Check out my latest tutorial at Design Instruct; Vintage Photo Effect in Photoshop where I show how to create a vintage look to your photos.

This tutorial will show you how to apply a simple vintage photo effect using Photoshop. We’re going to use image adjustments, adjustment layers and layer styles to apply the vintage effect on a regular photo so that we can keep our work easily editable.

Tutorial: Vintage Photo Effect in Photoshop

There is a lot of typography-based artwork recently with more people getting their hands on 3D programs. However, creating 3D text with just Photoshop takes a certain amount craftsmanship and skills, leaving all the little details in your hands instead of letting the computer do all the work. So, in this tutorial we are going to take a few 2D textures as well as a few Photoshop techniques to create a realistic 3D text image.

Resources

Wood Texture by kovik
Wooden Plank by Image*After
Red Brick Wall by Image*After
Lonely Tree by Image*After

Step 1: Sizing the document

Let’s start off by opening up Photoshop and creating a new document with a size of 1200x600px.

Step 2: Sizing Our wood image

Open up our Wood Texture image in Photoshop and go into Image > Image Size and change the width to 1200px, while making sure that the resolution is at 72 pixels/inch.

Bring the wood image into our original document. Save the file as “wood_front.psd”, as a Photoshop document file somewhere where we can get back to it later on.

Step 3: Adding in the text

Now we are going to add in our text. The font I am using is Chunk Five, but any bold font will work.

We are going to use the wood as the face of our text, so select the text layer and go to Select>Load Selection. A marquee outline of the text should appear. Click on the wood layer and go to Layer>New>Layer via copy to get the selection on a new layer. Now you can just delete the original text layer and wood layer.

Step 4: Creating the text edges

Let’s duplicate the wooden text by going to Layer>Duplicate Layer. Load the new layer by going to Select>Load Selection and fill it with black (Alt+Delete). So you should now have one layer that has the wood texture and one that is black.

Move the black text layer behind the wooden text layer. Using the transform tool (Ctrl+T), hold down Shift and Alt, move the anchor points inward. You should end up with something like what I have below.

Step 5: Making the text 3D

To create our 3D effect we are going zoom into our text and using the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) we are going to connect each corner of the wooden text with the corresponding corner of the black text. We are going to fill these shapes with black on the black text layer.

Step 6: Displacing the texture

Click on the wood text layer, then go into Filter > Distort > Displace. Change the horizontal and vertical scales each to 1 and click OK. This will open up a file browser, where we can open up the Photoshop file we created in step 2. Repeat this for the black text layer also.

This should give the text a more natural edge that goes with the grooves of the wood.

Step 7: Color correcting the second wood texture

Open up the Wooden Plank image in Photoshop. We are going to do some color correction to this image to make it darker for our text sides.

First let’s open up our Curves (Ctrl+M), change the Input to 187 and the Output to 77.

The color is really bright, but we are going to change that by going into Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U) and change the Hue to +15, Saturation to -44 and Lightness to -24. This should give us a dark brown color.

Step 8: Adding the second wood texture

Go into Image > Image Size and change the width of the text side texture to 1200px. This will make it easier to adjust the size, rather than starting out with a huge image we have to shrink down.

Now we can bring the wood texture into our document.

This wood layer is going to go below the text face and in front of the black text sides. To get rid of the excess wood texture we are going to click on the black text, then go to Select>Load Selection. We are going to get the inverse selection by going to Select>Inverse and delete. This should leave us with just the texture where the black text is.

Step 9: Color correcting the brick wall

Before we go any further with the text we are going to work on our Red Brick Wall background. So open up the brick wall image and bring it into Photoshop.

Now this brick wall has kind of a faded look to it. We want to make it more vibrant, at least for now to have consistent color intensity throughout all of our images.

Open up your Image>Adjustments>Levels (Ctrl+L) and adjust the arrows so they are at the start and the end of the graph like I have done below.

