Tag: People

Little People in Paris: 5 Tiny Street Art Scenes by Slinkachu

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

The tiny figures of Slinkachu play out surreal scenarios ranging from dramatic to comedic, all against the backdrop of life-sized props that seem giant by comparison. His latest set of little plays took place on the streets of Paris.

His Little People works hide in plain sight, almost too small to see unless spotted out of the corner of one’s eye. He was invited to France for “ReAct Paris, a conference organised by the European Parliament to tackle the problems of unemployment in Europe, particularly youth unemployment, which in some parts of Europe stand close to a miserable 30%.”

Fitting the theme, most of his installations this time around featured people hard at work, from miniature electricians to tiny scientists, group meetings around graphs and workers arranged on a horizontal I-beam (reenacting a classic New York City Photograph).

Previous Slinkachu series, like the Little People of London, has also been seen in galleries and on the streets of other major cities from New York to Beijing. His subjects often interact with everyday detritus in curious ways, finding their on way to work with whatever they encounter a local scale.

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Miniature City Scenes: 21 of Slinkachu’s Tiny Art Installations

Slinkachu is a UK-based artist who creates tiny scenes on city streets. He photographs each scene and then leaves it to be discovered.
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Little People of London: Miniature Urban Street Art Images

Wonderfully creative urban street art. These photographs, taken around town in London and even shown in galleries, are just a small portion of the work.
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Facing the Arts: Playful Urban Wall Art in Streets of Paris

All around the streets of Paris, a familiar face is seen. It floats in tourist spots, adorns mailboxes, greets diners at sidewalk cafes. Who is behind the mask?
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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

November 12, 2013
Editorial: Why Some People Hate Comments (And Why We Don’t)

Matt Honan of Wired.com thinks the time has come to banish comments sections from the Internet. Writing in Wired.com’s Gadget Lab blog, Honan describes the ‘collective delusion’ among online publishers that comments are a necessary component of web content and characterizes active comments moderation as ‘a messy, frustrating and typically thankless affair that involves more time than most people have’. In this short editorial, editor Barnaby Britton explains why we do allow comments, despite the downsides.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

August 26, 2013
20 people injured trying to win new LG phone

What would you do for a new smartphone? At recent promotional event in Seoul, South Korea, twenty people were injured, seven seriously, while trying to collect free phone vouchers for LG’s new G2 handset. According to authorities, the stunt went badly wrong when crowds showed up carrying BB guns and ‘knives on sticks’ to retrieve the vouchers, which were suspended from helium balloons. This simply confirms our long-standing suspicion that the human race truly is doomed. Click through to read more at connect.dpreview.com.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

August 15, 2013
Portrait Photography: How to Photograph People in the Harsh Midday Sun

By: Oded Wagenstein

Great tips and tricks on overcoming the harsh mid-day sun to create beautiful portraits on either side of the “golden hours”

The Golden Time

The best time to take almost any kind of picture, is in the “golden hours”: around one hour before sun down and one hour after sunrise, because that’s when the light is at its softest, lacking hard shadows, rich in colors, bathing your subject in even light, which entering from the side and that gives your subjects face definition.

-Uzbekistan-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 3.5, shutter speed@10 ISO 160

-Tajikistan-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 5.6, shutter speed@15, ISO 200.

-China –
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 2.8, shutter speed@10 and ISO 400
Natural light (sunrise) entering the frame from the right

-Tajikistan-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 5.6, shutter speed@10 and ISO 100
Natural light (sunrise) reflecting from the mountains, which are about 45 degrees to the woman (you can see it in the window).

Once this time (golden time) has passed, we are left with harsh, unflattering light that is low in saturation and makes the images look dull and flat as you can see in this photo:

-India-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 8, shutter speed@10 and ISO 100
The harsh mid-day sun is just above him.

The Problem

In order to provide solutions, first let’s understand the “problem”: Your camera doesn’t see as well as your eyes. The “problem” is the camera’s dynamic range. In plain English, the dynamic range is the distance between the brightest and darkest points in the frame. Let’s say you take a shot of a man wearing a hat in the middle of the day, when the sun is at its highest and harshest. Your eyes will be able to make out his eyes even under the shadow of his hat, as well as his chin in the strong daylight. That’s because your eyes have the ability to see a large dynamic range.

Your camera however has a far more limited ability to see the dynamic range .If you we go back to our man in the hat, your camera will see his eyes, which are in shadow under his hat as black, while his chin which is in strong sunlight will be blown out and very white.

You might try to “fix it” by changing your aperture/shutter or ISO parameters but, this would only make your image lighter or darker as these actions have no bearing on the dynamic range. Even if we try to use an ND filter, again, this would only make your image darker and would not solve the problem or alter the range.

