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Hi All,

I've been mucking around with Polar Planets recently thanks to dstrom!

The novelty hasn't worn off yet for me so I'm looking to make more. After someone mentioned that they look like you can pick them up in your hands, I thought that I could make an image that had me holding a couple of Polar Planets I had recently made.

Here's the final result:

The link can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27223142@N04/4372522934/


The Polar Planet on the left which is a stitched image of the Main Quadrangle in Sydney University can be found here: http://flic.kr/p/7Eose1

The polar planet from the right is an image of Botany Bay made into a Polar Planet which can be found here:
http://flic.kr/p/7CW9Ab

Yes that's my ugly mug holding them
So I created a self portrait against a neutral background.
I then put it all together in CS3.

This was a very steep learning curve in CS3 from fudging shadows and light from the planets and trying to figure out how to make the planets go behind certain parts of my hands.

I would LOVE to have some feedback on anything. From the planets, to the self portrait and especially my CS techniques

I am not so clear about these planets. Did you make them [plastic] or photoshop them completely?

surenj wrote:I am not so clear about these planets. Did you make them [plastic] or photoshop them completely?

Alll photoshop

I'm kinda chuffed that you thought they might have been plastic!



Ok so the right hand Polar Planet was made using 16 stitched shots of botany bay.
http://flic.kr/p/7EsE86

I saw the tanker and thought that it would make a great polar planet.
After doing some heavy Photoshopping and applying the Polar Planet filter, the final shot was this:

http://flic.kr/p/7CW9Ab

The left Planet I used this image: http://flic.kr/p/7AR2ku
to make the Planet http://flic.kr/p/7Eose1

Then I took a self portrait and photoshopped it all together.

All up about 20 pictures.
Lots of editing in Photoshop


If you want to know more about the polar planets. Here's a tutorial:
http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/ ... a-planets/

They're very interesting that's for sure

I've never had to think about how light is cast from objects in pictures before and when I added the planets to my self portrait, I had to try and figure out how shadows/light would be cast.

... nice

But I think it would be better with a little off camera flash on you, and if you gave both of the planets a little more of a #D look. Some shadows etc.

I think special effects photography is more
difficult than appears. The trick, I think,
is to make it look natural - as if taken with
a single shot. You've done very well, in fact
better than I could do myself with my limited
knowlede and Photoshop skills, but the spheres
in your hands need a 3d effect, as mentioned
above. Work on it. I am sure you can improve
it further. A possible solution could be taking
your own picture again holding two real glass balls
and using them as frames to insert your worlds.
Think of the crystal balls used by fortune tellers
in the old movies with smoke inside and an
image forming in them...

Think this a great way of showing off your work , and thanks for sharing the link so I too can give them a go
DebT