases, you have to focus manually while keeping the filter attached to the lens. If you remove the filter to focus manually the photo will be slightly blurred because IR rays do not have the same focal point than visible light rays.

3. Processing the image in Photoshop

Please note: This is only one way to process an IR image. Another way can be found here: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/06/infrared-photography-tutorial.html

Your infrared image will probably have a red/magenta hue. Additionally, it may be very noisy depending on your exposure settings and camera quality. However, the noise can be fixed easily with Photoshop and also the hue is no problem. Here’s my original image:

The first step is to open the channel mixer (image > adjustments > channel mixer). Choose “Red” as the output channel and move the source channel slider of red to 0% and the slider of blue to 100%. Then choose “Blue” from the output channel menu and slide red to 100% and blue to 0%. You should get something like this:

Now it’s time to adjust the levels. Click on image > adjustments > levels (or press [Ctrl+L] and click on the “auto” button. Here’s the result of this action:

Additionally, you can adjust the levels manually. Choose the red channel in the drop-down menu and move the black slider a bit to the right (where the red slider is):

Then choose the green channel and move the sliders as indicated below:

Now it’s time to change the hue. Click on image > adjustments > hue/saturation (or press [Ctrl+U]) and check the “colorize” box on the right. Move the sliders of hue and saturation until you get a result that you like. Mine looks like this:

For reducing the noise I recommend Photoshop plugins specially designed for this job because the Photoshop noise reduction feature (despecle) is unsatisfactory. With plugins such as Noise Ninja or Neat Image you will get much better results. For the final step I also applied a bleaching filter (Red Paw Media Bleach Bypass Pro; free BleachBypass) before reducing the noise so that I got even more contrast. In the end my picture looks like this:

Link to glossyart.com

2008-07-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

If you have your own webspace and want to link to glossyart.com feel free to use these buttons. Thank you! :)

Infrared Photography Tutorial

2008-06-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

In this article I will disclose my technique of post-processing infrared images.

Rivers, lakes and trees are great spots for infrared images. Fortunately, there's a river flowing right through our village, so I don't have to walk too far to find a place like this:

The clouds and their reflections on the water looked perfect to me, so I put my camera (a Sony Alpha) on the tripod, screwed the Hoya R72 IR filter on the lens and shot away.

Tip: Due to the long exposure time, you should use a remote control or the self-timer to avoid vibrations. For best results, wait until there is no wind and the leaves on the trees are not moving.

I experienced that a white balance of 2500K G9 works best for my camera but different camera models might require different settings. Since the Hoya R72 IR filter is almost black it always takes some time to get a sharp image with the auto focus. Once the focus is good enough I set the camera to manual focus (to "lock" the focus) and shot several images with different exposures in RAW mode. Thus I can choose the best exposure later because the display of the camera might not show the brightness accurately. Moreover, many different exposures allow me to create an HDR image if desired.

When I was back home I chose this image for post-production:

The exposure seemed just right; nothing is over- or underexposed. I imported the RAW file to Photoshop without adjusting anything at first.

Then I cropped the image at the bottom to get a width/height ratio of about 1.6:1, which equals roughly the golden mean and is more eye-pleasing:

After that I had Photoshop adjust the levels automatically by pressing Shift+Ctrl+L:

Then I used the channel mixer (Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer) to get a blue hue. I chose "Red" as the output channel and moved the source channel slider of red to 0% and the slider of blue to 100%. Then I chose "Blue" from the output channel menu and slided red to 100% and blue to 0%. Afterwards the image looked like this:

Now that doesn't look too bad, does it? But still there's a lot to be done. I found the saturation a bit too much so I decreased it with the PowerRetouche Saturation plug-in (setting -90/photographic):

In order to increase the contrast by making the trees a bit whiter (they still have a magenta hue) and the sky darker I applied a red filter with the PowerRetouche Studio Black and White plug-in. The result looks like this:

Alternatively, you can experiment with the Photoshop photo filters (Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter).

However, there's still too much magenta in the trees. So I set the saturation (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation) of magentas to -75, of reds to -70 and of blues to -50 in order to make them look more natural:

For the last step I used the dodge tool (O) and set a few highlights on the trees to make them look more plastic and whiter. With the elliptic marquee tool (feather: 100 pixels) I selected some trees to increase the contrast and to bring out the branches more. Before submitting the image to deviantART I resized it, sharpened it, and added a border so that it looks good on a computer screen.

