Photography Isn’t Dead – Learn to Combine Photography with CGI

Learn how to combine CGI with Photographic Productions.

Where: Shoreditch, London

When: 8th April, 22nd April, 6th May 2010 ? each event at 10:30am, 2pm, 7:30pm

Happy Finish is London’s premier collective of digital artists serving a worldwide client base with award

winning images and animations.

Find out more at: www.happyfinish.co.uk/pid

Leading CGI and Retouching house Happy Finish proudly presents ‘Photography Isn’t Dead’, a three part

series of live tutorial events in April and May 2010. We will demonstrate that CGI is not to be feared, but

seized upon as an opportunity for photographers to enhance or create once impossible or unfeasible

concepts.

Recent years have seen growing unease about computer?generated imagery, or CGI, amongst

traditional image makers. Photographers have been voicing their concern about the potential threat to

their businesses as CGI becomes ever more entrenched in popular cinema and, increasingly, makes

inroads into photoreal high?resolution stills.

Evident in the success of films like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, technology has developed fast to the

point where it now also allows the creation of photo?like stills for print and pack shots for everyday

advertising.

July 2009 saw the publishing of an article in the UK industry magazine ‘Creative Review’ that suggested

in no subtle terms that “the traditional studio photographer [was] about to die”.

However, a year on from the article, the ‘Photography Isn’t Dead’ team point out that CGI cannot

replace the individual artistry and visual literacy brought to the shoot by the photographer. Today’s

image creators should see CGI as a powerful tool to use and incorporate into their own work, and the

live PID tutorial events will demonstrate how this can be done.

The first session (8th April, Shoreditch Town Hall) explains how to use HDRIs on an automotive shoot,

the second (22nd April, Blossom Street Studios) shows how to shoot fashion in a 100% virtual

environment. The final event (6th May, the Village Underground) will reveal how to shoot using CG

elements on location.

Happy Finish CGI artists and retouchers have been collaborating with photographers Trigger, Luis

Monteiro and Simon Hanna to create three original photorealistic images from a Porsche Panamera to a

Fashion shoot and a photo?real transformation of the Village Underground.

The events are free, registration only takes a minute and is done online at www.happyfinish.co.uk/pid.

Be sure to visit the designated website for sign up, footage from the shows, FAQ, and to register for a

free Photography Isn’t Dead booklet.

Nicola Petrides, nicola@happyfinish.co.uk