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Behind the majority of cool photos there's a skilled and creative photographer, but how creative can they get? Sure, nowadays digital photo manipulation is a big part of the final image but a lot of photographers still use physical photography tricks in ways that the rest of us couldn't even come up with.
Compiled by Bored Panda, this list will certainly enlighten you about the things photographers are capable of. From teleporting people into other locations to making them levitate, these behind the scenes images prove there's a lot more to beautiful photos than first meets the eye. Scroll down to vote for your favorite ones, and if you're hungry for more ugly truth (or lies, depending on how you view this) behind photography, check out our previous lists here and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Shauday Smith 8 years ago
how do you get this job? i want to be the spitter on wedding shoots.
DancingToMyself 8 years ago
"Always the bride's mades...never the spitter!" :p
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Victor Vakaras 8 years ago
That's something that's easily done in Photoshop without having to spit on people.
RELATED:
#2
Eric Schneck 8 years ago
The green truck moves in front of the truck delivering the washer in the bottom picture (and the washer is now on the wrong side of the red truck's rear door). These are 2 different set ups.
Juana 8 years ago
Thanks. I googled him and brought back great memories of Sinbad. Loved that movie.
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Daniel Eduardo Ramos Moreno 1 year ago
i thino chris is just evvious, tha shoot is great, and creative... the bs coling fixavle... of neded
#3
Total Fangirl 8 years ago
I don't understand how this is untrustworthy. They had a good idea for a photo, they found a usable place to take the photo, and they had great results!
Louis Klar 8 years ago
Placing subject in environment. An age old technique. good to see it still being used.
Joe DeLory 8 years ago
This is just good cropping , the photographer has taken a beautiful subject and composed a great shot from what was readily available. A good photographers eye can find beauty in the mundane.
#4
Tijana Škrbić 8 years ago
I actually really like the way people play with angles and lights. It's a skill man
Full Name 8 years ago
Yup. I've done food shoots before. This is really impressive.
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Holly Trantham 8 years ago
It looks like a baked apple, tho I've never seen one like that
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Maike Hoffmann 8 years ago
this is classic studio photography on a small scale and with natural light. What is "not to trust" about it??
Romina Jones 8 years ago
This is food photography. This is standard and part of one's professional skill set.
#5
#6
Bunnies are better!! 8 years ago
This saves thousands of dollars and it looks just as good(if not better) than if you actually filmed on a beach
#7
Kira Thesloth 8 years ago
I truly despise instagrammers. Never did I expect people to be that dang self absorbed.
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Socially Awkward 8 years ago
I can't believe belive anyone would wait in that line just to take a picture
Tigerlily Wolowitz 8 years ago
People do it at Disney all the time to get a picture with a random person in a cartoon character suit.
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Friedlander Rosenzweig 8 years ago
So let me get me get this straigh you are on vacation from the stresses of the world and in paradise (literally) and you waste the day standing in line to take a picture to impress your friends. My mind = ☄️💥🔥
#8
Imma Letchofinish 8 years ago
Those are either the ugliest shoes on earth or she covers her feet in wads of tissue paper.
SiYuan 8 years ago
It's a plastic bag over her shoe so she won't get dirt on the carpet.
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#9
Steph Gratzei 8 years ago
I did the same! :D https://www.facebook.com/satyrography/photos/pb.150196314160.-2207520000.1497644583./10155338814539161/?type=3&theater
ADA Arts 8 years ago
They couldn't just fan a bowl of burning sage or something, or did they just really want to give the kid a contact high? :D
Meta Herr 4 years ago
Yeah and then have a model with red eyes and crying? How does that make more sense to you lmfao
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#10
Erica 8 years ago
It's a prawn, not a shrimp. Shrimps are about 1/4 of the size of a prawn. Just saying.
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Nicole Young 8 years ago
This is my photo, you can see the full article on how I did this here: https://nicolesyblog.com/2011/03/22/food-photography-and-styling-adding-steam/
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
"Prawn" & "shrimp" used interchangeably in much of Commonwealth & US. Shrimp have 2 pairs of pincers, prawns have 3. Shelled, you can't id.
#11
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
He "floated" some of the hair, but weightlessness of water is still off. Heck of a lot better than I could do, though!!
Terry Melvin 8 years ago
should've added weightlessness to the dress too. (Just a touch, in good taste;-))
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#12
未周 陸 6 years ago
Gangsta ...... You only see the Glamour at the Front ... NOT knowing All the Backage [i.e. Baggage] Left Behind！
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Ιωαννα Κούνδουρου 6 years ago
that xant be for real . the purse is heavier and would pull the chain all the way up against his throat
#13
Michel M. Prins 8 years ago
This one looks beautiful, but this isn't really a lie, just very lovely perspective. The sand in the foreground and the two lists already has so much detail that it can't be far away + the couple is blurred.
#14
Full Name 8 years ago
Yup. Usually when you see crazy shadows it's because the photographer put tape on a window or something else held in the way of the lights on purpose. A strainer works just perfectly. I've bought several different dollar store ones for exactly this purpose.
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Donna Oades 8 years ago
What is the shadow on her face supposed to look like? To me, it looks like a laundry basket or something, exactly like in the second pic.
Ged Maybury 8 years ago
I applaud these people! Such a good effect on such a 'limited budget'!
Full Name 8 years ago
It's not a budget thing. This is actually how photos like that are done.
