Photos of People Playing Video Games

[Beatnik]

Grabbed from this boing boing post, some photographer's portraits of people playing video games.

Also, portraits of people playing Guitar Hero.

My brother's friend once had a similar series featuring Washington State Troopers getting tasered in a safety/training class, which was called something along the lines of "Cops getting Tasered, or, The Male 'O' Face". It was, of course, hilarious.

And last but not least, a series called "End Times", portraits of babies crying, after being given candy and having it taken away from them. I don't know why but these pics (and their titles) are just hilarious. Oh wait, I do know why. It's because I have no soul.

And one more, from the same photographer: monkey portraits, one of which may or may not be Santa.

Has anyone else seen similar pieces or series? Odd portraits seem to be a trend lately.

[Dick Blonov]

The work of Spencer Tunick always makes me smile.

edit: Sorry. Nudity, so NSFW. Thanks Steeler.

DB

[aculle01]

I can't believe the monkey portraits are going for $1,000.

[Steeler]

Originally Posted by Dick Blonov

The work of Spencer Tunick always makes me smile.

NSFW, dude.

[Shodansown]

Those children and the monkeys look fake...they're so clean and crisp. Like, they look like CG or plastic or something. Very cool.

[Beatnik]

Originally Posted by Shodansown

Those children and the monkeys look fake...they're so clean and crisp. Like, they look like CG or plastic or something. Very cool.

If they look fake, it's because they are - kinda. I'm pretty sure she used a technique called HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography. Essentially (as I understand it), multiple pix are taken at different exposures, then combined in photoshop, so you see the "full range" of the brightest brights and darkest shadows, creating a very surreal subject.

Here is a tutorial on HDR from a guy who's shot the most compelling HDR images I've ever seen. A lot of his pics look more like paintings than photographs. The entire site is full of incredible HDR photos.

[Santa]

Originally Posted by Beatnik

And one more, from the same photographer: monkey portraits, one of which may or may not be Santa.

Im in the third row laying down in my incredibly seductive pose.

I know you want me.

[P8riot]

Those are nice Beatnik.

I used to work with HDR files before anyone knew what HDR was. You had to have proprietary software from Leaf or SINAR to work with HDR files because Adobe could only interpolate from 8-bit to 16 bit files. HDR was 14-bit at the time but printing and display was limited to what was in gamut - still is - but with the newest generation of printers, that gamut has gotten HUGE compared to the 1.3 it used to be (only 7 years ago).

The Monkey's are probably an HDR capture but not like the method at the stuckincustoms site. Most likely the product of some very well done p'shopping scripting and processing from images captured using some very fast color balanced strobes like Broncolor or ProFoto.

I've been with digital photography since near it's birth - can you believe I had in my personal possesion a Kodak DCS100!



Check out the STATS on that BAD boy! I think it was like $70 or $80k at introduction - I could be off though.. maybe it was $50k

I also enjoy the Spencer Tunick stuff. I had a compatriot that emulated him on a smaller scale at RSAD.

[Beatnik]

That's insane, dude. That pic almost looks like it's from the Atari-era 80's. Hard to believe all the equipment was required with the wireless cards and super fast, super high resolution shooters out there today.

My brother's a pro photographer and he wasn't even sure what was up with the stuckincustoms pics when I first sent him the link (this was before the dude made that tutorial). This was over a year ago but I guess it wasn't too widely known (in journalism circles, anyway) until recently? Still, it looks pretty cool. I'm about to try to teach myself photoshop and photomatrix (what stuckincustoms uses for his HDRs), but only to experiment and play with pics. I don't even have a digital SLR or anything.

Any recommendations for beginners photoshop tutorials, P8riot? I know there are thousands out there, but that seems to make finding a good one even harder.

[P8riot]

Originally Posted by Beatnik

Any recommendations for beginners photoshop tutorials, P8riot? I know there are thousands out there, but that seems to make finding a good one even harder.

You would think I would have an answer for you on that one but I don't. After all this time, I really don't know photoshop well anymore - sure wish I did. I remember liking the Adobe 'Classroom in a Book' series.

Your brother is probably familiar with the company I used to work for in it's hey-day, SINAR Bron Imaging. We used to sell 4 megapixel studio camera backs for $60,000 each and they couldn't be used to capture a moving subject except in B&W!

[Shodansown]

WOW, I've never seen anything like that HDR stuff before. Thats incredible. Thanks for the sweet link.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Shodansown

WOW, I've never seen anything like that HDR stuff before. Thats incredible. Thanks for the sweet link.

I second this!

[Santa]

Thanks for the sig sumluv

[Beatnik]

LOL. Gold.

Now to just wash the throwup out of my mouth...

[P8riot]

Fantastic!