Take Your Photography to the Next Level by Hacking the Digital Print

Digital photo printing has reached the point at which anyone who knows how to push the right buttons can create a decent print. Getting a high-quality image out of a desktop printer is no longer the challenge it once was.

In her new book, “Hacking the Digital Print,” artist Bonny Lhotka illustrates how photographic artists can take their work to the next level through alternative methods of capturing and printing photographs. She proves that the hands-on art of printmaking is alive and well in the digital age. And she explains why you don’t always need Photoshop to alter the reality that you capture through your lens.

HackingWorkshop

By using analog distortion filters and lens modifiers you can create images that look like you—not an app—made them.  As Lhotka explains, “Capturing altered reality is different from altering captured reality.”

In the book’s introduction, Lhotka points out that, “A photograph is a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world. We can restore the third dimension by using materials such as slate, granite, wood, or metal that have heft, mass and texture.”

In “Hacking the Digital Print,” Lhotka shows how to make original art objects and hand-crafted photo gifts by transferring your photographs to materials such as wood, glass, plastics, and metal. Lhotka also shows how to create skins that can be layered to make mixed-media photographs.

Some projects explained in the book use non-toxic digital alternatives to re-create classic printmaking techniques. For example, Wonder Sauce is a water-based transfer solution that is safe enough to use anywhere, whether it’s the studio, classroom, or kitchen counter.For the truly adventurous, Lhotka shares her custom techniques for taking photographs and applying them to 3D-printed objects created with popular consumer-model 3D printers.

Part artist/part mad scientist, Lhotka has spent many hours experimenting, hacking, and tearing things apart to discover new ways to take, make, and print images.

In the early days of wide-format color inkjet printing, Bonny Lhotka organized “Digital Atelier: A printmaking studio for the 21st Century” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was an artist-in-residence there for 21 days. The artists of the Digital Atelier demonstrated some of the creative possibilities of scanning and inkjet printing.

Lhotka is also a recipient of the Smithsonian/Computerworld Technology in the Arts Award.

Bonny says she designed “Hacking the Print” for “artists and photographers who enjoy serendipitous discoveries—those intuitive accidents that lead to new discoveries and possibilities.”

She encourages you to take the techniques in this book, hack them, and make them your own. She cautions that the process will be messy, and failures may require you to keep trying: “But in the process, you will make your exciting discoveries, find solutions, to your problems, and create a body of work that is uniquely yours.”

HackingWorkshop2

You can purchase “Hacking the Digital Print,” through Amazon or buy a signed copy through the DASS ART website. “Hacking the Digital Print” was published by Peachpit, the Pearson imprint the publishes technology books, e-books, and videos for creative people.

On the DASS ART website, you can also register for related workshops or order the specialized transfer media Lhotka has developed for transferring images printed with pigment inks on inkjet photo printers.

DASS-ART-Logo-800-300x82

DASS has also started a Facebook group for artists and photographers who are creasting work with the techniques featured in Bonny Lhotka’s two previous books on contemporary printmaking techniques: Digital Alchemy and The Last Layer.

According to Lhotka, “The Facebook group is a place to post your work, share processes, and ask questions. I will pop in an out to answer questions and post tips.”

LINKS:

Hacking the Digital Print: Alternative image capture and printmaking processes with a special section on 3D printing (Voices That Matter)

The Last Layer: New methods in digital printing for photography, fine art, and mixed media (Voices That Matter)

DASS ART

Light Impressions Exhibit Shows State of the Art in Mobile Phone Photography

When photographer Colleen Duffley launched a 24-hour New Year’s Eve iPhone photo competition for her Studio b creative venue in 2011, she sensed that the 8-megapixel camera in the new iPhone 4S might empower people worldwide to become photographic artists.

Since then, Colleen has created a remarkable “Light Impressions” traveling exhibit that has been documenting the emergence of mobile phone photography as an art movement.

Colleen considers mobile phone photography a “a pure art form” because “It’s more about the creativity than expensive gear or intricate technique.” The fourth edition of the Light Impressions exhibit is on display until February 22, 2015 at the Wynwood Building in the heart of Miami’s Wynwood Art District.

As in previous years, Colleen will be taking the exhibit to sites throughout the U.S. this spring and summer. The Light Impressions installation features 40 iPads mounted on a metal structure made from materials salvaged from some wreckage that Hurricane Opal left on the beach in 1995. Each iPad presents 13 of the best images submitted by a single mobile phone photographer.

