Last year I was shooting hands of on of my body art models, she has really amazing hands. I just knew that at some point I will be using those images for photoshop manipulations. I have started to work on a new image yesterday, and I have just finished it. I created a cyber hand but while working on it I was thinking what way will I composite into an image. Then I thought, one cyborg is fun, but how about adding a size scale to the image by adding a smaller cyborg girl. So I grabbed the image I have created earlier on this week, and cooked something on the verge of fantasy and sci fi cyber reality. Below is a galery of few images in different stages, including some details etc. I am uploading a speed art video to my YouTube channel as we speak, so you can watch later on how I have created the hand, and then the final composite image. Enjoy!

Girls interested in a photo shoot - currently looking for female models in Tokyo area interested in cyber sci fi art, Japanese calligraphy body art, or portrait shots. I am always looking for new faces and bodies so e-mail me in interested.  Anyone interested in learning photoshop, photo editing or photo manipulation - contact me directly and we can discuss private workshops

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It is possible that computers and robotics will kill us all off at some point but I plan to have as much fun with technology as possible until it happens. It is all down to learning the tools and how to use them in conjunction with one another, and it can be overwhelming in case of programs like photoshop, but it can be learned, and once you do you just down want to go back (if you are interested in learning photoshop, photo editing or photo manipulation - contact me directly and we can discuss private workshops). The same as it happened with cameras, when the digital ones phased out the film cameras. I know that film is still in use, but in all honesty, why bother. Digital is far more fun, clean and does not honk. Digital art and the literally endless creative possibilities it offers is all too good to pass on. I am already working on merging 2D with 3D and going completely mental with my sci fi projects. 

Girls interested in a photo shoot - currently looking for female models in Tokyo area interested in cyber sci fi art, Japanese calligraphy body art, or portrait shots. I am always looking for new faces and bodies so e-mail me in interested.  

My Youtube channel with free photoshop tutorials
Photography workshops in Tokyo - click for more details.
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Sci fi sexy cyborg girl photoshop manipulation speed art video

I decided to go fucking nuts with this one and spend tons of time polishing the details of the engine parts, armor and then blending the image with a background. The most time consuming part was creating the armor and all adding all the details, joints, engines, lights, lines, and so on. The final image is about 10,000 x 6000 pixels, so I am posting two 100% crops of the original image, so you can see some close ups. Good composite photography and photoshop manipulation are all about matching the light, perspective, and color. Having some sort of idea or a artistic concept of which direction to go with the image is also very helpful. Although I haven't used any reference photos, it often helps to look at some examples in case you need to get inspired. I have recorded a video on how tis image was created, from start to finish, and I will post it tomorrow on my Youtube channel. If you want to learn advanced photoshop and photo manipulation / composite photography, then check my photoshop workshops (one to one and online via desktop sharing).

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I am working on a  new sexy cyborg girl photoshop manipulation, and it looks like this one will be by far the most complex one have created so far. I am about half way through and I already started a 145th layer in photoshop. The more details are in a composite image the better, and the more work you put into polishing those details the better, and those details take a lot of time. I ve been working on this 6h so far, and it seems that another 5h or so should do it. Regardless the time spent, I love working on my hot cyber girl army and sci fi projects. Very relaxing and keeps me sane in this more and more retarded world. Anyways, I thought I will share with you an something that is being created at the very moment. If you want to learn advanced photoshop and photo manipulation / composite photography, then check my photoshop workshops (one to one and online via desktop sharing). 

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details

I took this photo today at my place. We had an amazing back light pouring through the window, being diffused by a paper cloth screen. I was taking photos for a new sci fi cyber girl photoshop manipulation and I just could not resist not taking a few silhouetted shots. So I brought this one into photoshop and had a bit of fun with it, added some textures, selective vignetting, my Chinese calligraphy art in ancient seal script, and the wings to complete the composition and add some mystery and fantasy elements to the photo. The text reads 別天地 and it means another world. Photography is great and all but photo editing, and especially photo manipulation and composite photography, is where the real creative fun starts. I find it very artistically fulfilling and relaxing at the same time. 

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This tutorial focuses not only on the removal of haze, but it covers a full workflow of editing a hazy photo from start to finish. Haze removal, if done properly, involves a few steps, and the more time you spend on editing your photos the better result you will have. That is the nature of things. To effectively remove haze in photoshop I am working with levels and curves adjustment layers, color channels, Adobe Camera Raw filter, high pass filter, then I am also using dodging burning and vignetting for best results. Hope you enjoy the video guys, if you do please like it and subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you have any requests for photoshop tutorials let me know, always happy to help. Cheers!

