Tuesday, September 18, 2012

It looks faked, but is a real beauty

Product photography has always been about making the product look as perfect as possible. Not the slightest speck of dust or odd shadow or reflection is allowed. The photo is taken in five minutes, and then retouched for two hours.

This was fine and good... until the advent of computer-generated images. These days, any skilled young graphic artist with an iMac can make up a camera looking as good as this (if he has talent, for this is a gorgeous camera):


... with the result that now we never know if it's an actual product or something dreamed up in a computer. (It's an issue for various reasons, one example is that people often make fake images of the next iPhone and such. Another one is to get a feeling of how close a product is to release.)

If it were me, I'd photograph the products... sitting on a forrest floor, for example. Anything to make it look more real and more interesting.
OK, it could probably still be faked, but it would be a lot harder, and I feel people just wouldn't do it for some reason.


Hey, I just noticed this: click on this and notice the line curving in over the lens from the left, from the slight overhang of the finder box. What an interesting and beautiful detail in this minimalist design.


By the way, just after I mentioned Jonathan Ive (Apple design head) in the post below, I read that he is working with Leica, designing a special edition camera of some sort, for benefit of charity. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

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