As 13 images from each featured artist scrolls across the iPads at different rates, the Light Impressions exhibit makes a powerful statement about how people around the globe are using their mobile phone cameras a means of creative expression. LightImpressionsExhibit Colleen Duffley is a professional photographer who shoots, directs, produces creative concepts for magazines, commercials, and campaigns. She has been shooting people, places, and things around the globe for 25 years.

Colleen devised the concept for Light Impressions four years ago as a way to display the best images submitted to the New Year’s Eve iPhoneography photo challenge. One of her goals with that first iPhoneography challenge was to level the photo-competition playing field and demonstrate that all people could be creative photographers, even if they didn’t have expensive equipment or extensive training.

“The camera phone was the perfect tool to encourage people to be creative because everyone had one,” explains Duffley. “The camera phone gives us the ability and freedom to be creative 24/7.” She says viewing Light Impressions is like watching a fish tank. It’s mesmerizing: “It’s hard to walk away from it.”

“Mobile phone photography is still an emerging art form,” says Duffley. “People are going to be astounded when they see what is being done in this movement. All of the work displayed on the Light Impressions exhibit was done on a mobile phone camera — from the capture of the image to its processing and publishing. It’s really mind-blowing and wonderful.”

Duffley mounted the iPads in aged, weather-beaten metal that she discovered on the beach. As an art installation in itself, Light Impressions illustrates the timeless nature of photography as an art. While photography technology has changed over time, the magic of photography as an art form remains solid. Plus, she says “Mobile phone photography has a ‘found-art’ sensibility to it, and what better way to frame it than on repurposed materials?”

The first three editions of Light Impressions traveled to art fairs, museums, and events nationwide. It has been exhibited twice in Miami during the Art Basel week. In March, the new exhibit will be featured at Duffley’s new Studio b site in Florida and at a photography event in Washington, DC at the end of March.

When curating the 2015 Light Impressions exhibit, Duffley chose portfolios that represented a mix of styles, subject matter, and processing techniques. Some images illustrate the creative use of processing apps. Other images are shown almost exactly as the photographer shot them, with only minor tweaks. You can learn more about the artists, the images, and the apps they used in a special book Duffley produced for this year’s exhibit. LightImpressionsBook

Teaching Mobile Phone Photography

Duffley, who has taught university-level  courses in traditional photography, enjoys teaching classes in mobile phone photography. Within a few hours, students go from knowing very little about photography to being eager to experiment with all of shooting and processing tools that are literally at their fingertips.

One participant in a recent class was the editor of a magazine that publishes some of Duffley’s editorial photography. The editor has since invited Duffley to teach other members of the magazine’s editorial staff how to shoot better pictures with their mobile phones.

For her own iPhone photography work, Duffley prefers composing and shooting great images right in the camera. After spending hours editing the images she captures for editorial and advertising clients, she likens using an iPhone to using a Polaroid camera. When she frames a shot, she thinks about composition, lighting, form, texture, and line — all the things that have always gone into making a great photo, painting, or illustration.

She encourages students to “Take responsibility for what you’re shooting. When you have a good image to start with, you do what you want with it–the app is your oyster.”

Even though Colleen uses a high-end Canon DSLR for her commercial projects, she doesn’t treat her mobile phone camera with any less respect. In fact, some of the images she has shot with her iPhone have been published alongside the images she shoots with her DSLR.

The Resurgence of Studio b

As an editorial photographer, Colleen has traveled around the world, befriended fascinating people, and enjoyed some remarkable adventures. To enable others to experience the same kinds of unique experiences, Duffley founded Studio b in Alys Beach, Florida in 2009. She established it as a creative venue that would bring together the best of the best and the up-and-coming in photography, art, literature, fashion, design, music, and the culinary arts to educate and inspire artists and students. Studio b also hosts and co-sponsors events throughout the U.S. and in Italy, Ireland, and exotic locations around the globe.

Unfortunately, the timing for Studio b’s launch was less than ideal. Just as the economy was slowly starting to recover from the Great Recession of 2008, The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 temporarily decimated the tourism industry on the Gulf Coast.

So Duffley closed Studio b for a while and re-focused her energies on her photography business, Colleen Duffley Productions. Now that the economy and tourism industry are rebounding, she is preparing to re-launch Studio b in a different location on Florida’s Emerald Coast this spring.

On the Run Website

Colleen Duffley is also launching a new website, through which people can order metal prints of some of Colleen’s best iPhone images. When she travels on assignments for commercial projects, she carries her iPhone when she goes for long runs to relax and unwind. “When you run or bike, you get a different perspective on your surroundings,” said Duffley.She is calling her the website “On the Run” because “It’s just me capturing the world on the run.”