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before and after

Photoshop tutorial on how to remove haze in a photo and add more punch to it. 

Flash photography has the great advantage of offering an immense control over light. You can sculpt it and bend it the way you want. It is great in working in confined spaces, where strobes would blast the place with light like x-rays. Flash throws some very hard light, but when softened up with some light modifiers like softboxes is just amazing. Here is a result of a short photoshoot at my place today, I added my calligraphy to make the image a bit more interesting and dill the negative space to the left. I dropped the opacity so the attention goes to the model, which is mirrored by the faded kanji (麗 - graceful).

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model: Eccaia

Here is another image from the sci fi series of futuristic Tokyo. It is a photoshop manipulation of several images. First I digitally blended (watch my tutorial on digital blending in photoshop)a few photos in photoshop to get as much traffic and trains into one photo to make it look busy and crazy overcrowded. Then I added some spacecrafts (deviant art stock images, but soon I will be creating my own 3D art, so stay tuned). Finally I added some light effects, flares, toning, textures, etc. You can watch  a speed art video (scroll below the image) on how this image was created from start to finish. I also created a special section on my YouTube channel devoted to speed art, digital art videos, and photoshop manipulation, because this is what in absolutely love doing! Enjoy!

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Any type of photography that involves photographing people is based on some sort of a relationship between the model and the photographer. Naturally this applies to any type of art, like sculpture, or painting. Portrait photography for example is more difficult than people may think. Often times I have to be able to capture the real character and personality on my camera, after meeting them only a few minutes earlier. It is our job as photographers to be able to connect, to reach through all the social masks and safety doors, and get through to the core of a person. On top of this we have to be able to evoke real emotions, and be fast enough to photograph them before they fade away. Now, boudoir or nude photography brings this to a higher level. A model is trusting us with her intimacy, and it is crucial to respect it. I don't know about you but I love working with the same models over and over, as the more we work together the better the photos will be. Look at painters, they all had their favourite models, and for a good reason. It is a unique bond of mutual appreciation and trust, difficult to build, but easy to lose. Then there is body painting or in my case calligraphy body art. Ask a professional photographer if he would dare to touch a female model during a nude shoot. I highly doubt it. I have to spend hours (full body texts can take as long as 4h or more of continuous writing) touching the model head to toes during writing. This is one of the most intimate types of photography out there, and it could not be done without a really good understanding or trust. Respect and understand your models guys, listen to them and learn, and you will get great results.

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model: Asuka

This is a re-edited version of a photo that I took back in 2013 with one of my most favorite texts  - the Buddhist Heart Sutra. This is my copy of a classic by Wang Xizhi from the 4th century C.E. in semi-cursive script. I gave this photo an old distressed look, as if it was recovered from an old building or some forgotten drawer on an attic in the distant future. The scratched-like text to the right is in oracle bone script and reads "Tokyo 2015". I think the original mood of the photo fits perfectly for such a dramatic edit. This photo now tells many different stories.

Girls interested in boudoir / nude / body art shoot please contact me directly (Tokyo area).

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HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and in photography it usually refers to a scene that has a massive differences between the dark and bright tones. Unlike a human eye, most of the digital cameras, or any cameras, cannot capture extreme dynamic range scenes, though the technology is drastically improving (Alpha Sony 7s comes to mind). So if you cannot dish tens of thousands of dollars for a medium format camera, then HDR editing software is the way to go, or at least it was for me. I used to work with Photomatix and HDR efex PRO 2 from Google software, but to be honest I never was fully satisfied with the results. The process is mostly automated and relatively fast, even if you will make final adjustments in photoshop, but when I started to manually blend layers in photoshop, my photos are clean, artifact free, without any crazy micro contrast or fake looking pale washed out colors (mainly red). Below is a short video that I made today, I am revising some of my older photos and I re-edit them. You can see below the RAW file, then my old HDR edit, and at the very bottom a manually blended image. For full length tutorial on manual blending see my 50 minute long video here. 

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Manually digitally blended image

In this photoshop tutorial I will show you how you can easily edit and convert a photo inside Adobe Camera Raw without having to do absolutely nothing inside photoshop. Adobe Camera Raw is a very powerful tool, and it has many amazing options. In fact Lightroom editing options are build around Camera Raw functions. This tutorial will teach you how you can control contrast and colors of your photo, perform some simple dodging and burning, manipulate with light to direct the viewers attention to the place you want them to go, and finally how to convert the photo into a nice crispy and punchy black and white. 

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