The Solutions

Move to the shade
Try moving the subject to the shade, or perhaps indoors. When I asked Steve McCurry, the creator of the “Afghan Girl” image, how he works in the mid day sun, he told me that he prefers to work indoors with the harsh light coming in through a window so that it turns to soft even light, and that’s really change my way of “seeing” the harsh light as an opportunity of creating great images by moving to the shade or indoors.

-Thailand-
Canon EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L
Fstop of 3.5, shutter speed@10 and ISO 160
This woman is sitting in the shade with strong light coming from the street (to her left). A small piece of paper was held above her head to block the light (flag).

Try turning your subject 45 degrees to the light source (exp: window) by doing so you will be able to create a nice 3D effect.

-Uzbekistan-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 2.8, shutter speed@10 and ISO 500
Natural light (only) coming from the window on the left side of the frame (about 45 degrees)

-Laos-
Canon EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L
Fstop of 3.5, shutter speed@100 and ISO 1000
I used the soft light coming through a red robe which was on the right side of the frame, in order to “sculpture” the light on his face. It also gave the whole image some sort of orange glow.

Create a Silhouette

Expose your image from the background, so your subject becomes a silhouette in some cases it makes for a wonderful image.

You can do so by using the manual exposure (M mode) or by changing the metering mode to spot and measure from the background.

-Thailand-
Canon EF 24-70 mm f/2.8L
Fstop of 5, shutter speed@10 and ISO 100 (on spot metering)
Natural light only

Burn it Down

Burning the background is not always a bad thing. On the contrary it creates a unique portrait that’s different and interesting

-India-
Assistant: Hardik Pandya
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 4.5, shutter speed@10 and ISO 200
Natural light only

Reflector

By using a reflector, you can minimize the light range by bouncing light back onto your subject, which will add light to the dark areas. Like this image below. I used a small folding reflector, which I held in my hand while taking the photo.

-Tajikistan-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 8, shutter speed@10and ISO 100
Natural light+ Reflector (gold color) I held in my hand on the lower left side of the frame + warm natural light bouncing off the mud wall

-India-
Assistant: Hardik Pandya
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Fstop of 2.8, shutter speed@10 and ISO 100
This nice lady was sitting in the shade of her house + silver color reflector, coming from the right upper side of the frame.

External Flash

Like the reflector, the flash will add more light to the dark areas in turn creating a smaller dynamic range.

-India-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Assistant: Hardik Pandya
Fstop of 9, shutter speed@10 and ISO 100
Natural light of the background sky + fill light flash (off camera and inside a small soft box) coming from the right side of the frame, about 1 meter in front of the man’s face.

HDR

Taking 3 (or more) exposures of your subject and using this technique in post processing could come in very handy.

-India-
Canon EFS 17-55mm f/2.8
Assistant: Hardik Pandya
Fstop of 11, shutter speed@10 and ISO 100
Natural light of the background sky + fill light flash (off camera and inside a small soft box, coming from the left side of the frame) + HDR effect in Photoshop.

I would like to thank Hardik Pandya and Linda Burnette for their help on making this article.

Do you have any interesting techniques or methods to overcome the harsh light? Please share in the comments.

Oded Wagenstein is a Travel photographer and writer. He is a regular contributor to the National Geographic Traveler magazine (Israeli Edition) and he is known for his intimate culture portraits. You can join his Portrait & Travel Photography blog and continue to discuss on travel and people photography and get more amazing tips!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Portrait Photography: How to Photograph People in the Harsh Midday Sun

Digital Photography School

August 13, 2013
Street Mural Turns Into an Animation as People Drive By

[ By Delana in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

Remember making hand-held flipbooks when you were a kid? Those cute little books that made primitive cartoons when you flipped through the pages quickly could amuse and entertain for hours. Recently, Argentinian street artist Hyuro brought that joyful amusement to Copenhagen on a long wall that many cars pass by every day.

In/between consists of 87 aluminum panels, each showing a piece of an animation. When seen all together from a moving car, the animation shows the short story of a deer running through a forest and then emerging. The animated mural is a classy, sophisticated piece of graffiti that the whole city gets to enjoy.

Hyuro and her helper painted the entire mural/animation by hand over the course of two weeks. Hyuro’s project was chosen in a competition held by artistic community ArtRebels, which drew submissions from artists all over the world.

[ By Delana in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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WebUrbanist

June 29, 2013
How to Shoot Portraits without People
Here’s a riddle! Or the toughest photo assignment ever.

How do you shoot a portrait without any people in it? Or a landscape without any land?

While thinking about how Ansel Adams might shoot that second one is fun, we’re totally enamored with Camilla Catrambone’s response to the first.

She shoots portraits of people not by having them sit for her but by laying out a person’s belongings and photographing that instead!