You can view the final version here:

Wallpapers:

1280x1024:

1024x768:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me. Another IR tutorial can be found here: http://www.glossyart.com/blog/2008/07/taking-and-processing-infrared-photos.html

6 Steps to Better Photos

2008-06-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

1. Zoom in. Do not include unnecessary surroundings that distract the viewer from the main object. By using a longer focal length you can also reduce the depth of field (DoF) and blur the background, thus making the object more outstanding. An open aperture (small f-number) and/or short distance to the object also cause a narrow DoF.

2. Apply the rule of thirds/the Golden Mean. Do not place your main object right in the middle of the image unless you want your image to look static or symmetrical. Divide the image into thirds and place your subject where the lines cross to make it more dynamic. Example:

Source: photoshopnerds.com

3. Make sure the horizon is really a horizontal line. If you do not have a good reason to break this rule, a (landscape) shot with a crooked horizon will always make your photo look like a snapshot. So, take that extra second to align your camera or fix the crooked horizon with Photoshop.

4. Use the self-timer more often. Even if you take a picture with a tripod, your photo can sometimes be blurry because of the vibration when the shutter button is pressed. To avoid this, you could use a remote control or simply use the self-timer. Pro-tip for (D)SLR users: Enable mirror lock-up before the shot to eliminate vibration completely. If your shot is still blurry, just wait until the wind is gone.

5. "Orbit" your object. Just like an electron orbits an atomic nucleus you have to orbit your object and explore different perspectives. It's a simple equation: The more original the perspective, the more interesting your photo. This one goes hand in hand with step...

...6. Be creative. Do not take the same shot that hundreds of people took before you (recent trends seem to be people jumping on the beach or someone in a field with red balloons). If you just copy another image your own image does not have any impact anymore.

Scam: Picture.com and Poetry.com

2008-06-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

_{Extract: Do not buy a photo book by the International Library of Photography if you get a letter from them. All the others can disregard this article because you won't find the book in bookstores anyway lol.}

Since picture.com seems to be very popular for their contests I think a lot of people are affected by their unfair practices. Here's my story:

I received a letter from picture.com saying that the image I submitted for their photo contest has been selected as a semi-final winner and will proceed to the finals. Sounds good so far, doesn't it? But it comes even better: The letter also read that I could get my image published in a coffee-table photo book if I just sign the artist's proof and send it back to the picture.com office. And here is where the scam begins.

According to the letter the book's working title was "Endless Journeys" and would probably be published in Winter 2008. They even provided the ISBN and a brochure about the book. The price of the book would be $89.95 but I could get a discount of $20 if I pre-ordered it. Now that sounds a bit fishy because usually if you contribute to a book you will get paid and also get free samples of the book--but in this case it seems to be the other way round. Also, the price for the book is quite high.

So I searched for the ISBN on Amazon but couldn't find it. Instead I found a number of forum threads dealing with the same topic, and it seems the publisher ("International Library of Photography") will only publish the book if there are enough pre-orders. What they do is called "vanity publishing". That means the book will never be sold to the public but only to the contributors themselves. So what you pay for is a book with an uncertain delivery date, uncertain title, no public audience, and with a large number of small low-quality images per page at a ridiculous price. The equation is simple: They include a large number of images to get a large number of orders from naive artists, and they use the photo contests on their website picture.com as a decoy.

More scam: They sent me an e-mail offering a medal and a certificate but I would have to pay for it--since when do you actually have to pay for an award?

By the way, did you know that the contact address at poetry.com is the same as the one at picture.com? Same scam, different website.

New Wallpaper: "Incoming"

2008-06-29T04:39:00.000-07:00

I've been overwhelmed by the huge amount of views and faves this wallpaper has received at deviantART since I uploaded it two weeks ago. "Incoming" was taken from the 29th floor of the TPI Tower in Bangkok two weeks ago and portrays the skyline of South-East Asia's top metropolis at dusk. At this particular time the cloud formation was quite impressive, however with Photoshop I was able to make the colors even more dramatic. The key was the level auto-adjustment feature. With the elliptic marquee tool (feather setting: 50px) I selected a small part of the sky (maybe 1/6) and auto-adjusted the levels by pressing Ctrl+L. This procedure was repeated on the other parts of the sky until I got the final result (and it required a lot of trial-and-error). Power Retouche contrast and black definition plug-ins rounded up the color enhancement, while the Noise Ninja plug-in kicked some noisy ass and sharpened the image. Feel free to download the wallpaper at http://nxxos.deviantart.com/art/Incoming-88646651.

