Just seen these on Bored Panda, and I was thinking that any of the people doing Dave's SFTW challenges could do the manipulations. You just need half decent photography skills, some willing subjects, but most of all, you need the ideas. It's clever stuff and quite nicely done. I think it was #24 that was vaguely NSFW.
A taster. He has three daughters, and this one is a star, and I suspect more than a bit cheeky.
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I've just checked his site and it's mind boggling how he comes up with them.
Excellent work and bookmarked.
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Thanks for sharing :^)
SMOk3420 wrote
I've just checked his site and it's mind boggling how he comes up with them.
Hey thanks for mentioning his site. Like Erik Johansson, it turns out that John has some 'Making Of' images, but they are in the form of a collage of the constituent images above the finished composite/illustration. I love those little heaps of salt, dirt, and other debris that he turns into hills and different seasons.
We don't hear so much of Dave Hill nowadays (he used to be _everywhere_). His (rock) group images used to be done first as a collective with everyone in their place, and then the positions were marked, and he'd set up each person and element individually so he could get optimal lighting. People used to argue about how he achieved his look, but he was interviewed on the Studio Lighting podcasts a few years ago, and said there were no tricks. He does use a _lot_ of light though. There was a great story about how he was photographing a three piece band and forgot to warn them about the 2KW head he had positioned very close to them. The first shot was so bright, and so loud, they apparently nearly fell over. I think there are 3KW to 5KW studio lights out there now.
Going back to Erik Johansson, his 'how it was done' guides take the form of videos, so if you have not seen them, you really can learn a trick or two from his YouTube channel
One of my favourites is still the five year old Cut & Fold — I love how he warps the ground to follow the lines of the paper template he cuts out and photographs. There's a real lesson in that. It is so often easier to fake the real thing by taking photos of something that represents the real thing. No struggling to get the perspective right, or decide what the shadows should look like. If only we all had a Hasselblad. Then we could all make pictures like that. 
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