The Book of Special Effects Photography

The world of special effects photography, of weird, unlikely, dramatically powerful pictures created by means of a variety of camera and darkroom techniques, is now open to every photographer. No matter what your level of expertise, no matter what sort of equipment you have, The Book of Special Effects Photography makes it possible for you to produce a wide range of bizarre and beautiful images. From the simplest kind of slow shutter work (to simulate speed by causing a deliberate blur) to complex back projection set-ups, from deliberately mismatching film and processing to making solarizations and montages, all the tricks are here. You can learn the use of filters to create rainbow and moonlight effects, of various masks (shaped masks, vignetting procedures, pointillist screens, and more), of special optics from split field to fisheye (including how to make an anamorphic distortion), of such unusual light sources as ultraviolet and fluorescent tubes. You can even find out exactly how to manipulate an instant picture while it is developing to achieve odd and interesting special effects. The Book of Special Effects Photography was produced by the editorial team responsible for such best-selling photographic how-to books as The Photographer's Handbook, The Book of Photography, and author Michael Langford's own The Step-by-Step Guide to Photography. As a portfolio of the best in special effects photography, and as a practical source of ideas and techniques, it belongs on the bookshelf of every adventurous photographer.