35+ Outstanding Collection of Gorgeous Photography

This post is our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by GenCept and our users. If you want to share your inspiration, you can submit your images and inspiration to GenCept via facebook, twitter or tumblr.

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WebArchitecten sub-branding, by Utopia

Logo design sub-branding for WebArchitecten. We have designed new logos based on the main symbol for their SEO, Branding, 3D and Web Design departments and projects.
Project developed in collaboration with WebArchitecten, Netherlands.

UTOPIA is an international branding agency formed in 2011 by 3 certified brand identity specialists.
Visit www.weareutopia.com to see more logo and identity design projects and find out more about Utopia project.

16 Useful Photography Apps For Your Android Phone

A few months ago we did a roundup of what we thought was some of the best photography apps for iPhone. Many of you wanted to see some Android love so today we do the same for Android. Below you will find 16 very useful photography apps, both free and paid, for your android phone.

Instagram is by far one of the most popular camera apps out there. It allows you to create amazing images via their incredible suite of effects you can apply to your pics. Instagram also lets you share your creations with the world.

Awesome Miniature Pro is a very robust app for creating the very popular tilt shift effect.

Photo Art allows you to quickly create works of art from your photos. With 32 effects and 12 brush types, you will have many tools to be creative.

Camera ICS+ adds many more features to your phones camera.

Vignette is a full features camera application that also allows you to create beautiful vignette’s and frames for your images.

PicsArt is a free, full-featured photo editor and art community.

Camera FV-5 is a professional camera app, that puts DSLR-like manual controls in your fingertips. This is a must have for any serious mobile photographer.

Pudding Camera’s claim to fame is it’s ability to take photos and apply effects in real time.

Pro HDR Camera allows you to create the popular HDR looks to your mobile photos. Unlike other HDR apps this one actually extends the dynamic range of your camera, creating images exposed highlights and shadows then merges the two together.

Retro Camera takes your photos back in time with vintage camera simulation and multiple retro effects.

Pano is an award-winning app that allows you to take beautiful panoramic shots.

PhotoStudio is a powerful photo editing studio on the go.

Camera Zoom FX is a complete package. It combines powerful camera features with superb post processing effects for your photos.

HDR Camera+ is another excellent HDR app packed full of features.

Stop Motion is a fun app that allow you to create stop motion animation. It’s feature rich and easy to use.

PicSay Pro is a photo editor that allows you to have fun with your shots.

20 Innovative Work Done by Carl Warner

Wow! What a photographs this is the first time am seeing such an amazing landscape photographs what an innovative work done by Carl Warner. What an idea it is really it is amazing and words are less to explain it. Normally landscape means what comes to our mind? Natural scenes or Rock Mountains or gardens etc but this [...]

Black by Joanne Leah

Joanne Leah was born in Germany and adopted at birth. Her family moved to the American South when she was 4 years old. via PhotoHab – Social Photography Blogs.

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Lighting The Cyc

For those of you who don't know, cyc is short for cyclorama. They are in most professional studios and have replaced the seamless paper almost entirely. Why? Because with a cyc, you have complete control over your background. A cyc is where the corners and seams are not visible. Cycs normally cover two sides of the studio. Assuming that your model is far enough away from the cyc, lighting can be controlled so that the background effect can be light or dark. Colored lights, cukaloris and other patterned screens can be used on the cyc to create interesting background effects. When lit evenly, the smooth surface, even as it goes around the corner of a studio, can provide an “infinity effect” - an endless space behind the models.

You can either light the cyc or not light the cyc. I will show you the difference. To achieve an "infinity effect", I light the background with 4 light heads. 2 on each side. They are angled at a 45 degree angle to hit the background evenly. I use V flaps behind my lights to control flare and spillage onto the set.

This shot is using the 4 lights on the background effect:

As you can see, there is no shadow on the background. It is a smooth, endless appearing background.

