From the Ground Up | Macro Still Life Photography

rained as a sculptor and painter, with a long career as Art Director for the Graphic Design Department of the United Nations, Allan Markman now focuses his creative energy on fine art photography.
A typical piece starts as a small sculpture - between 2 and 12 inches wide - and is printed several times its original size revealing astonishing details of commonplace and timeworn objects. Allan coaxes beauty from the discarded detritus of our industrial urban culture. Rusted bolts, mysterious metal fragments, railroad spikes and shards of glass are combined with natural elements such as flowers, berries, and wild mushrooms. The juxtaposition of these disparate objects creates an atmospheric and unusual visual synergy.
Through the process he is always aware that ultimately the image will be viewed in two dimensions - composition, color, rhythm and texture call upon his skills as a painter and a graphic designer. The objects are bathed in soft and mysterious light, infusing the photographs with poignant beauty.
The Presentation :
• Allan will focus on his work and the key methods used to shoot and fine tune the photos to control and create the “perfect light”.
• You’ll learn how to use Photoshop Focus Stacking to create a greater depth of field in Macro photos.
• How to control intensity of light and shadows with a home-made device using a table lamp, mat board, tracing paper and clothespins.
…and he hopes to encourage you, in your own work, to find beauty and inspiration in even the most ordinary subjects.
Allan Markman Photography
/ allanmarkman
www.allanmarkm...
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[@dwightmitchell5925]

Such a serendipitous moment to find your work. Thank you.

[@onyourmarkphoto]

Allan, I absolutely adore your images. I've been a professional photographer for 40 years. This is one of the coolest styles of photography I have seen in a while. I loved your presentation. I loved the explanation of each of your images. Your work is beautiful and inspiring. Best program I've watched in quite a while. I thought I would just jump into this TH-cam video and look at a few images and fast forward. Nope, I stuck on this from beginning to end. Thank you for sharing this. I can completely relate to your collecting things from found objects and your patience in setting these up. I hope you do another video where you show yourself doing a shoot. Thank you for changing my perspective and inspiring my art.

[@lmorganreese]

One of the most important parts of the presentation was when showed the audience how he diffused light. But whoever was operating the video software did not switch from the photo to the video. That ruined the entire presentation. That’s the most important part!

[@senior_ranger]

Yep, that's when I quit.

[@photobizmethod]

Nice to see the setups for ideas... thank you!

[@mudswallow5074]

Gorgeous sculpture/photography. Thank you for sharing.

[@richardrizzo_photography]

Very inspiring work, thank you for sharing.

[@pictureeyecandy]

Macro takes everyday objects and transforms them into a view that most of us never see! This presentation showed many beautiful Images using trash or junk that you can find laying around. Photoshoot at a junkyard ( Brain Peterson) photographing wreaks and trash to create Photographs.
They needed to switch from photo to the video killed this presentation. This just became a slideshow with a narrative. But you can see from the images what you can do in a small place with a macro lens. and a lightbulb to make some very interesting Still Life Photography.

[@eileenthompson7922]

So inspirational! I’ve always loved doing still life, both painting and photography, this is the artistic booster I need. I have collected all sorts of oddments over the years but never thought to pick up metal stuff. I’ve started by asking my son for a horseshoe 😂😂

[@lawrencediggs7957]

This work is a great example of what can be accomplished with very little gear and a lot of creativity. I would like to have seen/learned more about his minimalist approach to lighting.

[@prabirsenuk]

Photographs are exquisite. However, lighting becomes the most important part for any photograph. That has not been briefly explained in this video.

[@tricial3690]

I love your use of light, composition, contrast, and texture. Really beautiful and inspiring.

[@supranomicon]

Wonderful images, great work!

[@melodychest9020]

Very nice creative mini sculpted photography with a lot of detail and preparation. Amazing work and enjoyed it.

[@WahyuCahyadi]

Amazed

[@Audrey7648]

Wonderful!!!

[@TheJimilagro]

Awesome photos but horrible presentation.

[@clanelliott0305]

Photo at 42.20 reminds me of an old steamboat, great video

[@avriljones8853]

When you say, "a piece of bark this big", we need to see what you're showing us. So many times, the narrator refers to something we are not being shown in the video. It would be great if you could remake it properly, to switch between the slides and what the narrator is showing in the room. Also, the sound production is pretty poor. Perhaps a better mic and/or better mic technique are needed. The pictures themselves are really interesting.

[@sasasas8746]

Macro is 1:1, this is closeup photography (less than 1:1). Very interesting, I enjoyed but not macro.

[@hhngqeo]

Distinction without a difference. Going from 0.98 magnification to 1.04 shouldn't mandate vocabulary change. It's not like everything magically changes at 1:1, like for example water freezing/thawing (where vocabulary change makes sense).
Besides, quantifying the magnification is pretty meaningless when we watch this on smartphones, PC monitors, TVs, and print after all the digital processing and streaming compression/decompression. It is what it is, and it will be different for most people and their viewing setup. Someone is pointing to the Moon, we shouldn't be staring at the finger.