Saturday, March 1st, 2014
Learn to paint graffiti without a risk of being arrested
See how easy it is to create a graffiti effect on a wall in Photoshop. The video shows you how to use a graffiti font to create graffiti writing and how to use styles and colors to format the test to make it look like real graffiti. Then see how to use the Vanishing point filter to place the graffiti text onto a wall in a photo. Finish the effect by blending the text with brushes, blend modes and textures all created using layers and masks so that the effect can be edited in future.
Helen Bradley
Labels: blend modes, blending, brushes, copy, decal, graffiti, graffiti font, masking, new layer, perspective grid, photo editing, Photoshop, texture, Vanishing Point Filter, video, wall
Categories:photoshop, video
posted by Helen Bradley @ 5:08 pm1 Comment links to this post
Friday, May 3rd, 2013
Whenever I travel one of the tasks I have is to find good places for street art. It’s not like it makes the top 10 things to see in many, if any, cities in the world!
While I do a lot of research on the internet before I leave I also rely a lot on local information – trick is who to ask. Usually the well dressed, well heeled local or anyone who looks conservative it not my pick! Instead, on a recent trip to Baltimore it was the guys at the Utrecht art store. They were not only so nice in helping me find the supplies I wanted – a new batch of Prismacolor pencils – but also they helped me find graffiti and street art. They took the time to give me a mini hand drawn map of where to find Graffiti Alley – tucked between Howard and North and just the sort of place you need some insider knowledge or lots of dumb luck to find.
Nearby Graffiti Alley on Charles Street I found this piece of art, painted across the back of a parking lot. It was a really big project and basically untouched. There is a bit of art around it in the parking lot and most of it too is untouched. Not so Graffiti Alley where there are layers and layers of art, compelling in a very different way. Luckily a woman waiting in a parked car for her partner joined me for my walk up Graffiti Alley – if I wasn’t concerned about my safety (I was) she was! She insisted in walking with me to keep a lookout – I appreciated it, the alley does a dog leg and much of it is invisible from the road. I was glad of the company!
Helen Bradley
Labels: baltimore, graffiti, Photography, research, sticker art, street art, street art utopia, top 10 tings to photograph
Categories:photography
posted by Helen Bradley @ 6:40 amNo Comments links to this post
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Are you lucky or do you make your luck – photographing street art in Brick Lane, London
I have been going back over some images I shot in Brick Lane area in London recently. Brick Lane if you don’t know it is probably one of the best known areas in London for graffiti and street art and I spent an entire day there and didn’t cover all of it by any means. It is a fantastic area of London as it quite ethnically diverse with graffiti artists existing alongside members of the local Bangladeshi-Sylheti community.
The art here is amazing and very diverse. It varies from stencil and sticker art to full size painted images. I met one of the local artists Stik when I was there. Someone knew him and saw me photographing his work and introduced me which was amazing. I also managed, later in the day, to get the image below of one of Stik’s pieces of work.
This is where I ponder the luck or make your luck question. This image has an element of the unusual – there weren’t many women around the street and few in traditional clothing so that was unusual and that she walked past this particular piece of art the moment I was standing there – well that was very serendipitous. But lucky? I’m not sure. I think to an extent as photographers we make our luck when we open our eyes.
You see – cool stuff is all around but you have to see it and you have to be there with a camera in hand and that isn’t lucky – that’s work. You carry a camera through days of taking ho hum shots and getting rained on and seeing nothing that works for you and then occasionally you are rewarded with a result you’ve earned through . I think this image was, in many ways, earned. So too was the one above. I saw the art and then the bike and then I had my picture.
Helen Bradley
Labels: brick lane, graffiti, London, Photography, red motorcycle, stik
Categories:photography
posted by Helen Bradley @ 3:52 pmNo Comments links to this post
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
If you think you have to ‘go’ somewhere to get great pics, you don’t – you just need to look around you and start shooting – every day
I met this guy in London recently when I was photographing around Brick Lane. That area of London is famous for its graffiti and I had the rare pleasure of meeting some of the graffiti artists there including Stik. But I digress. The reason this guy is so interesting is that he photographs – nearly every day. He works in the area and he heads out at Lunchtime to take photos.
You might be prepared to shrug off his enthusiasm for his craft because of where he lives and works. Let’s face it – he gets to shoot some pretty awesome stuff. But so do any one of us if we look around us. Anywhere you live will give you fodder to shoot – you just have to go looking for it. Some of my best images have been shot within a mile of my house and sometimes just a few hundred feet. I know that because I walk the same route most mornings from Starbucks to my office. I carry my camera and I shoot whatever I see that captures my eye. So too does this guy.
If you feel frustrated you can’t get out to shoot often enough, I challenge you to go out during lunch time. Spend half of it eating and half photographing and you will end up with an hour or more shooting time each week. It’s not hard, it just takes commitment. So that’s why I take my hat off to this nameless London worker/photographer. He’s working a 9-5 but he’s still indulging his passion!
Helen Bradley
Labels: brick lane, graffiti, how to, London, make time to photograph, photography how to, Tutorial
Categories:photography
posted by Helen Bradley @ 12:55 pmNo Comments links to this post
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Yesterday I spent a few hours in Sekaido, a 7 storey art supply store in Shinjuku then headed out to Ginza as I hadn’t been there before. There are some seriously funky things here – it was Saturday so they close some of the main streets and put tables and chairs out for people to sit at. The neon is pretty amazing the shops – well let’s just say expensive and big name. In the Sony building the stairs play music as you climb them! All in all – fun and well worth a visit but it’s far from being my favourite place in Tokyo.
For my money, Shinjuku is far more interesting and colourful and there are way fewer tourists there. I’ve found some cool graffiti and sticker art around Shinjuku too which is an unusual find in Toyko.
But today is Sunday so I’m headed to Harajuku with high hopes of some amazing shots – it’s the centre of youth culture and dress up is the name of the game.
For now, click here to view a gallery of Ginza and Shinjuku street art images.
Helen Bradley
Labels: Ginza, graffiti, neon, Shinjuku, street art, Tokyo
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 4:44 pmNo Comments links to this post
Monday, November 19th, 2007
I was looking for an image to put on a t-shirt for a friend for Christmas. Let’s say, he’s a bit out there and pretty just won’t cut it.
I had two good photos of this graffiti covered wall so the Photoshop Automate > Photomerge tool put them together into a panorama. I used the clone and copy and paste to put back the missing bits as it was shot from a moving boat – a far cry from the ideal for shooting a panorama.
Color fix was an issue. I needed a channel to blend back into the image to boost the color and contrast. Problem was, the red killed the blue and the blue killed the red. Solution was to use both.
Duplicate the background layer twice. Select the first copy, choose Image > Apply Image and apply the red channel to the image. Then use the second copy and apply the blue channel to the image. Use the lighten blend mode on the top layer to blend the two together. You can use a Layer mask on the top layer if necessary to bring back detail from the layer underneath.
The grunge details are an image/edge from a set of grunge images from Graphic Authority applied as a layer mask with a black background layer put behind everything.
Helen Bradley
Labels: Apply Image, edge effects, graffiti, Paris
Categories:Uncategorized
posted by Helen Bradley @ 5:58 pmNo Comments links to this post