If you want to create a black background, obviously just don’t light the background at all. With your main key lights that will be lighting the model, make sure you flag the light off the background so there is no spillage behind the subjects. In this shot, I photographed a different model on a different day but on the same exact cyc. There is just no lighting on the cyc, whatsoever.

Again, the model is far enough from the background but this time it is not as important than if I had lighting on the background because I don’t have to worry about spillage from either my key on to the background or my background light spilling onto the set, thus interfering with my lighting on the model.

For mood, you can create a gradient on the background, giving the effect that the background is indeed there but not competing with the model or the overall impact of the image. You can try throwing one light on the background to create a splash of light across the back or you can use lights from different angles, I’ve even placed a light head on the floor and pointed it up toward the background to create an interesting effect. This is a shot where I used one head on the background in order to create a silhouette effect behind my models:

The key point of interest is around the faces of the young men I photographed. In order to bring the viewers eye to that point of interest, I lit the cyc at that particular angle so it backlit the models and created more detail.

With lighting a background or cyc, you need to experiment. Try 4 lights, then 2 lights. Meter your background and try different exposures. I get about a 1 to 1 1/2 stop ratio between my background and my key light when I intend to blow out the background and create the infinite seamless white background. When I go totally black, I just make sure I flag everything off from my key lights so there is no spillage.

One thing I would stress is that there is no “right” way. It’s entirely up to the photographer’s eye and taste on what he/she is trying to achieve. There are all kinds of formulas, all kinds of mathematics and theories out there. I’m a photographer, not a mathematician. You can go to DPreview for that kind of technical stuff. I just know what looks good and I learned that by trial and error. I will leave you with one last example. The two shots below are from a shoot I did for Universal Records in NYC back in April 2008. I shot the band Heavy Mojo. We were going for a white background effect with the band. I got it. Then I wanted to shoot the lead singer for my own personal work and he agreed. I turned off my background lights, put a beauty dish on my one key light and placed him pretty much directly under it. Here are the two lighting effects, same model, same cyc, different background lighting. And of course, a different key light.

All Images 2008 Melissa Rodwell Photography LLC.

Dancing in the Dark

Subtracting light

2008 Melissa Rodwell Photography LLC.

One of my lighting "secrets" is subtracting light from a set. Of course, you have to know how to light if you're going to figure out how to not light. There are a number of ways to achieve this. When I was still learning lighting, I would set up my lights in an organized fashion; key light, back light, hair light, etc. if you have a basic lighting set up, you can start there. Then it's time to play! Start by removing the key light. How does it look? Too dark? Either turn it back on but turn it down to a lower setting. Or if you placed your key in front of your model, put it to her side. Put a soft box on a light head, then take a V flat and cover half of the box. Subtracting light, see? It's all about taking away the light, but leaving enough there to get a good exposure. You can also leave your key in place but remove the back light or hair light. Or eye light or background light. One of the things I love to do is to over-expose my back lighting and letting that light "fill" my model. I let it wrap around her so it is actually used as a broad key light source. It's tricky, especially in digital where you can't blow out your whites. But it can be done.

Duvetyne? Know it. Love it. Get it. The film industry uses it by the crates, it's used on sets to black out windows. If they have a schedule to shoot a night shot during the day, they cover the windows with duvetyne and it creates a total blacked out set. Duvetyne , when used on a small still shoot, actually absorbs light. So if you're model is being lit on one side, you can put duvetyne on the other side of her and you will have truly split lighting. Try it with black paper or a large black flag. Put it up to someone's face, you'll see it gets darker where it's reflecting. And it's the same theory as reflectors just the polar opposite.

Or, as I mentioned before, you can also try black V flats and flags. They work wonders in subtracting light. I use flags everywhere. I use more flags than lights, actually. I flag my camera for back light flare. I flag the model. I flag the lights to subtract light. The flag is your friend.

I hate to admit this, but in my opinion most photographers over light their shoots. They use too much light and the shots become flat and boring. I know there is a tendency to do this when you're first starting out and learning the craft. You want everything to show. It doesn't make for an interesting picture most of the time, though. Mood and edge are created by using less light and more interesting angles.

