HOW TO BE INSPIRED WITH BIANCA LUNI, THE CREATOR OF WISF

Tali Lennox by David Slijper for Vanity Fair Spain January 2013 wearing Christian Dior Haute Couture | View from Lipari, Aeolian Islands in Sicily, Italy photographed by Giuseppe Finocchiaro

Lately I got a chance to ask some questions to Bianca Luni who creates the WHERE I SEE FASHION tumblr. Do you know that feeling when you go to a blog or website and you just can not stop scrolling? This is definitely one of those places.

In many books, authors recommend to find the inspiration before the process of creation, but Bianca twisted the whole idea by matching images to already existing pieces. This results in examples of moodboards and it proves that inspiration to create can be taken from anywhere. Some people say that there is a thin line between an inspiration and a copy, but looking at the examples shown in the WISF tumblr, it seems that the line can be distinct and extraordinarily well executed. Bianca teached me a lesson that to be inspired you can not focus on your inspiration as the whole piece. To execute our creations in a better way, we need to focus on the essence of the inspiration. It could be the texture, structure color, shapes, dynamics, mood, but not necessarily all at once. 

NINE QUESTIONS TO HIGH END RETOUCHER PRATIK NAIK

Photographer: Joey L., hair and makeup: Desiree Footé

I am not one of those photographers who think that a great photo can be taken without any post-capture photo enhancement. I like to think of the photos from the camera as a draft, canvas, on which you can allow yourself to create a world of fantasy. Of course it is very important to capture good photos with the camera, especially because there are some aspects you simply cannot change afterwards. A good example of that could be a face expression. Coming back to basis, we can not forget that working in photo editing programs is about enhancing photographs and not making them from scratch.

I like to compare photo enhancement to the taste of watermelon. It might sound colloquial, but usually, products which are supposed to have a watermelon taste differs quite a lot from the actual watermelon taste. We accept it because throughout our lives we were used to diversity in watermelon taste. Similar things happen in magazines. We know that photos of people in magazines are often improved, but this is what we get used to and it would be surprising to see them without any kind of enhancement.

I have lately had the pleasure to ask some questions to one of my favourite retouchers, Pratik Naik. What I like the most about the photos he retouches is that you can see the smallest details and soft changes in textures. Another thing is that the colour combinations create an amazing mood and atmosphere.