Camilla shows us her grandfather with an old rotary phone, a watch, a well-worn leather briefcase. Her grandmother — a red comb, a collection of silver spoons, a pearl necklace.

It’s the things we choose to surround ourselves with that tell the story of who we are.

Photographing a person’s possessions is a way of bringing that person to life. What a way to solve a riddle.

Also, see: Scanography — self portraits via scanner and What’s in your bag?

Portraits of My Family by Camilla Catrambone

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Photojojo
June 18, 2013
Hell is Other People: Avoid Your Friends Using Social Media

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

Social media was invented to bring people closer, but the more antisocial among us can use it in a different way: to avoid the people we know. ‘Hell is Other People‘ is an interactive smartphone app that will show you exactly where your friends are based on Foursquare check-ins, and provide ‘safe zones’ where you can hang out without fear of being recognized.

Using the GPS function on your phone and your contacts’ public check-ins or location updates on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other social media, the app will show you yellow points on a map that indicate where your friends are. The green points represent ‘safe zones.’

Of course, the map only works if your friends are avid social media users, checking in to virtually every place they go, and you still run the risk of running into them when they’re in route. You also might be relegated to unexpected places in the city. But as creator Scott notes in the video, “It’s kind of nice that I’ve been pushed into parks.”

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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WebUrbanist

June 14, 2013
Painted People: 31 Works of Art on Human Canvas

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

Human bodies become exotic animals and crashed cars, or blend almost seamlessly into intricate backgrounds, with careful application of body paint and a bit of acrobatics. These 31 works of art turn people into living canvases, sometimes celebrating the graceful shapes and movement of their bodies, and at other times, disguising it.

Alexa Meade’s 2D Paintings on 3D People

Those aren’t two-dimensional paintings on a flat surface; they’re real, live people transformed into human canvases by artist Alexa Meade. “The models are transformed into embodiments of the artist’s interpretation of their essence,” says Meade. “When captured on film, the living, breathing people underneath the paint disappear, overshadowed by the masks of themselves.

Wallpaper People by Emma Hack

Painted models virtually disappear into patterned backgrounds in works by artist Emma Hack. The models must be painstakingly hand-painted to match up perfectly with backgrounds that are often very complex, and then remain perfectly still so the scene can be photographed. It can take as long as nineteen hours to apply the makeup for a single scene.

Human Animals by Gesine Marwedel

The graceful, flexible bodies of performance artists are an ideal medium for artist Gesine Marwedel, who uses paint to turn them into animals like flamingos, dolphins, hummingbirds and tigers. “Body painting is not just paint on a living canvas, it is picking up the body shapes in a subject and the painting on the body,” Marwedel told PSFK. “It is the transformation of a human being into a breathing, moving, living work of art.”

Painted Alive: Brilliant Work by Craig Tracy

Owner of the world’s first gallery dedicated to fine art body painting (located in New Orleans), Craig Tracy creates his own beautiful and surreal body painting portraits that blend human models into backgrounds or turn them into psychedelic works of art. Rather than hiding the models, however, Tracy celebrates the shapes of their bodies, often exaggerating them and using them for creative effect.

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Painted People 31 Works Of Art On Human Canvas

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

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WebUrbanist

May 29, 2013
DISCUSS: When you Photograph People in Black and White, you Photograph their Souls

Canadian photojournalist – Ted Grant – is quoted as saying:

“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”

This quote often comes to mind when talking about portraiture and I thought it might make an interesting discussion starter.

Do Ted’s words resonate with you?

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

DISCUSS: When you Photograph People in Black and White, you Photograph their Souls

Digital Photography School

May 20, 2013
Moon People – Full Moon Over Twin Peaks

People watching a full moon rise over San Francisco atop Twin Peaks

Saturdays full moon was a sight to see, but then again it always is. I never tire of seeing the moon as it is a constant curiosity, inspiration, and friend. When ever I gaze upon the full moon my first thought is that we’re not alone in this big universe and second countless generations before me gazed upon this same celestial body pondering its origin, its meaning, and our relationship to it and other celestial bodies in the night sky. Astonishing when you think about it.

With that being said I leave you with Henry David Thoreau’s “The Moon”

The full-orbed moon with unchanged ray
Mounts up the eastern sky,
Not doomed to these short nights for aye,
But shining steadily.

She does not wane, but my fortune,
Which her rays do not bless,
My wayward path declineth soon,
But she shines not the less.

And if she faintly glimmers here,
And paled is her light,
Yet alway in her proper sphere
She’s mistress of the night.

Henry David Thoreau

Copyright Jim M. Goldstein, All Rights Reserved

Moon People – Full Moon Over Twin Peaks

The post Moon People – Full Moon Over Twin Peaks appeared first on JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography.

JMG-Galleries – Landscape, Nature & Travel Photography

January 30, 2013