Hacking the Digital Print

Description

Bonny Pierce Lhotka is an inventor and innovator, and is a co-founder of the digital artist collaborative, Digital Atelier, whose members research and develop techniques to leverage digital imaging in fine art application. Lhotka organized “Digital Atelier: A printmaking studio for the 21st century” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum where she was an artist-in-residence. She is a recipient of the Smithsonian/Computerworld Technology in the Arts Award and is the producer of educational DVDs from Digital Art Studio Seminars. Lhotka is the author of Digital Alchemy: Printmaking techniques for fine art, photography, and mixed media and The Last Layer: New methods in digital printing for photography, fine art, and mixed media.

www.hackingthedigitalprintbook.com

Learn how to recreate historical printmaking techniques using affordable, modern technology; plus a special section on 3D printing!
 

• The author, a well-known innovator and pioneer in digital printmaking, invented many of the digital processes shown in the book
• Readers will learn non-toxic digital alternatives for transferring images to glass, furniture, and fabric as well as techniques for creating 3D prints using the popular MakerBot 3D printer
• Well-organized, step-by-step how-tos are illustrated with gorgeous fine-art examples that both instruct and inspire

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Materials
• Chapter 3: Equipment
• Chapter 4: Preparing for the Shoot
• Chapter 5: Mirrors and Mylar Reflection
• Chapter 6: Distortion Filters
• Chapter 7: Lens Modifiers
• Chapter 8: Custom Textures
• Chapter 9: Gallery of Work: Altered Reality
• Chapter 10: Photographic Mixed Media
• Chapter 11: Mixed Media Decals
• Chapter 12: Image Transfer to Glass
• Chapter 13: WonderSauce Transfer Process
• Chapter 14: Gallery of Work: Mixed Media Photographs
• Chapter 15: Introduction to Printing
• Chapter 16: Skin Applique to 3D Printed Objects
• Chapter 17: Hydrographic Coloration of 3D Printed Objects
• Chapter 18: Modern Lithophanes
• Chapter 19: Gallery of Work: New Frontiers
• Index

Don’t bother reading this book unless you’re ready to get your hands dirty.

In  Hacking the Digital Print, artist Bonny Lhotka redefines what it means to be a photographer. For one thing, you don’t always need Photoshop to alter the reality you capture through your lens. In this book, you’ll learn how to create unique images using tools you make and modify yourself. Lhotka shows you how to use analog distortion filters, custom textures, and lens modifiers to create images that look like  you made them, not an app. You’ll also learn how to re-create classic printmaking techniques using non-toxic digital alternatives, including a water-based transfer solution that’s safe to use anywhere, whether it’s the studio, classroom, or kitchen counter.

Anyone can push a button and create a nice print–there is little challenge in getting a high-quality image out of a desktop printer these days. Lhotka shows you how to take your work to the next level by printing on materials such as wood, glass, plastics, and metal. For the truly adventurous, Lhotka shares her custom techniques for taking photographs and applying them to 3D-printed objects created with popular consumer 3D printers.

Part artist/part mad scientist, Lhotka has spent many hours experimenting, hacking, and tearing things apart to discover new ways to take, make, and print images. She encourages you to take the techniques you’ll learn in this book, hack them, and make them your own. With some techniques you will fail. It will be messy. You will try and have to try again. But in the process, you will make your own exciting discoveries, find solutions to your own problems, and create a body of work that is uniquely yours.

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