Published by New Riders (January 24, 2015) © 2015
Bonny LhotkaProduct Information
Don’t bother reading this book unless you’re ready to get your hands dirty.
In Hacking the Digital Print, artist Bonny Lhotka redefines what it means to be a photographer. For one thing, you don't always need Photoshop to alter the reality you capture through your lens. In this book, you’ll learn how to create unique images using tools you make and modify yourself. Lhotka shows you how to use analog distortion filters, custom textures, and lens modifiers to create images that look like you made them, not an app. You’ll also learn how to re-create classic printmaking techniques using non-toxic digital alternatives, including a water-based transfer solution that’s safe to use anywhere, whether it’s the studio, classroom, or kitchen counter.
Anyone can push a button and create a nice print–there is little challenge in getting a high-quality image out of a desktop printer these days. Lhotka shows you how to take your work to the next level by printing on materials such as wood, glass, plastics, and metal. For the truly adventurous, Lhotka shares her custom techniques for taking photographs and applying them to 3D-printed objects created with popular consumer 3D printers.
Part artist/part mad scientist, Lhotka has spent many hours experimenting, hacking, and tearing things apart to discover new ways to take, make, and print images. She encourages you to take the techniques you’ll learn in this book, hack them, and make them your own. With some techniques you will fail. It will be messy. You will try and have to try again. But in the process, you will make your own exciting discoveries, find solutions to your own problems, and create a body of work that is uniquely yours.
In Hacking the Digital Print, artist Bonny Lhotka redefines what it means to be a photographer. For one thing, you don't always need Photoshop to alter the reality you capture through your lens. In this book, you’ll learn how to create unique images using tools you make and modify yourself. Lhotka shows you how to use analog distortion filters, custom textures, and lens modifiers to create images that look like you made them, not an app. You’ll also learn how to re-create classic printmaking techniques using non-toxic digital alternatives, including a water-based transfer solution that’s safe to use anywhere, whether it’s the studio, classroom, or kitchen counter.
Anyone can push a button and create a nice print–there is little challenge in getting a high-quality image out of a desktop printer these days. Lhotka shows you how to take your work to the next level by printing on materials such as wood, glass, plastics, and metal. For the truly adventurous, Lhotka shares her custom techniques for taking photographs and applying them to 3D-printed objects created with popular consumer 3D printers.
Part artist/part mad scientist, Lhotka has spent many hours experimenting, hacking, and tearing things apart to discover new ways to take, make, and print images. She encourages you to take the techniques you’ll learn in this book, hack them, and make them your own. With some techniques you will fail. It will be messy. You will try and have to try again. But in the process, you will make your own exciting discoveries, find solutions to your own problems, and create a body of work that is uniquely yours.
Preface
Foreword
SECTION I: BASICS
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Materials
Chapter 3: Equipment
SECTION II: ALTERED REALITY
Chapter 4: Preparing for the Shoot
Chapter 5: Mirrors and Mylar Reflection
Chapter 6: Distortion Filters
Chapter 7: Lens Modifiers
Chapter 8: Custom Textures
Chapter 9: Gallery of Work: Altered Reality
SECTION III: MIXED MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHS
Chapter 10: Photographic Mixed Media
Chapter 11: Mixed Media Decals
Chapter 12: Image Transfer to Glass
Chapter 13: WonderSauce Transfer Process
Chapter 14: Gallery of Work: Mixed Media Photographs
SECTION IV: NEW FRONTIERS
Chapter 15: Introduction to Printing
Chapter 16: Skin Applique to 3D Printed Objects
Chapter 17: Hydrographic Coloration of 3D Printed Objects
Chapter 18: Modern Lithophanes
Chapter 19: Gallery of Work: New Frontiers
Index