Now bring the brick background into our document so that it is just above the background layer. Now using the Transform tool Edit>Free Transform (Ctrl+T) change the vertical and horizontal scale to 75%.

Step 10: Adding a bevel to the text

Let’s continue working with the text. Click on the text face layer and go to Layer>Layer Styles>Bevel and Emboss.

Change the depth to 1000% and the size to 2px. We also need to change the angle to the top right because that is where our light source is going to be coming from.

Finally, to get a little warmer edge to our bevel (rather than using the black and white default colors), we are going to change the highlight color to #FFCC33 and the shadow color to #663300.

Step 11: Adding an inner shadow to the text

Next we are going to go into Layer>Layer Styles again and this time go into Inner Shadow. This will make the bevel stand out more and make our text look less like a texture laid over text and more like each letter is wooden.

Step 12: Adding a text shadow

Now we want to start working on the shadows. Click on the text face layer and go to Select>Load Selection to get a marquee around the text face. Next click on the shadow text layer and go to Select>Load Selection and select Add to Selection.

Create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and fill the selected area with black. Move this layer down so it is just above the brick wall layer.

Go into Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and change the Angle to 20 degrees and the Distance to 200 pixels.

Step 13: Masking and blurring the shadow

We need to get rid of the shadow we just made on the top right area of the text because the light will be casting a shadow toward the bottom left. So go into Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All, this will add a layer mask to our layer. Click on the Brush tool (B) and using a black brush at 100px wide with 0% hardness and 50% opacity, start painting away the shadow areas on the top and right part of the document.

The Motion Blur also gave us some harsh edges that we want to soften. So go into Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and change the Radius to 8.5 pixels.

Step 14: Adding a shadow part 2

We are going to repeat steps 12 and 13, except this time the Motion Blur is going to have an Angle of 15 degrees and Distance of 240 pixels.

Step 15: Adding a shadow to the text sides

To give the text sides some shadow, we first want to darken the texture a little bit, so go into Curves (Ctrl+M) and adjust the Input and Output to 147 and 117.

Now to get the shadow on the text, we are going to select the text side wood texture layer and go to Select>Load Selection to get a marquee around it. Create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer (Ctrl+Shift+N), get the inverse selection by going to Select>Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+I) and fill with black. This should fill the entire area except where the text side wood texture is.

Make sure you deselect the marquee tool by going to Select>Deselect (Ctrl+D) and go into Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and change the Radius to 6 pixels.

Select the wood side texture layer and go to Select>Load Selection then get the inverse selection by going to Select>Inverse (Ctrl+Shift+I) and delete. This will get rid of all the black area except where the blur went on the text, making our shadow. Now duplicate the shadow layer with Ctrl+J to make it darker.

Step 15 Alternate: Refining the shadows

The previous step was just a quick way to make the shadow, but if you want to go into more detail you can create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer(Ctrl+Shift+N). Start lightly painting the areas that would have a shadow (like the bottom and left sides of the letters). Also use the Polygonal Lasso Tool (L) to get the straight edges on the hard corners.

Step 16: Lighten the text face

Now we are going to lighten up the text face. Click on the text face layer and go into Image>Adjustments>Curves (Ctrl+M). Change the Input to 107 and the Output to 150.

Step 17: Adding a natural element

We are going to add some realism by adding a tree shadow on the left side of the text. So we are first going open up our tree image in Photoshop. Now, go to Select > Color Range. Click on the dark areas and change the Fuzziness to 200.

The Color Range will create a marquee around the dark areas. Take the dark area that we selected, create a new layer by going to Layer>New>Layer (Ctrl+Shift+N), fill it with black and drag it into our document.

Step 18: Tree shadow

To give our tree that shadow look we are going to go into Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Drop the opacity down to 50%.

Step 19: A little bit of lighting

To give a little bit of light inconsistency to make it more natural looking, we are going to create a new layer and bring it just above the brick wall layer. Now, using a white to 0% opacity gradient, click and drag a circle from the middle left part of the document out.

