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Inspired by nature and positivity, Adrian Limani shares his favourite light bulb photo composites, and gives us a glimpse into his editing technique
Inspired by nature and positivity, Adrian Limani shares his thought-provoking light bulb photo composites
Within this collection of images I’ve tried to create a miniature world inside a light bulb. I love the form of a light bulb, and it has so many implications. We often see them as a symbol for having an idea. With this in mind, when I place subjects inside the light bulb, I look for objects that get across positive messages to people.
My first image is about new life that is flourishing [1].
It’s about life, hope, and looking for the good in things by having faith and moving on; knowing that better days are waiting for us. The way I made this shot, as I do with most of my light bulb images, is by firstly shooting with my Nikon D7000 and 50mm f/1.8d lens. The 50mm lens is great, because the shallow depth of field at an aperture of f/1.8 means that the background blurs easily.
Once I’ve found a background that’s relatively clean and simple I’ll move on to the next stage: finding a good subject to fit inside the bulb. Often I’ll use subjects from other pictures like trees and flowers that work with my theme of creating positive messages.
After I have both images I’ll take them into Photoshop and begin work on the light bulb shot. With the Clone Stamp tool, and sometimes the Healing Brush tool, I’ll remove the filament and other bits inside the light bulb. Meanwhile, in my other shot, I’ll use the Lasso tool to crop the
Mission: To express myself through a unique and creative photo story Photographer: Adrian Limani Location: Rainca, Serbia Kit: Nikon D7000,
Nikon 50mm f/1.8d Website: www.adrianlimani.com
subjects I want to put inside the bulb. Then I’ll copy-and-paste that subject into my bulb document, at which point I usually set the layer opacity to somewhere between 65-75%.
Once I have my two images together in one document I’ll start colour grading by balancing the colours with adjustment layers. I know some people prefer to use actions to do this, but I like to customize each image with the background. It can be quite tricky to get the composition right when fitting the object inside the bulb. A tree is obviously never going to fit, but you have to trick the eye to make it look right.
Sometimes, instead of trees or flowers I’ll create an digital subject inside the bulb, and that’s what I’ve achieved with this heartbeat symbol [2]. To continue my theme of positivity I feel that this shot is about love. Even when the heartbeat stops, the light of love will never be completely turned off.
As well as a love for each other, I think we need to think about loving our planet [3]. The bulb in this shot acts as a guardian, protecting the flower. Humans use and exploit natural resources, plants and animals unsustainably, and so we need to think about how to go about saving nature. By doing so, we’ll realize that we are also saving ourselves.
We need to think about how we’ll save nature. By doing so, we’ll realize that we are also saving ourselves