Another thing you can try is moving your models around and away from the light. Another one of my tricks is that I will place the model about a foot in front of the key light. I then duvetyne one side of where she is standing and over expose between a stop and a stop in a half. Throw a wind machine on her, and voila! It's a pretty interesting shot. This is how I lit Heather, the model in the picture above. I actually had her hold herself up on top of a box covered with duvetyne so we could get a lot of shadow in there. Then I moved the light about a foot behind her and over exposed about 1 stop.

Practice makes perfect and it's hard to get it perfect until you can actually "see" the shadows lighting the models. Again, though, when you're just starting out, light a set and then start taking away lights and test each phase. You can look at your results and start to train your eye on what works and what doesn't work. Try it and let me know how it works for you!

Top 3 Fashion Retouching Tips

So here it is...what you've all been waiting for; no hoax, no blurring, no quick, easy, fast, one-action techniques from your friends at ThePhotoshopGuru .com. Just you sitting in your chair, or on your couch, or in your bed, (the way I like to do it) with your eyes. Let me introduce myself... My name is David Skyler, and if you haven't heard by now I'm the full time in-house retouch artist/graphic designer/all around tech-geek for Melissa Rodwell and of course her loving husband and business partner. Here are some retouching tips that might lead you in the right direction and help you make your fashion photographs much stronger.

Tip #1 : Learn to Squint, Tilt your head, and TRAIN YOUR EYE.

Do the small details count? The answer is...ENORMOUSLY! Have you ever heard of the "Butterfly Affect"? This is serious, people. No joke. Where would you be right now if that plane you're sitting in had a tiny screw stuck in its turbine?

The question you need to ask yourself is this: why does a simple website, with no large outer-glows, fast moving effects, or swirly illustrations move you and grab your attention? Let's start with the 3 primary colors. The designer decided to use these specifically to keep your eyes circling towards the center of what he/she wants you to read. The font matches the logo so well, that they almost move as one. Or how about the navigation that is placed at exactly the right place (x and y values), to keep you navigating through the site? So, I ask you again, do the small details count?

Do this experiment for me. Open up any 1 of the 10,000 images you have on your computer right now. HOLD ON! DON'T OPEN THE ALL-IN-ONE PLUG-INS FILTER JUST YET!!! Now I want you to very carefully, take a moment to notice what is distracting you from this image. When you squint your eyes, tilt your head, zoom-in and out, what details/elements are DISTRACTING you from experiencing the full effect of this image? Is it the white sparkly spots on the background? The extra set of Lawn Mower Hair flying over her lip? Dirt from the lens that appears on the model’s shirt? Or the strange hue of green emanating off her arm zoomed in at 200%, also known as moir (an effect that only digital cameras have on images, by trying to recreate a color that doesn't exist in its spectrum)? Here is an image I have just randomly pulled up and have circled ALL of the spots on the body that are a distraction to me.

(click here to view image full size)

A lot eh? Maybe next time it will make you think twice before opening those Amazing Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure Filters. My technique with retouching is to START AT THE GRASS ROOTS LEVEL. Learn how to notice the distractions because removing these alone will vastly improve your image. This is always my first step when retouching an image, and if you want to be good, which you do because you've gotten this far with my sarcastic ass, it should be yours too.

*Constantly "zooming-in and out" is also a very important tip, as sometimes being so close, or so far away from an image for long periods of time can start to hinder your eye and the way you see an image, so it is important to remember this tip:

Every 3-5 minutes you should have zoomed-in and out on an image to view it from:
far away(33%)
medium (75%)
and large (100%).

Tip #2 : Using SKIN HEALING FILTERS, ACTIONS, EVIL "I DESTROY PIXELS" TOOLS = BAD – Make sure the final product looks as amazing on PAPER as it does online.

