Colorised photos are popularly shared through articles online to an eager and interested audience.

It’s thrilling to see in colour, the faces of famous people from throughout history, from Amelia Earhart to Charlie Chaplin as a young man.

Colorisation brings images to life, allowing you to see the people and places from the past as you would have seen it had you actually been there in that moment. It takes an enormous amount of research.

London-based artist Jordan Lloyd and his team at Dynamichrome make use of modern technology to digitally reconstruct old black and white photos, as accurately as possible.

“When you’re missing colour you’re kind of looking at the entire composition as a whole, whereas when you add the colour you start looking at the photograph in a slightly different way,” he says in the clip above. “You start picking up all these really interesting details that you might not have noticed before.”

But not everybody appreciates the practice of colorisation, saying that the original image is being vandalised when colorised. “These things are not supposed to be substitutes for original documents,” says Jordan. “It sits alongside the original, but it’s not a substitute, it’s a supplement.”

Watch the full clip above, by Coleman Lowndes for Vox, to find out more about this fascinating art form.

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The winners of the 2017 Architectural Photography Awards, sponsored by Sto and supported by the World Architecture Festival and Image+Space, have been announced, and include local photographer Adam Letch’s image of Bosjes.

After sifting through thousands of photographs in two rounds of judging, the list was narrowed down to 20 images. The winning photograph was decided on by visitors to this year’s World Architecture Festival.

“I have had the honour to judge this prize and curate the resulting ‘Building Images’ exhibition for the last five years, and in that time we have seen the scope of the prize grow year-on-year,” says principal judge Amy Croft. “2017’s entries are remarkable in their global reach: from Burning Man in the Nevada desert to a housing estate in Beijing, from an art museum in Denmark to a chapel in Cape Town. This truly global view the prize offers us, stands as a reminder of the skill of architectural photography to communicate not only the image of buildings, but evoking their atmosphere, usage and social/cultural contexts.”

The overall award for the world’s best architectural photograph went to Chinese photographer Terrence Zhang for his image of the swimming pool at Tianjin University’s New Campus, designed by Atelier Li Xianggang.

Overall Winner: Terrence Zhang

Runners-up included South African photographer Adam Letch’s image of the striking Bosjes chapel in Ceres, designed by Steyn Studio, coming top in the Exterior category.

Exterior Category Winner: Adam Letch

The winner of the Buildings in Use category also went to Terrence Zhang for his image of the gymnasium at Tianjin University’s New Campus.

Buildings in Use Category Winner: Terrence Zhang

In the Sense of Place category, the top spot went to Tom Roe’s photograph of Messner Mountain Museum Corones in Italy, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Sense of Place Category Winner: Tom Roe

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Lie explores his deep appreciation for the natural world and the creatures that reside in his home country by merging two unique photographs to create an expressive piece of art.

Lie’s pictures typically combine a single animal and its home, surrounded by negative space. The semi-silhouette of the animal is filled with images of tree-filled landscapes, majestic mountains, rivers and ethereal skylines depicting the strong relationship between animal and habitat.

#wolf #andreaslie

A photo posted by Andreas Lie (@artworkbylie) on Apr 28, 2016 at 10:34am PDT

Lie’s most popular series of work is called Norwegian Woods and features animals indigenous to the vast Norwegian woodlands in his area of residence, as well as the most picturesque parts of the deep forest. Lie also explores other parts of the planet and has a series of work a little closer to (our) home that depicts African animals and stunning sunsets.

You can purchase a selection of Lie’s work in the form of art prints (framed or unframed), wall tapestries, T-shirts, blanket throws, canvas prints, tote bags, wall clocks and throw pillows via society6.com – they ship to South Africa.

#fox #andreaslie

A photo posted by Andreas Lie (@artworkbylie) on Jul 12, 2016 at 11:26am PDT

Browse the gallery above to see more of Lie’s work. Follow him on Instagram to keep up to date with his latest creations.

The post Artists We Love: Andreas Lie appeared first on Visi.

We all know that our smartphones are incredibly powerful computers with pretty impressive cameras, but how many of us actually use them to their max? With our current #shelfie competition, we thought we’d share 10 tips to take better phone pics. 

Many of us don’t realise the full potential of our Instagram accounts, beyond ubiquitous selfie-taking and occasionally documenting the food on our plates. But there’s an entire community out there that takes their Instalives seriously. They’re international, with branches in cities all over the world; they have Instameets and keep large followings in the tens to hundreds of thousands. They call themselves Instagramers or Igers. Gareth Pon, the founder of the local branch of the Igers community, is one of the most followed South Africans on Instagram with over a 150k followers!

Recently he gave a talk at the Epson Develop Yourself photography and printing event, and he offered these 10 tips on how to use your smartphone to capture the kind of pics that could not only bring out the Iger in you, but also be perfectly print-worthy.

• A real Iger doesn’t hang and wait for the moments, they create them. So Gareth says: “When you’re in the mood for photos, go wherever your heart fancies! Your smartphone and its camera can go wherever you do.”
• Light is your friend – and is your best friend when you use it to highlight particular elements of your image.
• Most cameras have a zoom function, but don’t use it unless you absolutely have to. Rather move closer to your subject, if you can.
• Shoot before you think. Sometimes spending too much time on composing the perfect shot will mean that you lose it.
• Wear good, comfortable shoes. This is true of photography and many other hobbies!
• Keep looking, but know what you’re looking for. Don’t be so focused on capturing the image that you’ve set out for, that you miss other wonderful opportunities along the way.
• Keep stable, if you possibly can. Otherwise use any motion blur to good effect in your image.
• Avoid using the flash. While cameras in phones are fantastic, their flashes often aren’t.
• Shoot lots of images – it doesn’t cost you anything!
• Change your perspective: lie on the floor, stand on a table, jump on a merry-go-round – there is so much more to the world than what you see at eye level.

Keep in mind that even if you’re not on Instagram, Gareth’s tips apply to any sort of smartphone photography, whether it’s just for your own private folders, other social media or simply to print out on one of Epson’s versatile colour printers. Their impressive technology can print up to 1 800 postcard-sized pics using just one ink tank, at a cost of 60 cents per photo. That just might make us go retro and start keeping physical photo albums again.

Snap a selfie of your bookshelf – a shelfie – and enter our competition now.

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When most of us think about Orms, we think photography, but after speaking to marketing manager Annelien Moerdijk, you soon come to realise that photography is just the beginning. Among the exciting stuff happening at Orms is their new photo art online store that connects photographers with buyers without the expense of gallery and handling fees.

Then there’s the variety of materials available on which you can print – the usual glossy, matte and canvas, but also Perspex, aluminium, wood and photo books, which besides family albums can also take the form of calendars and notebooks, among other things. In fact, you can even print wallpaper from your old photographs! The only real limit is your imagination.

A photo book gives you all the benefits of a photo album minus the inconvenience of having photos falling out all the time. Available in hard- or softcover, it can act as a family album, a photographic portfolio, photo journal or wedding album. You can add text or other paraphernalia such as certificates, receipts, copies of tickets and CD covers. The best part is that you can do all of this in the comfort of your home and then receive the end product beautifully wrapped and ready to be given as a gift or take centre stage on the coffee table.

In addition to this, Orms also has a professional framing option and designers who provide expert advice on almost any aspect of the photography and print process. They also offer free workshops and keep you up to date on the latest photographic developments, exhibitions and competitions on their blog.

For more inspiration visit www.pics2book.co.za or www.ormsdirect.co.za

We’re giving away a customised 28-page A4 hardcover photo book in the new Summer VISI 69. Enter here.

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