Change the Blend Mode to Overlay.

Step 20: Color correction with a gradient map

Now we are going to do some quick color adjustments. First go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map and click on the yellow to red gradient. Make sure the reverse box is checked. Drop the opacity down to 10%.

Step 21: Color correction with a hue/saturation

Finally, go into Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Drop the Saturation to -40.

Final

If you want to learn effective tips to get expertise in the art of Photography, here is a list of top 15 photography sites. On these sites, you can find guidelines, tips and techniques for capturing high quality images. Also, there are a number of sites, where you can upload and manage your photographs. In this list, there are sites which give you a glance of some of the well-known photographers.

1. Digital Protalk

This is a blog run by one of the internationally famous wedding photographer David Ziser. This blog provides lots of information about Lighting, Lightroom, Photography, Photoshop and many helpful tips for those who have taken up photography as their profession.

2. Beyond Megapixels

This site provides complete guidance on digital photography. If you are new to photography, this site will guide you in every step right from choosing your camera and lenses to taking photographs. You will also get many helpful tips. Moreover, there are also lots of interesting articles on photography available in this site.

3. My Shutter Space

My Shutter Space is a community site. Here, one can create his own profile, upload and share photos and get connected to other people who also find Photography as amusing as you do. This site even helps one to sells his pictures. Apart from this the forum section is another attraction of this site where you can get answers to your questions.

4. Pet in Canvas

This is a site where you can post your cute pet’s photos and get hugs for them. Seriously if you are a pet lover, this site is worth visiting as you will get to see amazingly cute and sweet pictures of dogs and cats.

5. Pixie

Pixie is another site that enables you to share your photos. Very easy to manage, you just need to register start sharing your pictures.

6. Fotki

Fotki is another very popular community site. You can find new friends who share similar interest, upload and share pictures. Unique feature of this site is that, here you get the opportunity to participate in a number of photography contests. Apart from uploading photos this site also enables you to upload videos in your albums.

7. Outdoor Photographers

This is a very unique site full of contests, informative articles, how-to guides. You can also share your favorite pictures and share the story that it tells. If you love photography you should definitely visit this site.

8. Photobucket

As the name itself suggest, this site provides with a wide collection of pictures and also contests. You can also edit your photos to add exciting effects to it by using the various photo editing tools available in this site.

9. 500 px

This is a photo community which enables you to connect to other photographers and also helps you in sharing, buying and even selling photographs.

10. Guide to Film Photography

This site is a complete guidance to photography. Be it black & white pictures, still pictures or motion pictures this site will provide useful tips and techniques on every area of photography.

11. Strobist

This site is very much useful for the beginners to guide them to the next level of photography. It contains tutorials and guides related to the art of using off-camera flash with DSLR to take photos. It also provides a Lighting 101 course, which is very useful for the beginners.

12. Photography Tips and Techniques

This site has been guiding photographers since 1997. Articles related to almost all aspects of photography can be found here.

13. EPhotozine

This is a photo community. Here users can share their photos, get connected to other people, chat about their photography experience with other online members. Apart from these, there are also lots of informative articles.

14. By Thom

Created by Thom Hogan, this website specifically talks about Nikon world. Also this site provides information’s on some of the latest gadgets. The beautifully described travel articles are another attraction of this site.

15. School of Photography

This provides online certificate photography courses basically into two levels – Level 1 for beginners and Level 2 for advanced.

Apart from these mentioned sites there are many more other sites which are equally helpful. Photography has different meaning to different people. For some photography is a hobby, for some it is a passion while for some Photography is a profession and for some it is just a mean of capturing moments. Yet whatever meaning Photography may have the ultimate truth that lies behind that is, it is an art and can reflect the creativity of one’s mind.

The experience of staying plugged into social networks, indulging in time-gripping conversations with friends, discussing about the latest happenings, or just poking someone for fun has just gone better. After unleashing several new interesting tools for social buffs, Facebook has come up with a new update for its iPhone App that lets people get event check-ins.