The Rising Quality of Mobile Phone Photography

As she curates each Light Impressions exhibit, Colleen Duffley said she is amazed to discover the many different ways people have come to the medium of mobile phone photography and embraced it as a tool of creative expression.

Over the years, the number and quality of entries she receives for the Light Impressions display has steadily risen. While some of that is due to technological advances in smartphone cameras and apps, Colleen says the community of mobile phone photographers is exceptionally collaborative and supportive of one another.

She said the artists featured in the Light Impressions exhibit are doing amazing things with their mobile phone photography: “It’s an amazing art form, and some people are making a good living selling prints of their mobile-phone photographs.”

RELATED POST

Ring in a Creative New Year with Studio b’s Camera Phone Event

LINKS

Studio b: Light Impressions-Profiles of the Featured Artists

Studio b Boutique: The Light Impressions On Tour Book

Colleen Duffley Productions

Facebook: Studio b.the Beach Studio b

Learn Basics of Customer Experience Design at Digital Signage Expo

DESIGNERS. The artful use of digital displays, interactive technology, and digital communications networks is creating compelling and information-rich spaces for inspiration, education, and networking in retail stores, airports, museums, malls, and entertainment venues.

DSE_logoBecause designing these energy-infused spaces takes a unique set of skills and insight, the Society of Experiential Designers (SEGD) is presenting a day-long Customer Experience (CX) Workshop on Tuesday, March 10 as part of the Digital Signage Expo (DSE), March 10-13 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Geared for designers, marketing and branding professionals, and technology providers, the workshop runs from 9 am to 5 pm and covers the basics of customer experience design.

SEGD is a global, multidisciplinary community of professionals who plan, design, and build experiences that connect people to place. SEGD’s 1700 members from 20 countries include graphic and information designers, fabricators, architects, exhibition designers, technology integrators, interaction designers, brand strategists, and others who have a hand in shaping content-rich experiential places.

The workshop at DSE will present an overview of the basics of customer experience (CX) design and technologies that can be used to create dynamic interaction, customization, and unique, attention-getting experiences.

The experts at SEGD contend it’s important for creators of customer experiences to understand what technology can and cannot deliver.

“The Customer Experience is where new technologies and design meet. When you design the new customer experience using design thinking to focus on the user, not the technology, that is when the magic happens,” said Clive Roux, CEO of SEGD. “We’re partnering with DSE to bring design, marketing, and technology together at this event to experience what is possible when design and technology work together.”

The five program modules will discuss the state of CX, how to create a seamless customer experience across multiple platforms, how to use digital displays for more engaging shopping experiences, and best practices for integrating display technology. Speakers will also discuss what is possible with new models of immersive media for public spaces.

The presentations will include insights from top CX innovators, including :

DSE is the world’s largest and longest-running conference and trade show exclusively dedicated to showcasing innovative digital communications and interactive technology solutions for customer- and employer-facing organizations. Launched in 2004, DSE was the first event dedicated to the digital signage market and has contributed to the growth of this fast-paced field.

“SEGD’s program is the perfect fit with Digital Signage Expo because our attendees are increasingly interested in integrating digital displays into their venues as part of the built environment,” said Richard Lebovitz, educational director for DSE. “SEGD understands the importance of this trend to architects and designers who are charged with incorporating digital communications into the physical spaces they are designing. The association’s educational program at DES provides a unique opportunity for the design and technology communities to share ideas, insights, and information.”

The DSE 2015 Exhibit Hall will be open March 11-12 and feature more than 200 exhibitors of technology and services including hardware, software, networking, delivery, and content. The extensive educational program features sessions such as

  • Future trends in digital signage
  • Effective integration of social and mobile technologies with digital signage
  • Digital signage on campus
  • Data visualization: Using real-time information for create intelligent, dynamic content
  • The power of video walls in retail
  • Leveraging visual communications across multiple platforms
  • Technology-enabled environments
  • Digital signage in healthcare settings
  • Reinventing the fan experience
  • Human factors in digital signage
  • Getting results in the retail world

LINKS

SEGD CX Workshop at Digital Sign Expo

Digital Signage Expo 2015

SEGD

Infographics of Sales and Seach Data Help 3D Model Designers

DESIGNERS. If one of your goals is to become a best-selling 3D artist, the team at the 3D model marketplace CGTrader has published some useful data about which models sell best, how to price your models to grow your sales, and which 3D modeling categories are the top selling.

