Project STORIES – Agata
STORIES – when a picture is worth a thousand words… This project is here for you if you are feeling miserable, depressed, unhappy or desperate. Whenever I was really down, I told myself that I could always give up but at least before that I can try to make something good out of my life. Like they say, everything bad is good for some reason. And project STORIES is about people who had good reason to feel down, but decided to live their lives in a way that they could enjoy despite all the adversity. That’s what we have in common, and that’s why I’m so good at taking pictures, and that’s also why I choose the specific people who appear in the project accordingly. Our disabilities, traumas or worries don’t have to define us. We can define ourselves by how we approach it. And although it’s often very difficult, I just have to decide that this is not how I want to live my life anymore and start finding my own way.
Project STORIES – Jana
Today I bring another story to project STORIES. It took me a while, I admit, but the pre-Christmas finishing of the orders took a a toll on me and I had no energy left for my own projects. People mean to do something and life changes it. Here on my site, this story appears first, but in the moment I finish the other series, I’ll put everything in chronological order and I will antidate the posts as they came in sequence. But that is something I will adjust when other series are done, so come on over and meet Jana.
Project WALKING IN MY SHOES: Judgement
You may have heard someone say that you can tell a person by their shoes. Is there any truth to that? I decided to explore it a bit and that’s why we have a new project called Walking In My Shoes.
Project IN THE NAME OF: PLAST_ICON
Here we continue with project IN THE NAME OF: with PLAST_ICON episode. Again I collaborated with dear friend and talented designer Riwaa, who made a bespoke clothing and lingerie to add her input to the project. And again you will have to guess who was our main inspiration. Let’s dive into it.
My experience with Midjourney
Lately you may have noticed an increasing buzz about AI-generated art. At least I did. Does that sound like science fiction to you? Well, no, progress is here and now. You think computer-generated art can’t be good? You could hardly be further from the truth. It’s the results of this tool that have convinced me to test it as well. Results are indeed fascinating and some of the artworks are really good. I decided to test it, what’s behind it, how does it work. If you want to try Midjourney, it’s just about time, because now the club on Discord is approaching 1 million and after that, no more beta testers will be allowed to access.
Project IN THE NAME OF: CYCLE_AMEN
I would like to introduce you to a new multi-layered project which was a great challenge not only for me but also for my dear friend Riwaa, who you will have the opportunity to see in roles you have never seen her before and quite possibly you will never see her like that anywhere else :).
PF 2019 + Unicorns
There is another year behind us so there should be a little time to balance what it was like. So many things happened, there were ups and downs, pros and cons and I had even less time than ever.Let’s go…
10 Ultimate Photoshop hacks
Photoshop is powerful tool that went pretty far since I used it first time like 20yrs ago. It is also my most time consuming tool. My worklow is everything but barely could be called light. Here are some of my favorite hacks/shortcuts in PS that helps me to speed up (literally… it’s not much of speeding up in real time). Here goes your comfort.
Zero to hero – Diary of INFP photographer
So here it begins. Some time ago a small and nearly village person (me) decided to become a professional photographer. I kind of enjoyed making my own world in photography and I was told by dozens of people I should do it pro. That was kinda tempting. Turning your hobby into profession so I gave it a try. Of course nothing went as expected. And if I say nothing I really mean it. I could be compared to girls who decides to be a supermodels. Practically anyone in front of camera is a model but not everyone is Claudia, Naomi or Cara.
Sun Visor
Recently finished project with new model Dahlia Black
Pennywise project – Behind the scenes
As a big fan of horror stories I could not miss a new adaptation of Stephen King’s It. I loved Tim Curry’s version and I was pretty curious how remake will end. Luckily it was better than expected. So I decided to do my own version of Pennywise – dancing clown. I also recently recieved request from deviantart group CRPhotography to share a bit of background behind it.
Who the hell is Lucie?
I collected some of the most common questions I was recently asked by people and answered them in this article to give you a better example of who am I. Hope you will enjoy this article and come back soon for more.