Events Check-in

The recently unleashed version 3.4 has integrated a few other great updates as well. To begin with, users are now enabled to glance through their friends on a map from the Places area and stay connected in an even better way. With embedded support for Google Maps, the app allows users to seamlessly view their favorite amigos on maps and enhance their entire social experience. Just simply click a friend’s name in the Activity view of the Places list and you will notice a revamped thumbnail.

By taking advantage of which, you will be able to facilely plot the location of your friend’s latest check-in on a Google Map. At the same time, if you wish to view things in a better and a fuller space, then merely tap the map to stretch out. In simpler terms, by enabling Places check-ins to Events, the social networking site should be able to cross-promote two significant features. First, inducing people or inspiring users to RSVP and second to let them check in more often, Interesting, isn’t it?

Improved News Feed

Well, there’s an enhanced News Feed as well which now keeps iPhone users thoroughly updated with what’s happening around. So be it someone’s very recently updated status, newly posted personal photo or just new group being liked, the improved news feed section will put forth all the latest
happenings.

Ability to Un-friend

What’s more, the ability to un-friend someone from the mobile device has finally been endowed. In a nutshell, you won’t really be having any more episodes of ‘down in the dumps’.

However, event check-ins topples as Facebook for iPhone app’s most highlighted part. So, whether you want someone to reach a destination or are invited yourself to a friend’s get together small party, for example, you will be enabled to easily check in when you reach the spot. But to notify, the revamped version is basically a logical extension of Facebook check-ins and hopefully this will only perk up the
experience further.

All in one Place

Although Facebook app for the iOS platform is quite intuitive and feature-rich, the v3.4 is just anticipated to leverage that experience. Since over 250 million people have actively been benefiting from the diverse social platform either via their desktop or mobile devices, Facebook’s recent upgrade expects to gain a little more of brownie points. After all, what could get better than Event Check-ins, the
ability to un-friend someone, and an improved News Feed all integrated in a single shell?

Nevertheless, iPhone users who already have the Facebook Mobile app can simply upgrade their version to a higher one. On the other hand, those who are yet to latch onto the app can simply head towards Apple’s official App Store and download the application. To wrap it up, whatever the software has come been tweaked for, users will certainly be left with an enriched social experience.

You’re faced with a design project. The client gives you the scope of the job and it’s time to bust out some ideas. How do you create something exciting and dynamic while avoiding the obvious and mundane? Learning how to spot cliché will help you build off the obvious and develop unique ideas. In this article we’ll talk about identifying cliches and working with them to build a new point of view.

Identifying cliché:

What’s a cliché? Often the first idea that pops into your head. Clichés are so ubiquitous when you think of something you can’t separate that subject from the cliché that represents that. For example, an idea displayed as a light bulb is a time test, worn out cliché. The light bulb used as an idea is so cliché the original meaning and impact was lost long ago and it’s not tired and over-done.

What makes something cliché?

Often, over use. When those nifty little Microsoft clipart men having ideas were first created, it was an original idea. Now it screams cliche because we’ve seen it everywhere and can’t separate it from early MS word. Clichés are inherently safe and appealing because we are all so familiar with them.

To further illustrate this point, let’s do a font association game, I’ll say something and you tell me what font it’s in?

• Chinese Restaurant… Asian brush font
• Old weathered scroll… Papyrus
• Hipster internet meme… Helvetica
• Note in a 2nd grade class room about crayon etiquette… Comic sans.

How’d you do?

Is there a problem with this type of consistency in design? After all, it works for identifying between Chinese and Mexican Restaurants without having to actually do any reading. The answer is; cliché isn’t entirely bad. It’s just not the highest and best design solution available. The original impact and meaning intended by the design is long gone and replaced by something predictable.

Every cliché possesses old associations, good and bad. As a designer you want to establish a unique point of view – jumping away from clichés will help develop your design voice.