Seriously guys, how many people out there do you think have the SAME EXACT photoshop filters/actions as you do, use the same exact things you do, with the same kinds of cameras and the same kind of lighting? Look at the download numbers, they don't lie. In fact, I won’t lie to you and tell you that, yes it will take more time, but it will ultimately pay off for you in the long run. The long run meaning, when you want to get your images off a 600 pixel size backlit screen and onto a piece of REAL PAPER. Simply put, blurred pixels do not look good printed. In my opinion, HDR 2001 space oddity color hues don't look good printed, nor do I think you will find many REAL art directors who are going to hire you for a fashion campaign who don’t agree. They are old-school, the darkroom is old-school, dodge and burn is old-school, real colors that work on real PAPER is OLD SCHOOL. Photoshop was created as a digital darkroom; it has all the tools you will ever need. Yes, it does have a healing brush and it's amazing, if you use it correctly. But don’t make your brush size bigger than 10 pixels and try to swipe over half an arm in 2 seconds. Make your brush as big as the spot, and if the spot is too big, well guess what, there are other tools for that. It's important to use each tool for the purpose it was created, everything you need is there!

GOOD: Regular Skin Texture

BAD (for fashion): *Nik Color Efex Skin Softener*

When people ask me on this blog how shots are retouched and what kind of post-production is done, the answer I give them is "Try your best not to use automated tools, such as skin softeners". What these tools are basically doing is indiscriminately using algorithms that blur pixels and take away the sharpness and texture of an image. Skin and clothing texture are some of the most important parts of making your images stand out when printed, as the printer is reading 300 dots per inch rather than 300 of the same blurred dots per inch. This is not to say the skin shouldn't look flawless. Fashion, for the most part, (unless you are working on males) is pretty flawless, but it takes a lot more time than you would think. If your images are taking anything less than 4 hours to finish (especially if you're just starting out), there is something wrong. In the beginning, 1 image would take 2 days for me to finish. Now, because I am a lot more aware of the areas I need to attack and the structure of my workflow, it will only take me around 4 hours to complete an image.

A small example of my layer setup:

1. Original Layer
2. Healing Layer (Includes, blemishes, pimples, background spots, hair fly-aways etc.)
3. Dodge and Burn Layer (explained in later tutorials)
4. Liquify Layer (this should always be your last layer, because all of the hard work you've done beforehand can always be saved without distorting the image first.)
5. Color Correction Smart Objects (you can begin adjusting color from the beginning, as this will make for easier retouching)

This is really a good idea of what I do when retouching it is pretty much all my steps; and I usually end up with 4 layers and my color adjustments.

Tip #3 : COLOR + REAL PEOPLE = REAL COLOR!

I touched on this a little bit in the last tip, using certain HDR Filters, Bleach Bypass Effects, etc. to make your image look "Cool" is fine and dandy and all. Sometimes it turns out great, but I have to say, "you're in the WRONG industry". If you like to tweak your images this way, I recommend becoming a sports, art, car, or product photographer. There's nothing wrong with it and I'm not trying to dismiss these techniques... but the fact of the matter is, Fashion and Beauty photos in particular have very natural skin tones. I can't tell you how many times I have seen images that are OVERLY SATURATED, have too much RED, GREEN, or ORANGE, or are just so over the top, there's too much of EVERYTHING, or not enough of ANYTHING.

When working with color and trying to keep a natural quality to skin tone, try to remember the model in real life; what their skin tones were, etc. Sounds crazy, but try to imagine them right in front of you; this is always the best technique. It takes a very trained eye to learn color, it has taken me years of trial and error, to finally realize how to balance it and see it. It should be done in very small increments. If you feel there is too much red, don't go to your hue/sat and try to take out 20% red. Take out 3% red and see how it feels to you, maybe add or remove some blue, to create more yellow. It's NOT always just about taking out 1 thing, because you are not JUST taking out 1 color, you are decreasing a whole spectrum of colors, just like mixing paints, you have to mix and match to find the perfect balance. Sure, there are plenty of other color tones used in fashion, but at a very minimal increment. That's why it's important to balance your colors out first and go from there.

