Where do you get your image ideas?

[Bill Brooks]

Here is one example of the newspaper as an idea factory.

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/18/computer-ai-mastering-dark-matter-of-the-internet-gaining-ability-to-describe-images-with-surprising-accuracy/

 

Why not make images depicting artificial intelligence now, so that when AI becomes more widespread you will have a competitive advantage?

 

I try to read widely, and not only the newspaper. Where do your image ideas come from?

 

Here is an image about artificial intelligence I made some years ago, after reading a sci-fi novel by William Gibson.

 

[Ed Rooney]

I'll let you know when I get one, Bill. 

 

But a sure way to get creative juices flowing is to take a ride on a bus or a train. Being a passenger in a car or traveling on the Subway (Underground) doesn't work for me. Flying is not so good either. I think the reason buses and sometimes trains work for me is because I'm in motion . . . but without responsibility, and I'm only half paying attention to what's outside. 

[Guest]

General trend on visuals tends to be adsoftheworld.com Interesting to see how the visual language changes over time, especially in print.

 

Ideas for actual images tend to come from trends/news or just thinking about what type of imagery a client in x or y business would want to use. My most successful work has come from the last method, basically setting myself a brief. These days with the great software we now have, it's possible to realise these ideas without stupid production costs.

[Inchiquin]

I may be a creative artist in other fields but in photography I document what I see.

 

The secret is being able to see what's there rather than what you think is there, and I'm still learning that.

 

Alan

[Bill Brooks]

So Edo that would be when you are letting your mind wander like daydreaming. Safe and secure enough to be inside your head, and without a lot of outside distractions?

 

Geoff: so it is a brief based on what is already inside your head due to news and trends, and not what happens to appear in front of the camera?

 

Alan is it because your are able to see whats there, rather than what you think is there, because you have accessed your subconscious by not thinking?

 

My best ideas tend to come when I am daydreaming. Something I read, days or months before, asserts itself. Or I suddenly recognize a better solution to an old failed idea in the scene before me.

 

Anyone tried meditation? I bet Jeff Greenberg has.       

[RedSnapper]

"The secret is being able to see what's there rather than what you think is there"

 

the even bigger secret is making images that then *show* what's there

 

 

km

 

 

and swimming

[Guest]

 

Geoff: so it is a brief based on what is already inside your head due to news and trends, and not what happens to appear in front of the camera?

 

 

There are obvious image areas that constantly need more imagery or images updated. So I will think of a client, maybe financial services and the keywords they would use to find an image - money, potential etc.... that gives me the basis of a brief. I then think how will I illustrate those keywords. The last bit is much easier as we can now use non-photo software to provide parts of or whole images.

 

As you wrote, there are loads of items in the news such as fracking for example that need images to illustrate the fears/technology and not just going out to the sites and shooting just a documentary image.

[John Mitchell]

 

Here is one example of the newspaper as an idea factory.

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/11/18/computer-ai-mastering-dark-matter-of-the-internet-gaining-ability-to-describe-images-with-surprising-accuracy/

 

Why not make images depicting artificial intelligence now, so that when AI becomes more widespread you will have a competitive advantage?

 

I try to read widely, and not only the newspaper. Where do your image ideas come from?

 

Here is an image about artificial intelligence I made some years ago, after reading a sci-fi novel by William Gibson.

 

 

 

Just wondering, what would you call this type of image, Bill?

 

Is it really a photograph or something else?

[Inchiquin]

Alan is it because your are able to see whats there, rather than what you think is there, because you have accessed your subconscious by not thinking?

 

 

It's subconscious, Bill, so I don't know the answer.

 

Alan

[Bill Brooks]

 

 

Just wondering, what would you call this type of image, Bill?

 

Is it really a photograph or something else?

 

 

 It is an illustration. It is entirely created within the computer. You can choose illustration, when you answer your questions about the image.

[John Mitchell]

 

Alan is it because your are able to see whats there, rather than what you think is there, because you have accessed your subconscious by not thinking?

 

 

It's subconscious, Bill, so I don't know the answer.

 

Alan

 

 

When I'm just strolling around with my camera, photography can be a type of meditation -- i.e. a way of being entirely in the present. In that case, "ideas" (if you can call them that) are then really a matter of direct perception. I never know what will catch my eye. This is my favourite kind of photography, and one that doesn't usually pay very well. Example here.