Making Cliché Work for You:

When faced with a design challenge, write your ideas down as they come. Get out some good old fashioned paper and start sketching your thoughts. Then do some research. Chances are, the first thing you thought of is also the first thing lots of other people thought and it’s probably a good idea to keep looking for inspiration.

If you’ve seen it done, don’t just tweak it a little and call it your own. Massage the idea into something entirely new. One way to do that is the mash-up, take two different cliches and merge them. This is innovation at it’s root, taking two ideas and creating something unique.

Balancing the Obvious and the Obscure:

Doing something completely opposite than what you first thought can sully the message. The idea behind avoiding cliché is to make something dynamic but still effective. Dan Mayer wrote a great piece on this subject for Smashing Magazine. Mayer outlines a fictional scenario for a drunk driving campaign, he perfectly illustrations the two extremes, obscurity and obvious and how to find that perfect middle ground. Mayer goes on to showcase professional designers responses and solutions to cliches and how to tweak your design process to work with cliche for the best outcome.

Here are my top 5 pet peeve design clichés I wish people would stop utilizing:

1. Excessive Gradients – they were impressive at a time, but now clean, to the point and easy-to-read wins over flash and effects. ModernL.com has an example:

2. Too Much Script Font—script font is hard to read and readers are fickle, so use script sparingly. DesignShack.net has an example:

3. Swoosh Logos—they’re everywhere. Please people, stop making new logos with swooshes. They don’t mean anything and are too widely used to set your design or brand apart from anything else. Brown Advertising has an example:

4. Bevel or Embossing Effects: Once again, yesterday’s flashy and new now looks worn and used. Designs that go beyond the cliché will appear timeless. Better to set the trend than be a trend-victim. Design Shack has an example:

5. Helvetica Dependence: Ok, I get it. It’s a beautiful font. Simple, almost invisible, but it’s all over the place. Don’t rely on it, that’s all I’m saying. It’s holding up a lot of the type market already. Stand out, pick something different. Down with design has an example:

Looking for more design clichés? Here’s an extensive collection on Underconsideration.com featuring classic clichés like the globe, the handshake, the puzzle piece, people pointing and many more!

Now I’ll leave you with this:

infographic cliché infographics by Alberto Antoniazzi.

Go forth good designers; and make of yourselves something new, something innovative, something dynamic.

In the early stages of development of cellphone market, much has been said and done in providing a good platform for consumers to shop at this new platform in terms of time or space. However, in a haste of making this medium bright and shiny, there are many basic benefits which have been ignored.

The things like runway video content, static product catalogs, blog integration and mobile lookbook content which gives value to customers however comes with as a unidirectional communication approach without considering the strengths of the mobile web medium.

In order to address the issue of mobile design ineffectiveness, you need to utilize the disruptive methods to deconstruct current formats and models along with highlighting the underleveraged. Also, you need to understand how mobile experience is different from the stationary and traditional formats of web formats.

Mobile web different from traditional web

Though they are seen with a common infrastructure, the mobile format is certainly not a traditional web. They differ in couple of ways to the traditional world of web. The traditional forms of web are considered to be an inactive model, whereas the mobile web is called as dynamic in nature.

To make mobile web different and dynamic to render consumers a distinctive kind of experience, you need to incorporate socially, actionable and immediacy elements. These things are considered to be pretty significant for the mobile web models which need to be utilized in a different and unique way.

The designed framework for mobile web should be able to embark with actionable and mobilized features at the forefront with unidirectional digital assets rendering good background aesthetic.

The features which are required to be integrated in mobile web design include location recognition, personalization, voice capability, time-sensitivity, social connectivity and integrated camera functionality. These are known as distinctive strong points of the mobile web medium. In other words, designing for mobile web is pretty different to the traditional formats of web design to a great extent.

The mobile web format

When you think of designing any typical mobile web page or application design, you will be directed to a static main page having a logo, a main page image and product category list. So when you visit such sites using your cellphone device, you will be greeted with different interaction options.