Are you a REAL Photoshop Whore?

2008-06-29T03:58:00.000-07:00

1. You go to the department store to buy new brushes because you've downloaded all the brushes from the Internet already.

2. At school, you ask if you can have that sponge tool real quick.

3. Actually, everything is a tool for you, like an eat-tool, clock tool, sleep tool, drive tool, think tool and so on. And of course, beer is your favorite blur tool.

4. You see a woman and you don't like her make-up. You think "damn she really should adjust the color settings."

5. You just can't stick to ONE Photoshop version. You use CS2 for photo manipulating, CS for painting and the old 6.0 for other purposes because it's still the best.

6. You can draw a perfectly photorealistic picture with only the pen tool (4 p--now that's what I call an alliteration :P).

7. Your number one pickup line: "Let's merge two layers."

8. Number two: "Wanna check out my new hand tool settings?"

9. You use Clearasil to "reduce the noise" on your skin.

10. You actually bought a legal copy of the program.

11. You have to vomit when you hear someone say "Corel". Now I just hope you didn't puke on your keyboard.

12. You know what ImageReady is for.

13. You wrote all the how-to tips.

14. In fact, whenever Adobe can't answer a question from a customer, they will ask you.

15. You're pissed because in Math you don't learn the calculations you really need.

16. Your eyes see the world in CMYK mode.

17. And your brain can add some filters if necessary.

18. You clear the history and wonder why your ex is still there.

19. You use a projector, because that's the only way to see your print in full view.

20. Your daughter's name is Adobe.

21. You'll probably never read this article because you're too busy with Photoshop.

Models Wanted

2008-06-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

We are currently looking for models in order to expand our portfolio. It doesn't matter if you've just started your modeling career or if you're an experienced model already. If you're over 18, live in the Bangkok metropolitan area and like to pose please feel free to send us an e-mail. You can contact us in English, Thai, or German (although English is our preferred language).

Right now we're planning a shoot at a swimming pool (bikini, no nude) in Ratburana near the Kasikorn Bank Head Office Building, however please do not hesitate to tell us if you have some other ideas in your mind.

The photo shoot will be on a TFCD (time for image CD) basis. That means neither you as the model nor us as the photographers will take any money--instead, you "pay" us with your time and we "pay" you with our photos on CD/DVD. All details (such as the amount of images that you'll get) will be written in a contract/model release. You should bring your own clothes but you do not have to bring any make-up as we will have a make-up artist at the set.

Of course, if you want you can bring an accompanying person with you.

If you have any further questions please send us an e-mail or call us at +66847337137 (English) or +66816487702 (Thai/English).

Dark Clouds over Thailand

2008-06-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

Dark clouds are over the Thai government building as the siege continues (more info and images here: [link] ). Last Friday, the PAD (People's Alliance for Democracy) and their supporters have successfully broken through the police lines and are now peacefully camping right in front of the fence of the compound. Thai Prime Minister Samak does not really seem to be willing to interfere. The policemen are now standing behind the fence guarding the last barricade between the people and the government building. The main stage, which is just 10 meters away from the fence, has now a roof--a sign that the siege is likely to continue for a longer time. However, the PM is still able to go in and out of the government building. Nevertheless, the situation is like a stalemate. The PM says he doesn't want to resign and the protesters want to remain peaceful. Both parties are too stubborn and I don't get the impression that anyone wants to do something constructive. In the meantime, at least the food and bandana sellers are having a great time.

Policemen are taking some rest and get crazy after seeing my camera.

Exhausted protesters and their tents.

Figures depicting former PM Thaksin, PM Samak and some other politician.

With the f-word covered by another poster, this banner becomes kinda funny...

The main stage gets a roof--looks like the protesters want to stay a while here.

A policeman guarding the government house.

Exhibition: Press Photo in Focus

2008-06-29T03:22:00.000-07:00

Until July 6th an exhibition titled "Press Photo in Focus" will be open at the Zen Event Gallery, 8th floor CentralWorld shopping mall, Bangkok.

It will feature all winning images from the World Press Photo Awards and other works that rocked the world of press photography. It will be rounded up by various workshops.

Official website: http://www.pressphotoinfocus.com/

Check out the world press photo winner gallery online: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/