In the summer of 2001 another photographer I know exhibited some pictures that just blew me away. He was very happy to share the information on the technique with me and I soon had the necessary gadgetry to do these terrible things myself.
The effect is to take a nice, normal picture and turn it into what looks like an Impressionist painting. The basic technique is to project the image onto a screen and distort the projected image. When you're happy with the way it looks, you take a picture of the distorted image. If you didn't shoot the original image on slide film you simply shoot a slide copy of it. Yes, you gain a little contrast and lose a little detail, but considering what else you're going to do to the image, that's not a real problem.
The basic technique for doing the distortion is pretty old and well known, but it's always been a bit of a studio curiosity. Then, in the late 1980's, a gentleman named Chris Beltrami hit upon the idea of projecting slides and distoring the projected image. He sells a kit to get you going quickly.
Because I like this technique and play with it every so often, I'm doing this section as a sub-main. I'll add sets of images on the usual (i.e., random) schedule.
Be sure to click down from the thumbnail gallery to the frame-by-frame gallery - the thumbnails are small enough that the effect is almost completely removed.
Interested in having me take an Impressionist Portrait of you?
You might also want to check out my Photographic Impressions 2002 calendar
Trying to get in touch? The easiest way is to email me at: steve@svandyke.com