The first two infographics in the series were:

Exclusive Data on How to Sell 3D Models

Exclusive Tips for Maximizing Your Income for Selling 3D Models

CGTrader is is a community-based 3D model marketplace that was founded in 2011 by 3D designer Marius Kalytis. His goal was to create a just and favorable online platform for 3D designers seeking a mutually-beneficial partnership. As a 3D artist himself, Kalytis knew about existing platforms that paid little thought to fair royalty system for users. So, Marius started his own business marketplace granting generous royalties to 3D artists and vowing to democratize the 3D modeling market. CGTrader has evolved into a community were designers help each other, buyers and sellers communicate, jobs are offered, and innovation is sparked.

“We focused entirely on empowering 3D designers by giving them all the support we could think of: helping them sell, share and improve their work, take custom jobs and choose their clients,” added Kalytis. “This is a kind of freedom that I was seeking for myself and that every artist deserves.”

The site has quickly grown to include more than 120,000 registered users and about 85,000 3D models for sale.

To help designers better understand what types of models people are looking for, here is CGTrader’s newest infographics about the most popular search terms in 2014.

CGTrader 2014 search infographic

LINK

About CGTrader

 

Register for Free Thriving Artist Summit January 5-18, 2015

Thriving-Artist-Summit-Square-1-LargeArtist and designer Bonnie Glendinning is striving to empower artists while making art more accessible to a broader universe of buyers.

She founded The Thriving Artist Summit and Thriving Artist Academy to help you develop the business skills you need to build the type of art career you really want.

Bonnie is also the founder of Artmuse.com, an online, curated gallery that sells museum-quality prints to anyone who appreciates quality contemporary art but isn’t yet comfortable investing in higher-priced originals.

Thriving Artist Summit

The Thriving Artist Summit (January 5-18, 2015) is a free, online gathering designed to help artists, designers, and makers take their creative businesses to the next level. Through a series of hour-long interviews that Bonnie has conducted, artists, experts, and mentors will discuss how to:

  • build your brand for your ideal buyers
  • price for real profit and growth
  • increase sales marketing, PR, and social media
  • diversify into licensing, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer sales
  • get into galleries and shows
  • raise project funds
  • develop your creative practice

Some of the artists, experts, and mentors who will be featured in the 2015 Thriving Artist Summit include:

  • Brand Strategist Shenee Howard
  • Photographer and Selfie Expert Vivienne McMaster
  • Agent, Author and Artist Lilla Rogers
  • Publisher Tom Morkes
  • Fine Artist and Illustrator Lisa Congdon
  • Mixed Media Artist Tamara Laporte
  • Jewelry Designer and Mentor Tracy Matthews
  • Business Strategist Tara Gentile
  • Teacher Karen Gunton
  • Artist Owen Garratt
  • Choreographer and Teacher Gina Morris
  • Writer Kristen Fischer
  • Artist and Designer Jessica Swift
  • Author and Teacher Samantha Bennett
  • Gallery Owner Jason Horejs
  • Marketing Mentor Ilse Benun
  • Art Marketing Advisor Barney Davey
  • Designer and Editor Jess Van Den
  • Business Strategist April Bowles-Onin
  • Artist Coach Gwenda Joyce
  • Indie Retail Expert Clare Yuille
  • Creative Business Coach Lisa Jacobs

If you are too busy to listen to the interviews during the first half of January, you can sign up to get a discount for purchasing the Summit audios for anytime access.

Artmuse

Through this online gallery of colorful modern art, art lovers can buy museum-quality, limited-edition art prints at prices starting at just $25 for the smallest size.

Bonnie Glendinning founded Artmuse.com in 2009 to help artists reach a wider audience and enable visitors to discover new artists. One of the gallery’s missions is to help build relationships between artists and collectors. As she explains in the guidelines for artist submissions: “We want buyers to learn about you as an artist, enjoy your art, and collect your art throughout your career.”

The site’s philosophy is to showcase contemporary art one artist at a time: “Art is to be savored, not consumed….We believe that the more collectors can learn about you the artist, the greater their interest will be in collecting your art.”

Artmuse looks for artists who are committed to their artistic vision, philosophy, and craft. While they aren’t seeking a specific style or medium, they do look for a “combined continuity of intention, inspiration, execution of an artistic vision, and perspective.” Your art should also work well in printed form. This typically includes drawing, mixed media, painting, photography or watercolors.