Art as a path to self-acceptance
Life can be ruff. It may be twice as hard to an intuitive introverts. And yes, I am the one. I do not consider my life harder than others. It’s just the way how my brain process stuff and I must admit it’s not making it any easier now when I am in my mid 30’s.
SAAL Digital photobook review
Hello guys, I had a chance to review SAAL Digital photobook. This article is available only in czech language, please check it HERE for CZ version and for complete gallery.
RECENZE FOTOKNIHY SAAL DIGITAL (CZ)
Lucie Kout
Josef Madl – Man Of The Year finalist
I had the chance to work with Josef twice. Our first photoshoot was his very first photoshoot ever. He succeded in male beauty competition and got into Czech version of Man Of The Year finals. It made me feel so proud because my impression about him was that he should work in fashion industry with no doubt. Here are photos we took lately and the short basic interview with him.
Results of Burlesque Beauty Workshop
Not so long ago I was teaching at Burlesque Beauty workshop in Wien under www.pixel-power.at with amazing Stephanie van der Strumpf. I should notice that without invitation of a long time friend from deviantart Cliff Kapatais this wouldn’t come true. It was wonderful experience with such a cool people and I literally enjoyed every moment. Here are the results of our work.
Burlesque Beauty Workshop
Basic informations about Burlesque Beauty workshop in Wien under www.pixel-power.at
Opened projects for 2016
I continously work on several projects that some of you may participate in. They are very personal and people are picked by various criteria. If you are interested to collaborate look down into my list of opened projects for next year. You might find yourself suitable for them.
Workshop Analyze this!
Here are basic informations about Analyze this! workshop. Here you can also find source files and bonus actions for download.
Closest Analyze this! workshop at Splashed conference!!!
Outline – Simplify
To get oriented in photography we are going to edit it’s necessary to simplify it. It is very similar to learning how to draw. You begin with simple geometric object and then you get into more difficult shapes.
1 – RAW
2 – Composition – liquify, crop
3 – Pixel, lightness/tonality, D/B, high pass
4 – Color of pixels, color corrections
5 – Final color grading
6 – Sharpening
7 – Actions, filters
Workspace and Travelling Comfort
How important is your workspace for you? What do you carry if you travel? During years I´ve been thinking a lot about this. As a full-time photographer I spend lots of time behind a desk. I also spend lots of time carrying my gear with me. And of course I want it to be as comfortable as possible in both cases. If you sit on a bad chair behind bad table, soon you will realize that back pain, neck spine pain and headaches will turn your retouching into hell. Carpal tunnel infalammation may cause your inability to retouch for weeks or months. I went through it and I can tell you it´s nothing you want to experience.
My own health, bad choices and painful experiences made me writing this article. We usually talk about work techniques but every single graphic designer, retoucher or photographer is in pain from too much sitting behind a desk or carrying too much on his back or neck. I would like to share a few thoughts about it right here.
Analyze this 3 !
This is last of “Analyze this” articles for now. It would seal the circle. We talked about composition, light, mechanics, anatomy and now we will talk about another essential part of the image – colors and tonality, which are same important as any other aspects of image.
Analyze this! 2
Couple days ago I published first of articles about analyzing images – Analyze this!. Here is continuation.
Analyze this!
I was thinking about this article for a long time. Not only because it would show you how some of stylizations originates but it will also help you to understand retouching better. Actually it won´t be the only article but couple of them, each related to one topic. The first thing I do on every set of images is analysis. It goes from general set analysis where I pick the best images that works for me individually and in a set too and then I analyze every single image that should be retouched.
10 tips to better photography & retouching
Retouching is difficult discipline. If you work with bad images you tend to spend a lot of time on fixing what’s wrong. After all you spend all your energy on fixing something instead of enhancing what is already good and you will not reach the perfect image anyway. Perhaps it is good to think a little before you start retouching.
It’s almost impossible to get 30 good photos out of serie of 150 images with the same light, location, setup and everything. I wish I could tell everyone to do just really good images from the beggining to the end. You are an artist and you decide what is good and what is not. But for sure it’s better to produce one perfect picture than dozen of similar boring ones. Here are few tips to any retoucher and photographer that may help you to realize what to do.