A lot of times, you will see images that have a lot of desaturation in the skin tone, making them look "pale". This is a very common tone, but it's based on a very small increment of desaturation on many levels and very "selectively". I say selective, because of course there are going to be times where the skin tone looks perfect, but the dress looks too green or not "prominent" enough. It's okay to go in and selectively "pop" the dress, but make sure you do this while keeping in mind the overall tone of the image, so it doesn't pop out at you like IMAX 3D.

On other images, you will sometimes see a "gold skintone" or very shiny colors, (usually used in advertising campaigns). Although the colors are a "bit over saturated" usually these models have been made to look this way even before post with the type of make-up, (spray-on-shine), the type of lighting, and the atmosphere and spectrum of colors used in the shot, as well as camera settings. Trying to tweak a shot that has not been already pre-arranged for this kind of color tone is a lot harder to do.

Although many things can be "added/fixed in post", it's important to keep in mind:

1. If the shot really needs it.

2. If the clothing, skin tone, and background compliment it.

3. If you are not destroying the quality of shot while tweaking it.

Okay, well that's it. You're left to your own devices now to go out there and enhance the original moments you have captured on camera and translate it to the ever-growing digital world. Remember, there are 101 ways to do just about everything, so you don't have to follow my word like it's god's, although I'd be happy to hear if you have done so with success : )

MeChar Handbags Ad Campaign

When the Handbag is the Star!

Lighting Setup: Soft Box on blonde’s side, Beauty Dish on brunette’s side,
gelled speedlight in background

I received a call about a job from Jennifer Disotell from Public Persona, a high-end advertising, PR and marketing agency which exclusively handles only fashion design clients. Jennifer and I go back a few years; we’ve worked together on everything from designing her website to working together on look books and line sheets. I like Jennifer’s integrity and honesty. She shoots straight from the hip! She runs her agency with two other women, her sister Nicole Disotell and their creative director, Melissa Castro. Together they are like the Charlie’s Angels of fashion advertising and promotion. Seriously, these girls are hot, talented, intelligent and on top of their game! Okay, so the assignment was to update the MeChar Handbags website and take photographs for ads to be placed in Elle Accessories and WWD. If you don’t know what WWD is by now, stop reading this post, click on that link and go educate thyself. It is the absolute authority of ALL things fashion industry! As well as web presence and editorial advertising, some of the shots were also going to be made into posters for trade shows and showrooms. The first step after her initial phone call was to set up a 3 way call with the client, Charmaine Ho, owner and designer of MeChar. We needed to all get on the same page as far as what Charmaine wanted to see in the final images. Charmaine had a great idea: a story about a girl getting made up and dressed to go out and meet a hot chick and bring her back to her hotel for some fun! Yeah! Pretty far out idea and I was all over it like an old suit! Right up my alley, as they say! When we got off the conference call, I got to work and put together a “mood board”. It’s like a story board. It’s a series of images that depict the kind of look and feel I think the shoot should have. From styling to lighting to location to type of model, it’s the theme and the look that I think the client would like to see. It’s like a visual articulation of what we talked about. Does that make sense?

Lighting Setup: Beauty Dish overhead, 1 bare speedlight on purses,
2 gelled speedlights in background

Long story short, Charmaine loved my mood board, Jennifer found the perfect hotel in Beverly Hills, The Thompson Hotel, and we held a two day casting at my house where we had girls come out from Ford, Elite, LA Models, NEXT Models and Photogenics. We found the perfect blonde Star, the girl who will be getting ready to go out to get into mischief. Gorgeous Sarah Deanna from LA Models. And then we found her paramour, the elusive, tall dark and (ummm) beautiful Amanda Pizziconi from NEXT Models. I put together a list of hair and make up artists that I not only like working with but also thought could nail the look we needed and sent the list to the client. Charmaine settled on her favorite choices. I then went about to determine who was available on the date of the shoot. We ended up going with the uber-talented Laura Mohberg from Tracey Mattingly Agency. Laura did both hair and make up for this shoot. Styling was accomplished quite succesfully by Robyn Goldberg, whose work you have seen in previous shoots of mine. I, again, love Robyn and enjoy her laid back but utterly professional personality. Pre-production went fairly smoothly considering it was an important shoot. And we only had one week to prep. I must say that my assistant Carmen Chan did an impeccable job learning how to make an estimate AND a call sheet her first week of working with me! She rocks my world!