LINKS

The Thriving Artist Academy

The 2015 Thriving Artist Summit

Artmuse.com

Artmuse.com: Artist Submission Guidelines

Blog Post on The Thriving Artist: The Power of Possible Thinking

 

Gear Up for National Novel Writing Month with Free BookBaby Guide

Logo for National Novel Writing Month
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month

Are you finally ready to tackle that novel you’ve always dreamed of writing? November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a program established in 1999 to encourage aspiring authors to stop procrastinating and finish a 50,000 word rough-draft manuscript between November 1 and 30. Having a 30-day “deadline” can inspire you to write a certain amount of words each day (or week) and add “novelist” to your list of personal accomplishments.

In 2013, National Novel Writing Month attracted 310,095 participants, 89,500 students and educators, and 650 libraries. You can work independently or with inspiration and support through programs organized by the non-profit National Novel Writing Month organization.

According to the program’s organizers, ““NaNoWriMo is a powerful antidote to that horrible foe of creativity: self-doubt. NaNoWriMo is a rollicking conversation about all aspects of writing, and an invitation to dare to do what seems inpossible. What many NaNoWriMo writers have discovered, the best way to learn to write a novel is by simply plunging in to write a novel.”

Over 250 NaNoWriMo novels have been traditionally published, including Sara Gruen’s “Water for Elephants,” Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus,” Hugh Howey’s “Wool,” Rainbow Rowell’s “Fangirl,” Jason Hough’s “The Darwin Elevator,” and Marissa Meyer’s “Cinder.” Countless more novels written during NaNoWriMo have been self-published.

BookBaby Is Offering a Free Writer’s Guide

Cover of Bookbaby guide "The end"Once you have celebrated the accomplishment of writing a 50,000-word draft, BookBaby can help you take your manucript to market. They are offering a free, informational e-book entitled, “The End: Now What? Take Your Manuscript to Market in 6 Weeks.”

The e-book explains how to take you manuscript through the editing, design, conversion, and book-distribution process. The guide includes:

  • Manuscript tips from a best-selling author
  • Advice on how to find an editor any budget (even $0)
  • Guidance on how to choose the book publishing pathway that’s best for you
  • Valuable insights on cover design and book merchandising

The book was written by BookBaby president Steven Spatz, who notes that: “NaNoWriMo gives authors a thrilling, inspiring, crazy challenge. BookBaby is always proud to support the event.”

The book is available to NaNoWriMo participants as a free PDF, mobi, or ePub download.

Bookbaby also publishes an excellent blog and offers a collection of other free guides for aspiring authors.

LINKS

E-book: “The End: Now What?!”

About BookBaby

About National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

FAQs about NaNoWriMo

Survey Shows Workers Want Firms to Be More Creative

TCG-LogoCompanies may think they’re pushing the envelope when developing new advertising and marketing campaigns, but most of their creative employees would disagree, new research shows.

Seven in 10 (71 percent) of the creative professionals surveyed by The Creative Group (TCG) and AIGA said their firms don’t take enough creative risks with projects. More than one-quarter (28 percent) of respondents said they don’t feel empowered by their managers to take creative risks.

The research is part of the Creative Team of the Future, a joint project between TCG and AIGA that explores key trends shaping the creative profession and how to prepare for challenges and opportunities ahead. It includes a survey of more than 750 creative professionals and insights from leaders in the creative industry.

Key Findings

  • While 28 percent of creative professionals feel their company takes the right amount of risks, a majority (71 percent) believes their firm plays it too safe. Less than one-quarter (23 percent) of employees feel very empowered by their manager to take creative risks at work; slightly more (28 percent) don’t feel empowered at all.
  • About half (54 percent) of creative professionals are very comfortable presenting new ideas to their manager or team members; the rest have some qualms.
  • Just over half (53 percent) of respondents feel their organization is perceived as innovative.

“As the creative industry continues to change rapidly, staying ahead of the curve has grown more important — and more challenging,” said Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group. “Building a culture of smart risk-taking — taking a new approach or creating an edgy campaign, for example — can benefit organizations by empowering staff to come up with new ideas and remain innovative.”

Overcoming Creative Blocks

To help businesses foster smart risk-taking, TCG and AIGA have published a new report “Innovation in the House: Creativity Lessons From Five Top In-House Creative Teams.” t provides an inside look at how creative leaders at five innovative organizations, including Disney’s Yellow Shoes Creative Group, Square and Target, keep their teams inspired.

About The Creative Group

The Creative Group (TCG) specializes in placing a range of highly skilled interactive, design, marketing, advertising and public relations professionals with a variety of firms on a project and full-time basis.

LINKS

The Creative Group

Report: “Innovation in the House: Creativity Lessons from Five Top In-House Creative Teams”

The Creative Group Creative Risks