In Photograph Like a Thief, photographer, author, and retoucher Glyn
Dewis embraces the idea of "stealing" and recreating others' work in
order to improve as an artist. By stepping inside others' images, you
can learn to reverse engineer their creation, then build an image that
simultaneously pays homage to that work and is also an original creation
itself.
No photographer works in a vacuum. Photographers, like all artists,
stand on the shoulders of those who came before them, and they are
informed and influenced by those working around them. If you are
striving to find your own style, one of the most powerful exercises you
can practice is to find influence and inspiration in the work of those
around you, and then emulate that work in an effort to define, shape,
and grow your own photographic voice. By collecting, imitating, and
eventually reshaping and combining the work of those around you, your
unique voice can be found and the quality of your work can soar.
In Photograph Like a Thief, photographer, author, and retoucher Glyn
Dewis embraces the idea of "stealing" and recreating others' work in
order to improve as an artist. By stepping inside others' images, you
can learn to reverse engineer their creation, then build an image that
simultaneously pays homage to that work and is also an original creation
itself.
Glyn begins by covering the process of "stealing ideas" and finding
inspiration. He shares the gear he uses as well as his retouching and
post-processing workflow. In a chapter on how to reverse engineer a
photograph, Glyn discusses how to read an image by looking at the catch
lights, shadow and highlight positions, and the hardness or softness of
the shadows. This is a crucial skill to acquire if you want to recreate
a specific look.
Glyn then works through a series of images--inspired by movies, books,
history, and a few legendary photographers--from the initial concept and
influence to the final result. For each image, he reverse engineers the
shot to describe how it was created, then works through the gear he
used, the lighting for the image, and the post-processing of the image
in Photoshop--from the RAW out-of-camera shot to the finished piece.
While Glyn's work primarily focuses on portraiture, he finds inspiration
and influence from a wide variety of work.
By working alongside Glyn (he makes all the files available for
download), you too can learn to find inspiration all around you,
discover how others' work can influence you, improve your photographic
and post-processing skill set, and begin your own journey to defining
your unique style.
Who knows? Soon, others may be stealing from you.