[tweetmeme]‘Tilt Shift School’ is a short film I put together for my media class at school. It’s based in the Year 12 common room, and it basically just shows everyone chatting, laughing and playing around in front of the camera. It’s a fun little film.

Don’t forget there’s an awesome tutorial for tilt shift on PhotoGuides.

You may have noticed that I’ve written Technical Exercise in the opening credits. A technical exercise is a short film we had to produce which focuses on two of the technical properties of film production. I chose editing and music in this one so that I could play around with the tilt shift effect. This was then submitted along with a writeup detailing how these two properties effect a film. My fingers are crossed for a good mark.

I do wish I’d made it longer. Even when I watch it, I find it ends disappointingly early. I plan on making a few more throughout the year though, so think of this one as Episode 1 of the ‘Tilt Shift School’ series. The next few will be a lot longer as well, because they won’t be restricted by the Tech Exes time limits.

Anyway, I hope you like it. And if you do like it, feel free to share it, tweet it, comment on it, blog it or anything else that’ll let more people know about it. As always, tips and criticisms are welcome below.

[tweetmeme]Scrapbooks are a great way to preserve a memory. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a high resolution digital scrapbook on photoshop, including torn paper, sticky tape, handwriting and spilt ink.

This is a method I created in mid 2008 when I was designing pages for the school magazine. I had to create 5 pages for the year 12 class, featuring a selection of photos from their valedictory dinner and all of the students names. As a result, this technique can be used to create great full page spreads. The paper file is almost A3 quality, and the sticky tape and torn paper is realistic enough to be viewed in large.

There are a number of files you may need to complete this tutorial yourself. The paper file and the sticky tape file are available to members only, but you can join for free. Once you’ve logged in, the ‘Members Get More’ image above will turn into download links for these files.

You can however download the fonts and brushes via the links below:

Download the Ink Spill Brushes

Courtesy of Inobscuro.

Download the PC friendly Handwriting Fonts

Courtesy of Free Fonts.

In this tutorial I create a scrapbook themed on ‘The Simunye Project’. This is a community service experience I went on to South Africa in early 2009. If you’re interested in hearing more about The Simunye Project head over to The Simunye Project website. You might also like to have a look at Simunye 3096, a time lapse video I created about my experience.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the tutorial. I find that the little components of this tutorial can be very handy when creating other pieces on photoshop (the torn paper section in particular).

Good Luck!

This isn’t quite a Photo Guide. Nor is it relevant to most of my readers. What you’re looking at here is a short documentary I’ve created which I hope will be the first step on the way to living my dream.

If you’ve read my colophon you may remember that my dream is to one day combine my love for writing, cars and cinematography by hosting my own car show. My ambition is to review cars on video, sort of like Top Gear, but without fame as my motivation.

Synergy is a short documentary I’ve created for my media class at school. The basic task was to create a short minute documentary on a subject we’re passionate about, so I took the opportunity to create what I hope will be my key into the industry. Synergy looks into the Toyota Prius and the technology behind it. It’s sort of an in depth car review which also looks at the philosophy behind the car.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. All feedback is welcome and encouraged, be it regarding the editing, cinematography or the review. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them. Feel free to contact me directly as well.
Also, if you like this, please do share it with anyone else you feel may enjoy it, because the more people that see it, the greater chance I have.

Let’s not forget the podcast version

Tiny Planets are amazing little things that are surprisingly easy to create. All you need is a panoramic photo, Photoshop, the most basic of understandings and a few minutes.
Here then is a guide to help you make Tiny Planets of your very own.

If the video guide is a bit too quick for your liking, there’s also a text and image step by step guide for you to follow.

Thanks again to mm_leones from flickr for letting me use his photo.
He also has plenty more panoramic images in his collection.
hegarty_david from flickr has also offered his 360 degrees panoramas to be used and most of them will work quite nicely.

[tweetmeme]Make sure you click this blue bit of text for the Podcast version of this tutorial.

Tilt Shift Photography is the latest ‘big thing’ in the photo world. It uses a very shallow Depth of Field to transform a scene into a tiny toy from a tiny world. It may only be in my eyes, but lately it’s popping up all over the place and is showing some truly spectacular and eye catching results. However, Tilt Shift Photography is very difficult to create in camera. It involves a special lens and of course a lot of money to buy it. Here then is a guide for all you Photoshop owners so that you can create the incredible effect on your own photos with a few simple steps.

Here then is a video guide to creating your own Tilt Shift photos using Photoshop. Remember there’s also a text and image based guide for you to follow along to.

Also, if your internet doesn’t like this Vimeo version and it’s high quality and size, there’s a youtube version as well.

[tweetmeme]If you have a slow connection or an iPhone, then clicking this blue bit of text here will make it work better.

This video is a recent Media assignment in which we had to take a movie of our choice and create a trailer out of it that takes on a completely different genre. This is commonly called a Mash Trailer.
In my case, I chose the famous and slightly-ridiculous comedy, ‘Bean – The Ultimate Disaster Movie’ (the one where he sneezes on a painting) and mashed it into a trailer for an all out action film.

I’ve tried to model his character on James Bond, labeling him as a sly, sexy thief living on the edge. To emulate this the trailer includes chase scenes, guns, and of course the traditional car chase and sex scene. This was incredibly hard to do. Mr bean rarely shows a serious face and never says a thing in a voice that can be deemed as normal. Any sign of a dopey face would ruin the whole atmosphere of the piece.
Because of this, a lot of editing had to be done to make him look sexy in the poster you see above. You’ll notice smoother skin, blue eyes, a thinner leaner face and an expression which doesn’t look like the original.

The song is from the start of ‘James Bond – Quantum of Solace’ and is called ‘Time to Get Out’ by David Arnold. It’s certainly an integral part to the piece and would have been impossible without it.
All of the footage can be found in the original film, only in the original they mean something completely different.

Enjoy

Downloading slowly? Using an iPhone? you can also try Simunye 3096 on YouTube

–

As many of you may know, I, along with 40 others recently returned from a trip to South Africa known as Simunye, which means ‘We Are One’.

The Simunye Project is a non-profit organization which aims to empower young Australians with the skills and attitude needed to make a global difference.

Being a photographer, my camera was always out and as a result I captured over 4000 photos. On reviewing them, I found that it wasn’t so much the individual photos that stood out, but rather the whole collection and the stories they told together.

Thus I came up with this video, Simunye 3096.
(3096 being the number of photos in it)
I feel the video really captures the true essence of the experience in ways that a single photo never could. If you liked it, I recommend you watch it again. Every time you’ll pick up new things. I’m still picking up new bits myself.

I’d love to hear what you think so be sure to leave a comment.
Also, you might like to have a look at ‘Heart. The Secret to Happy Living‘, a piece inspired by my Simunye experience.
You can also have a look at my Simunye Photography Collection to see the best photos from the whole experience.

Thanks especially to Miss Beal and Mr Amos for letting me use their cameras and some of their photos. The video certainly wouldn’t have had the same effect without the memories they captured.

Enjoy!