Lighting Setup: 1 gelled speedlight on brunette’s side, 1 bare
speedlight held over my head

The handbag is prominent in every single shot because, well, yeah, it’s the item we’re selling! If you notice in all the shots, the handbag stands out! It is there, loud and clear, and it looks great! So do the models and the environment, but make no mistake: My job was to make those handbags look like something you HAVE to own. My lighting for this shoot was all over the place, so I placed the lighting info below the shot. We had a shot list of 6 total shots needed. An establishing shot: blonde star putting her make up on in the bathroom. Second shot: getting dressed and deciding on her handbag for her excursion. Third shot: caught in the hall way, dressed to the nines with her favorite bag. Fourth and Fifth shot: she meets her girl and it’s flirtation and sparks. And handbags, of course! Sixth and final shot: well, you see where it all ends up! Yes, it’s pretty PG…..it’s going in Elle Accessories and posters for showrooms and trade shows. Nudity and overt sexual overtones weren’t appropriate. We went for suggestive sexuality. There’s a difference. I know you know. : )

Lighting Setup: 2 gelled speedlights on floor for accent light,
1 bare speedlight held over my head

My challenge with this shoot was this: the hotel room was small. Given my Nikon D2x cropped sensor, my first assistant, Alex Vazquez, was kind of enough to let me borrow his Nikon D700 because I needed the full frame sensor in the hotel room shots. I also used his zoom lens (shhhhhhhhhh……………I don’t want to hear it! YES….I shot with a zoom…..I had to to get the shot). The bathroom was the size of a closet. Give me a break! I eventually went back to my beloved D2x but I had to use Alex’s 17-35mm 2.8 and his 24-70mm 2.8 for all six shots. In the hotel room, I used the 17-35mm. Out in the hallway and in the bar I was able to use the 24-70mm.

Lighting Setup: Soft Box on brunette’s side, Beauty Dish on blonde’s side

Here are the final images. There wasn’t much heavy post on it. We did add the MeChar logo to the TV screen, I wasn’t crazy about CSI:MIAMI playing on the TV. And we added the skyline in the bar shot where the girls are on the couch. Other than that, we just cleaned up and color corrected the shots. And in the end, what makes for a successful shoot??? The client is happy! Which she was! And that always puts a smile on my face! You can also check out another little behind the scenes video of the shoot on Mechar Handbags website. There’s a small interview on me and a few others of the others that were on the shoot that day! Enjoy!

Lighting Setup: Speedlight through a shoot-through umbrella in
shower and overhead bathroom light

A Photographer’s Take on Urban Camo

For his series 'Transform', Hungarian photographer Bence Bakonyi scouted colorful locations around the city and then dressed up people to match the order of colors and hues in each location.

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Superhero Skulls

The skull of superhero illustrations by Alan Maia.

More skulls of superheroes here.

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20 Most Responsive WordPress Themes of All Times

We all know what responsive web design means. People all over the world with little or no knowledge of web designs at all are demanding responsive web designs. Now for those who have no idea what a responsive web design is, let me put it in the most simplest way.

We are living in the age of technology where we have tons of gadgets like smart phones, pads, tablets, laptops and variety of screens that most of us are not even familiar with. A responsive web design will the the design that will look promising and amazing on all these screens. As it is said these days websites should be design for screens and not for viewers because screens (mediums) will make sure that your website is reasonable enough for all the viewers out there.

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