The factor of mobility is basically about immediacy and location awareness which helps an active navigation in such websites along with having a provision to find your location with the help of GPS coordinates. In this way, you also get proper geo related information from the mobile website designs.

Also, integration of social media with mobile design is undeniable and significant. By having this actionable menu carrying social functions, it helps the users to enable the sociomobile threading and thus connect the likeminded people easily. By incorporating functions which are unique and specific to mobile web adds up strength to this new medium of web.

The mobile web design is pretty different as compared to the traditional forms of web design. Hence you need all together a different set of principles and features while working on the mobile web designs. While designing the mobile web, it is imperative to consider the factors and principles as discussed above in the article to make the browsing experience at cellphone platforms easy and simple.

Have you ever tried your hand at t-shirt design or are you an expert in the field? Either way, we have put together a list of valuable t-shirt design resources that are sure to sharpen your pencil. These instructional links include lists, tutorials, tips and much more. Check them out below!

Lists of Designs:

30 Kick Ass Vector Based T-Shirts from Top Designers

57 Custom T-Shirts Tag Examples

75 Skull T-Shirts That Don’t Suck

Informational articles:

The Art Of Collaboration

Gradients and Halftones in Screen Printing

Picking the Perfect Blank T-Shirt

Converting Artwork for T-Shirt Printing

Anatomy of a Band T-Shirt

________________

Study Reveals How to Create the Best Brand Names

So you wanna design t-shirts? Part 1: There are THAT many ways to print a shirt?

How a t-shirt comes to life (A step by step guide)

Designers’ guide to the apparel printing industry

A designer’s guide to pricing

Tips and Ideas:

Quick Tips: Coloring

How to take your t-shirt artwork from good to great

Easy concentric circles in Photoshop

People Watching—Inspiration for t-shirt design

Anatomy lessons for the artist

Confusing a monster: Overcoming creative blocks

Tips for professional looking product photos

Free screen print ready textures: Texture Pack v2 by CX.CITY

Tutorials:

From sketch to vector illustration

How to get a vintage text effect in Photoshop tutorial

How to design a t-shirt on a budget and a tight deadline

How to make u’r own splatters

Distressing techniques in Adobe Illustrator

How to create your own color separations in Adobe Illustrator

Newbie’s guide to beautiful t-shirt mockups

An in-depth guide to working with typography in Illustrator

Go Media’s Rapid-Fire Illustration Technique

Videos:

Quick Tip: Use warped type to make a sports design t-shirt

Artwork for t-shirt printing—Vector vs. Bitmap

Discarge Printing— Soft feel print on dark t-shirts

Screen printing information and tips with Threadbird

Infographic:

Typography Guide (Infographic)

10 Things You Didn’t Know About T-Shirts

So there you have it…35 great t-shirt design related articles that are worth looking into. There are so many facets to t-shirt design that all skills levels should benefit from at least some of these resources. Please include links to your own favorite t-shirt design related articles in the comments!

Blake Poutra is a t-shirt designer and printer at You Design It. He regularly writes about design, programming and various printing methods. You can follow him on Twitter at @youdesignit.

