Benz World Blog » Augmented Reality

Random Iron

Jason Benz — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 09:22:11 +0000

This was taken in Gwalia in the Goldfields of Western Australia. It demonstrates Australians fondness for decorating remote houses and mail boxes with random pieces of iron. In the UK metal that is not nailed down seems to find its way to the scrap merchant. In Australia Victorian engineering seems to last forever in the dry environment. The result is a visual time warp reminiscent of Cuba. I used desaturation on the greens and blues and made the yellows and oranges stand out.

Congratulations to Karen who has had her first nine images accepted at Shutterstock, followed by her first sale.

If you would like to sell your images read the Guide to Stock Photography.

Fake Beef

Jason Benz — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:59:01 +0000

This is one of the many horses in the fields around Gonerby in the UK. Before I took the base image I had planned to give the whole horse a frisian cow texture in order to illustrate the current beef/horsemeat scandal. Despite the mild spell this weekend all the horses had blankets on. By only changing the blanket it made the final result believable and the compositing easier.

This image has had difficulty getting accepted for Stock Photography at first, however BigStock were the first to accept it and it is available for download here.

Twelve Mile

Jason Benz — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:20:50 +0000

This is Twelve Mile Beach. It is the campsite we stayed at when we first arrived in Hopetoun. Like many places in Western Australia there are no free campsites within a certain distance of the town. Twelve Mile is far enough out of town that you can stay there for free. I had to wait a couple of weeks to get a shot of a full moon to composite in. As it is a local shot I may get it framed for The Deck Gallery but I do not know how well photoshop trickery sells in print. What do you think?

Bridgetown Blues

Jason Benz — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:55:34 +0000

We have just had a wonderful weekend at the Maranup Ford Farm Stay. Which is a beautiful Caravan Park near Bridgetown. We chose this place as it was The weekend of the annual Bridgetown Blues Festival and the Caravan park was one of a very select set of sites which has an especially “Pleasant Outlook or Vista” according to our Camps guide book. On both accounts we where very impressed. The Campsite had a beautiful federation style garden and the Festival was just the right size for a great day out with street performers, like these two, and cafes and bars also providing a selection of music, but more memorable than all this was the people we met at the Caravan Park who all made us feel very welcome. If everybody is this friendly and generous we should have no worries setting up home in Australia.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Swan Barracks

Jason Benz — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:21:03 +0000

This is the Old Swan Barracks in Perth, Western Australia. It has been our home for the last two weeks while we look for a campervan to start our tour of Australia. As you can see from this image The Swan has been a host for temporary residents for over 100 years. Some may say little has changed but what can you expect from a backpackers in the most remote city on the planet. We are revisiting the Fremantle car market on Saturday and viewing a nice ’87 Sunliner on Sunday. With a bit of luck we should be hitting the road on Monday.

Floyd Riot

Jason Benz — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:14:42 +0000

This composite used a photograph taken by Kerim Okten. I knew as soon as I saw this image online it would be one of the defining images of the London Riots. Sure enough it was used by The Daily Star, Daily Mail, i, Daily Express, The Telegraph, The Sun and the BBC as a backdrop for their newsreaders. Its a powerful shot but I did not want to help glamorise what is ultimately pointless destruction. I’ve added some elements in an attempt to change the message.

THE RIOTERS PRAYER
Our father, who art in prison, only mum knows his name, thy Riots come, read it in the sun, in Birmingham, as it is in London, give us this day our Welfare bread & forgive us our looting, as we’re happy 2 loot those who defend stuff against us, lead us not into employment but deliver us free housing, 4 thine is the Spliff, the Blackberry & the Lager, forever & ever…Innit

Jet Surfer

Jason Benz — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:07:54 +0000

This jet surfer is a composite of four images. The desert dunes of western Egypt, A kite surfer from Dahab, The moon from an earlier post and a methane engine I found on this site. Unlike the last composite these images did not need as much adjustment as the lighting conditions were similar. The dunes did need their tonal range increasing. This was done by increasing the contrast to 100 and moving up the black point in Camera RAW. To compensate for the black point shift the Exposure also needed to be increased.

Swimming Pyramids

Jason Benz — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:12:00 +0000

This was created by compositing three separate images. The Pyramids of Egypt, The Seas of Dahab and Rutland Water. Many adjustment layers and masks were needed in an attempt to balance the shot as each component was taken with different lighting conditions at different angles with different cameras in different countries.

Edible Asteroid

Jason Benz — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:39:06 +0000

This image shows what you can do by compositing images in photoshop. I started with a shot of me biting into a ball. This shot of the moon was added on a layer above and a mask was applied to reveal it where necessary. A quick google search for “star field” found the background. Another mask was applied and the composition was complete.

Ladybird Spot

Jason Benz — Sun, 22 May 2011 19:02:53 +0000

This simple use of spot colour is achieved by painting black on the layer mask of a Black & White layer. The Hue/Saturation layer above was used to make the ladybird nice and red. It was a little orange in the original capture. Vignette was achieved using a gradient layer and lens correction.