Erik Johansson: Impossible photography

http://www.ted.com Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes -- capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping them visually plausible.

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  Howto & Style

[xPopxTartsx]

Why are you telling him to go back to drawing a dick...? Sometimes commas are important.

[Sarah Hart]

I wish I could be that good.

[Amithrius]

I understand what he is saying, however the insinuation that his art is superior to photography doesn't sit too well with me. His images are cool to look at for a moment but none go beyond that. A truly great photograph is deeply moving. Its something you can come back to repeatedly and still feel the same way. Of course, this is subjective but most other people I know feel the same.

[Chuck Norris]

my scissors

[scarletrhubarb]

I looked at the pictures on your google plus account, by the way. I dunno if you would have inferred that from where I accused you of being a snob who shoots macros of flowers :P

No offense intended at all!

[scarletrhubarb]

I find it hard to believe that a person who is going to be a snob about using Photoshop is also going to be a person who shoots macros of flowers.

My favorite flower macro shot, that I took, has a bee and an ant on it. I google that and see that I was not the first. If anyone was there with the mind to take a picture, they'd have taken it.

TBH I find the triviality of photography to be a bore, and the gap of creativity between you or I and Erik Johannson is something that we'll never close.

[TumVilki]

I understand why some people don't like this. It's because this dude is calling his photoshop images a photographies. But photo's are something that has been taken in real time and space - a caption of light reflections. Can you say that a crayon drawing is a photography? No. But photoshop is same as a crayon drawing - it draws pixels.

[butchdetablan]

very nice!

[Roy Ando]

Couldn't of said it better myself.

[mattbakerg]

I think its funny the amount of comments saying "Who cares it's photoshopped"

Do we go to art museums and cynically look over paintings and say "Who cares, he used a paintbrush" ?

Photoshop or any other program is a skill just like painting. If you think it's so easy why not try to come up with compositions this man did and re-create them using photoshop.. or better yet try to pick up a paintbrush and recreate the Mona Lisa. Enjoy art and don't judge the medium used to create it.