 

However, I think what Bill is talking about is intentional conceptual photography and image manipulation, which to me is an entirely different type of photography, one which suits itself better to stock, and one which unfortunately I'm not very good at. My ideas -- such as they are -- in this department usually come from the media -- newspapers, travel guides, the Web, etc., as well as from my own intuition (whatever that is), and of course the Alamy forum. 

[Bill Brooks]

 

 

There are obvious image areas that constantly need more imagery or images updated. So I will think of a client, maybe financial services and the keywords they would use to find an image - money, potential etc.... that gives me the basis of a brief. I then think how will I illustrate those keywords. The last bit is much easier as we can now use non-photo software to provide parts of or whole images.

 

 

Here is an non photo image that uses Bryce3D for rendering overall. Poser3d for the figures. A free 3D file rendered by Bryce3D for the telescope. The "$" was a font created in photoshop and then taken into Bryce3D. A scanned film shot of the sky. All assembled in Photoshop in the year 1999.

 

It started when I was daydreaming about a 3D telescope file I had acquired. How to use it?

 

The caption is "Illustration of financial adviser showing a investor the money." My banker likes this image, so it passes the acid test.

 

[Ed Rooney]

"So Edo that would be when you are letting your mind wander like daydreaming. Safe and secure enough to be inside your head, and without a lot of outside distractions?" -- Bill

 

That's more or less right, Bill, but the movement, not too fast, is an important part of it. 

[John Mitchell]

"So Edo that would be when you are letting your mind wander like daydreaming. Safe and secure enough to be inside your head, and without a lot of outside distractions?" -- Bill

 

That's more or less right, Bill, but the movement, not too fast, is an important part of it. 

 

Give me the slow train every time. Love the soothing sounds of clickity-clack, clickity-clack. No bullet trains for me either.

[Bill Brooks]

 

 

When I'm just strolling around with my camera, photography can be a type of meditation -- i.e. a way of being entirely in the present. In that case, "ideas" (if you can call them that) are then really a matter of direct perception. I never know what will catch my eye. This is my favourite kind of photography, and one that doesn't usually pay very well. Example here.

 

However, I think what Bill is talking about is intentional conceptual photography and image manipulation, which to me is an entirely different type of photography, one which suits itself better to stock, and one which unfortunately I'm not very good at. My ideas -- such as they are -- in this department usually come from the media -- newspapers, travel guides, the Web, etc., as well as from my own intuition (whatever that is), and of course the Alamy forum. 

 

 

Exactly John in the present. So far my examples have been planned. Here is a  straight image, taken quickly from a small boat. It suddenly presented itself while I was daydreaming. I was ready for the image, because I have spent many of my summers on the lake messing around in boats.

 

I guess I am saying you should suppress the reptilian fight or flight part of your conscious. Then you should be more in the present, and able to access ideas in your subconscious.

 

[John Mitchell]

 

 

 

When I'm just strolling around with my camera, photography can be a type of meditation -- i.e. a way of being entirely in the present. In that case, "ideas" (if you can call them that) are then really a matter of direct perception. I never know what will catch my eye. This is my favourite kind of photography, and one that doesn't usually pay very well. Example here.

 

However, I think what Bill is talking about is intentional conceptual photography and image manipulation, which to me is an entirely different type of photography, one which suits itself better to stock, and one which unfortunately I'm not very good at. My ideas -- such as they are -- in this department usually come from the media -- newspapers, travel guides, the Web, etc., as well as from my own intuition (whatever that is), and of course the Alamy forum. 

 

 

Exactly John in the present. So far my examples have been planned. Here is a  straight image, taken quickly from a small boat. It suddenly presented itself while I was daydreaming. I was ready for the image, because I have spent many of my summers on the lake messing around in boats.

 

I guess I am saying you should suppress the reptilian fight or flight part of your conscious. Then you should be more in the present, and able to access ideas in your subconscious.

 

 

 

Not sure that images like this one -- very calming BTW --  are based on ideas. Perception is a mysterious process. But I get the gist of what you're saying.

[Robert Brook]

It's all here:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02bwzrp