The recent exhibition by Belgian photographer Frieke Janssens entitled ‘The Beauty of an Ugly Addiction’ is a real challenge. Simultaneously haunting and captivating, the photographs of children smoking are exquisitely retro-styled. The viewer cannot fail to be impressed by the skill of the photographer, and yet the subject matter is problematic, leaving a residual sense of unease. Janssens was fully aware of this, and sought to challenge our ideas about smoking in the West, taking inspiration from the East. She saw the viral video footage of Aldi, a two-year-old Indonesian boy smoking – a forty a day habit he found very difficult to quit, throwing tantrums and banging his head when deprived of a fix. His parents were seemingly at a loss to know how to stop him, and if the video had not gone viral he may have been smoking to this day.
The shocking footage of Aldi provoked amusement in some. The juxtaposition of an innocent child and an adult vice was an unsettling sight, and it is this ambivalence that Janssens is exploiting in her photos. She says, “The video highlighted the cultural differences between the east and west, and questioned notions of smoking being a mainly adult activity. Adult smokers are the societal norm, so I wanted to isolate the viewer’s focus upon the issue of smoking itself”. What do you think? A serious point about smoking, or an excuse to shock? For some the issue highlighted is not smoking, but the use of children in art, resonating with the recent controversial Vogue shoot, which used young girls in an adult fashion setting. Children doing adult things. For adults. To make a point. Kind of metacreepy?
Janssens says she was trying to capture the aesthetics of smoking. On her site she explains, “The aesthetics of smoke and the particular way smokers gesticulate with their hands and posture cannot be denied, but among the different tribes of “Smoking Kids,” – Glamour, Jazz, and The Marginal – there is a nod to less attractive aspects, on the line between the beauty and ugliness of smoking…. the culture around smoking has a retro feel, like the time period of “Mad Men,” when smoking on a plane or in a restaurant was not unusual.” Janssen highlights an aspect of the photographs that is instantly recognisable. The gestures and positioning of the children, undoubtedly quite innocent, are uncannily accurate. The faded, retro hue to the photographs lends a perfect air of nostalgia. There is no doubt that the styling of Janssen’s work is stunning.

Typical Mad Men smoking shot

The idea that in the West at least, smoking is becoming a ‘retro’ look is playful and interesting. Janssens plays with that notion skilfully. It’s clever. The photography is beautiful, and a viewing of the short film on her website shows how tenderly she treats the children during the shoot. But it also highlights how tiny and innocent they are, how totally unaware of the nature of this big adult thing they are being used to create. None of them smoked real cigarettes; it was done with incense sticks and pieces of chalk. But the effect is powerfully realistic. There are so many strands to pick out in this collection. Like all the best art is raises questions, forces the viewer position themselves and leaves unfinished thoughts that trail off who knows where.
I like the photos. Kind of. I think. But then again…

Janssens ‘The Beauty of an Ugly Addiction’

Copyright Frieke Janssens

Vogue shoot:

Short film on Janssen’s website about the shoot

Lucy Milton spent much of her young life on a sectional sofa in the V&A, waiting for her father to finish his shift there. She’s been fascinated with all sorts of art ever since, especially the pieces which would have spoken to her as a girl.

Professional photographers have that funny knack for capturing ugly events, outcasts of society, or normally trashy objects and turning them into a beautiful work of art. This has been done over and over again; yet each new photograph of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or of riots in the streets catches us off-guard and reminds us of the beauty that can be found in even the worst situations. The following set of photos shows just how brilliantly a stunning photo can turn an ugly thing into a gorgeous moment frozen in time.

Dry by Karol

An old rusted and algae-infested faucet and drain pool are captured at a stunning angle that shows the array of colors in this scene.

Sing Song by TooLoose-LeTrek

Anyone passing by this old building front would think it a nasty, rundown sort of place. However, when captured in a photograph, this shutdown office makes one wonder what interesting singers passed through the place when it was alive and hopping.

Ol’ Knuckle-Buster by Its My Moment

The bandaged knuckles, complete with a tinge of blood on one finger, the grease marks, and the huge rusty wrench would normally be something that most people would either not notice or shrink away from. This photographer was able to capture the raw grunge of this composition, turning it into a stunning work of art.

Solar Panel

Normally, a solar panel would either be unnoticeable, a constant background item that our eyes overlook; however, a photo of a single solar panel with nothing but the vivid blue sky as a background is quite captivating.

Hung out to Dry by Proph Bundy

Rows of project housing identical down to even the laundry lines, is normally quite an ugly sight. This photo turns it into a story involving a handful of families and individuals who passed through these units over the years.

