How-To: Levitation Photography

Photography & Video
How-To: Levitation Photography

dustin thompson lawnmower

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!

dustin thompson brooms

dustin thompson gas station

dustin thompson valentines day

YouTube player

[via Instructables]

46 thoughts on “How-To: Levitation Photography

  1. danielmcgregor says:

    Neat Trick :)

  2. Clemens says:

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

    1. dustint66 says:

      One troll out of over 50,000 views.. I’m fine with that!

      1. Clemens says:

        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…

        1. dustint66 says:

          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! :)

  3. nolartist says:

    Reblogged this on NolArtist.

  4. James P says:

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

    1. dustint66 says:

      The song was made by an artist called reNounced.
      You can find more of his work here!

      http://soundcloud.com/renounced

  5. Colleen Thompson says:

    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!!!

  6. theMadz says:

    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.

    1. theMadz says:

      Aren’t* supposed to to paint out objects.

      1. dustint66 says:

        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.

        1. dustint66 says:

          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.

  7. Colleen Thompson says:

    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!

  8. Jim Zubemo (@JimZubemo) says:

    I definitely wanna try those!!!

    Thanks for sharing!!! :D

    1. dustint66 says:

      Thanks for watching Jim! I’d love to see what you come up with!

  9. Joenne Hartley says:

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

    1. Dustin Thompson says:

      Awesome! I am glad you liked it!! Id love to see your results! :)

  10. Robert Mao says:

    Like levitation tricks? We built an iPhone app to let anyone be able to create awesome levitation photography with just an iPhone, no Photoshop or professional DSLR required! It’s in appstore now. https://itunes.apple.com/app/id639426500

  11. Ikhwan says:

    could it be done by LR instead of PS? I only have LR software :(

    1. dustint66 says:

      Hello,
      I do not believe that it can be done in Lightroom because you need software that works in layers. It can however be done in a software called gimp that is free to download :) good luck!

  12. pachu says:

    Hey bro ua video was perfect I juz wanna try it out but I don hav a tripod can u giv me asubstitute for tripod? It will be helpful for me!

  13. miglenajpetkova says:

    Reblogged this on F is for Fluffy.

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I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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