How-To: Levitation Photography

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By Goli Mohammadi
Posted 2013/02/24 @ 10:00 am
Category Photography & Video

Photographer Dustin Thompson posted a neat video tutorial on getting levitation trick shots like the ones above and below. Basically, all you need is a camera on a sturdy tripod (preferably with a remote so you don’t move the camera at all), a stool or something to stand/lay/kneel on, and a photo editing program like Photoshop or Gimp (free). This is one of those projects that leaves the wheels of imagination spinning overtime. So much possibility!

[via Instructables]

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18 Responses to How-To: Levitation Photography

danielmcgregor on February 24th, 2013 at 12:35 pm said:

Neat Trick

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Clemens on February 24th, 2013 at 1:26 pm said:

How-To make a photo of absolutely anything: photoshop. So lame.

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- dustint66 on February 25th, 2013 at 9:39 am said:
  
  One troll out of over 50,000 views.. I’m fine with that!
  
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  Clemens on February 26th, 2013 at 10:01 am said:
  
  Wasn`t trolling. Your pictures look really cool and also the instruction video was well made, so props for that, but on makezine I expected some cool optical trickery or hidden mechanical parts, not just photoshop.
  “how to levitation photography” => “photoshop.”
  “how to make nude pics of Obama riding a unicorn” => “photoshop.”
  “how to …. you see where I´m going…
  
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  dustint66 on February 26th, 2013 at 10:17 am said:
  
  Ha ha I gotcha! Yea no trickery like that yet! I would like to create some kinda crazy wire fighting setup someday. Stay tuned for that!
  
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nolartist on February 24th, 2013 at 3:01 pm said:

Reblogged this on NolArtist.

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James P on February 25th, 2013 at 12:55 am said:

Great video. What’s the tune at the end?

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- dustint66 on February 25th, 2013 at 9:35 am said:
  
  The song was made by an artist called reNounced.
  You can find more of his work here!
  
  http://soundcloud.com/renounced
  
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Colleen Thompson on February 25th, 2013 at 4:04 pm said:

I THOROUGHLY ENJOY YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY TUTORIALS! THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO EPISODE 3 OF THE SHUTTER SCHOOL. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!

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theMadz on February 26th, 2013 at 4:23 am said:

This is the worst Photoshop use ever. Everyone knows you are supposed to paint out objects. Use the Pen Tool or the Lasso even, jeeze.

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- theMadz on February 26th, 2013 at 4:24 am said:
  
  Aren’t* supposed to to paint out objects.
  
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  dustint66 on February 26th, 2013 at 7:52 am said:
  
  By all means, please feel free to share with me your tutorial wisdom oh photoshop master! We all have our own methods of how to do things. This is the best way I have found so far. Who knows, I might find your way pretty stupid.
  
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  dustint66 on February 26th, 2013 at 8:42 am said:
  
  In all seriousness though It’s not “painting out objects”. It is working with layer MASK. Instead of using just the lasso or pen tool, which would erase your layer permanently, with layer mask, you can go back and forth to fix your layer until you have the desired effects. And guess what, you can combine the lasso tool too if you want in layer mask. For this purpose though, i found the brush tool works for me.
  
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Colleen Thompson on February 26th, 2013 at 11:18 am said:

I GUESS THERE WILL ALWAYS BE HATERS…THEY MUST BE JEALOUS OF THE RECOGNITION YOU ARE RECEIVING. I COMMEND YOU ON YOUR TALENT AND EAGERNESS TO TEACH OTHERS HOW TO ENJOY PHOTOGRAPHY. YOUR TUTORIALS HELP BEGINNERS AND SEASONED PHOTOGRAPHERS EXPLORE THEIR IMAGINATIONS. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

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Jim Zubemo (@JimZubemo) on February 27th, 2013 at 11:57 pm said:

I definitely wanna try those!!!

Thanks for sharing!!!

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- dustint66 on February 28th, 2013 at 6:01 am said:
  
  Thanks for watching Jim! I’d love to see what you come up with!
  
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Joenne Hartley on March 12th, 2013 at 9:00 pm said:

Thanks for your instructional video. I am doing a school photography project and found it very helpful. Video very well done!

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- Dustin Thompson on March 12th, 2013 at 9:08 pm said:
  
  Awesome! I am glad you liked it!! Id love to see your results!
  
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