Ugly Macro by Ari Aikomus

Nasty cigar and cigarette butts rotting in dirty rainwater – normally a very disgusting sight. This macro shot somehow turns this trash into a detailed and eye-catching composition.

Nails by Andy Muskopf

A handful of rusty nails normally look like a pile of junk, but this photo has turned junk into a colorful and detailed art piece.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/electric_crayon/5932124567/in/pool-10765367@N00/

Many beautiful fields often contain ugly piles of broken down machinery, not a pretty sight in real life. This photograph, however, turned this old case threshing machine into a thing of beauty by contrasting the naturally stunning surrounding landscape.

Zwirnerei 2 by Andre Joossev

This old abandoned factory in Germany is full of decay and rubble. Andre Joosse took this photo in the perfect lighting and angle, creating quite a stunning grunge photo.

Zwirnerei 1 by Andre Joosse

Another photo of a German factory by Andre, the appealing part of this one is the room at the end of the row of orange machinery hanging from the ceiling.

Oil in Raouchet Inlet by epape

An oil spill is a terrible disaster to surrounding nature. This photo is made captivating by the contrast of the ugly oil compared to the clean ocean beyond; you can also see a glimpse of the past beauty of this inlet, making it quite a heart-wrenching composition.

The Iceland Volcano

A natural disaster can create some horrific destruction on surrounding areas. Very often, however, the occurrence can be quite stunning. The billowing smoke from this volcano was captured perfectly in this photo.

Hello! By Tothzoli001

An ugly insect can be made quite beautiful when captured up close. The colors would make this photo a beautiful postcard.

Next Top Model by Perathor

This very hideous turkey, while still very ugly in this portrait, is a great example of photography capturing beautiful details in the most unlikely of places. Notice the intricate folds of his bright red wattle and the vivid blue of the skin on his head.

Wood Siding by Jonathan

The siding is actually falling off of this building, the paint is peeling from the door, and everything looks quite weathered. Yet what a beautiful photo it makes, especially at this angle.

Char & Clouds by Chris Lombardi

A burned forest is always a sad sight. This very talented photographer, though, has managed to turn the charred stumps into a gorgeous photo with the brilliant angle, bright blue sky, and stunning clouds.

Adult Male Phidippus by Thomas Shahan

Spiders can be extremely creepy, and this one is no exception. Even those with arachnophobia could not deny the beauty in the amazing details in this macro shot.

Caracol (snail) by Aitor Las Hayas

Apparently, snails are quite ugly, even up close. Yet the perfectly blurred background while the snail’s head remains in focus is incredible.

California Wildfires by The News-Press, Michael Moriatis

The wildfire attacking the telephone poles is saddening and stunning at the same time. This photographer perfectly captured the raw power of a fire out of control.

Chilean Volcano

A horrible disaster, this volcano caught in action makes for a gorgeous photograph. The colors and details in the erupting smoke are phenomenal!

Tara Hornor has a degree in English and writes about marketing, advertising, branding, graphic design, and desktop publishing. She works for PrintPlace.com, an online printing company that offers postcards, posters, brochure printing, postcard printing, and more printed marketing media. In addition to her writing career, Tara also enjoys spending time with her husband and two children.

imageMEDIA.com is a top online printer that specializes in online printing services such as business cards, flyers, posters, postcard printing and more.

Today they are offering Denis Designs’ readers the chance to win an awesome high quality rolled poster print that you can use for your portfolio, for a client or for whatever design you want!

Prize (1) 24 x 36 inch rolled poster ($70 value) – Printed on premium epson printer – full bleed and full color

Rules

. You may only enter this contest once. Anyone submitting more than once will be disqualified
. Please enter a valid email address
. You must be of legal age in the jurisdiction that you reside to enter
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How to Enter

Entering is simple, just leave a comment telling us what you would use the poster print and follow imageMEDIA on Facebook. A winner will be randomly picked on September 22, 2011 (two weeks from today). Good luck!