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#15
Josh Patterson 8 years ago
People doing awesome creative stuff in studio is soooooo deceptive. /failpanda
#16
Rita Nagy-Ősz 8 years ago
And? What's your point? Her hair is the same just styled on one. On these shootings you spend hours doing makeup, hair, props, lights, setting the scene etc. The two pictures could have been hours apart it doesn't make any difference... Amazing afterwork regardess! <3
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Anne Van Den Heuvel 8 years ago
cause there's no way someone could put on a shirt after a picture was taken
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Momogi 8 years ago
I think you have mistakenly read the title. Reveal the truth doesn't mean the pic is lie... It's just showed you different angle and what happened behind the scene (I think)
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Donna Oades 8 years ago
Most of these photos aren't lies. A lot of them show the photographer in the exact position you would expect. I think BP needs to change the title of this.
#18
Kira Thesloth 8 years ago
I'm actually surprised they really had lanterns!
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Leoninus Fate 8 years ago
.....the guy that made this pic had a whole post about it and explained how he did it like a day ago....
ADA Arts 8 years ago
Right? Like I thought this crew acuelly installed the moon every night. Reality shattered.
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Jotaeme Isola 8 years ago
This is not Social Media. this is an awesome Photoshop artist. Read first...
#19
Svenja Rosbach 8 years ago
The left picture was taken by me (Lycilia-Art), the right one by a friend who helped us during the shooting. We did'nt have much time, because it was already getting dark and I had the idea of shooting her in front of a tree, with her hair like this... but there was no tree that was big enough XD so she stood like this about 10 minutes.... afterwards she posted this comparison on her facebook page, because we found it so funny XD especially with the shoes on the right picture (taken with a mobile phone)... everytime we did full body shoots she kicked them away... but since this should only be a portrait, she kept them on. :) Most funny shooting ever =)
Sheena Leversedge Wood 8 years ago
I'd be pulling a face if I was trying to sit on a gorse too.
Kira Thesloth 8 years ago
A lot of these remind me of when my grandfather first taught me the sitting horse 😂 I never did become a ninja or street fighter, but maybe I developed perfect muscle tone & patience for today's world where we plaster the planet with our pictures 😂
#20
Luiz Henrique Marques 8 years ago
Oh, but why would you not put wheat flour in your hair? Have you ever dared yourself to read the shampoo's ingredients list, which you put in your hair everyday?
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Erica 8 years ago
No, about 80%. The pose and person are not photoshopped, just the background.
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Sheralyn 8 years ago
Question is why would someone even take a shot like the one on the left in the first place...
Blue Cicada 8 years ago
Limbs looked better in original. Will have to try this photoshop technique!
#22
Lara B. 8 years ago
Pressure produces more pressure. You can't force a horse by pulling on it's lead rope. It will always win (with it's 600 kilos). Learned that lesson early enough 🙈 But i think it is a great idea to photograph them like that anyway. So different to any other horse portraits.
Mark Jaress 8 years ago
What's the transparent material that can hold the point pressure of the horses hooves? Asking for a friend
J Wilford Neville 6 years ago
They really should have covered the glass with fabric from the underside before leading the horse out on it, so he didn't think he was walking onto thin air. Poor pony.
Patrick de Oliveira 6 years ago
The horse is scared shitless because of the image reflected back to him. The fear in his eye in the first picture is easily perceivable. And on the second one the man is clearly having some trouble with the horse.
Harukia-Ami Mu-Shi 8 years ago
If you really want to win a tug-of-war with a horse, you will have to bribe with food.
#23
Kira Thesloth 8 years ago
I don't think she is, close but I think they just though they fit together cuter this way.
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Robin Ellison 8 years ago
why is the girl has to contort her body for these pics?? Great shot though
#24
surprised pikachu 4 years ago
it's so interesting how they use what's around them instead of photoshop
Ged Maybury 8 years ago
I *LOVE* the ingenuity of these photographers. This is a single-take/no-FX photo with a zero Special-FX budget. My heart bleeds for the models, however. Oh what they suffer!
#25
#26
M O'Connell 8 years ago
Yeah, apparently the photographer didn't have a baking pan to do this indoors with...
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Shinomi Chan 8 years ago
Sometimes I do feel sorry for the photographers. This is one of those times.
#27
incognito82 8 years ago
I see he is actually standing on a pile of muddy sand. "Real" or "The Fake", it's the same. What is the point here?
#28
Prashant Karnath 8 years ago
How else were they supposed to create that photo? Actually throw a kid around?
Lento 8 years ago
Photos are always created. Place and what's happening are based on photographers decisions, as well as mood, focalization, lights and shadows, creating context. Always creation.
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Stille20 8 years ago
OMG! The kids look so excited to tie up, who I am guessing is their little brother
NikiMcEmpress 7 years ago
Yeah toss the kid, or he's falling from heaven.. great trick though!
Kori K. Warriner 8 years ago
Yeah, except they forgot to take the entire shadow of the fingers of the hand holding the feet up.
#29
Michel M. Prins 8 years ago
Seems pretty real so far. If it's about the depth of the water: he can probably use that boat on much deeper waters than he is in, right there.
Pua Tamandua 8 years ago
Yeah many of these seem to be more "How this shot was taken" rather than shopped or something not to trust.
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Brianna Bastian 8 years ago
I think the lie is how dirty the river(?) is. See the rubbish next to the photographer?
#30
Friedlander Rosenzweig 8 years ago
Your wedding day... your dream..: your budget...it all has to fit and everyone deserves to be happy! 🌞
#31
#32
Charlotte Brine 8 years ago
Definitely edited both the lump on left, now gone and the meeting of the 2legs meeting at (knees) is obviously over faked.
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Terrycloth gas 8 years ago
I like them both, but if the one on the right had steam it would be awesome. And rt one get rid of photographers shadow.
#33
Final score:
72points
Sébastien Del Grosso (Submission author) 8 years ago
Ahah, yes lots of people think it was 3D art or vector art, but just photography pictures. Really easy to do :)
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#34
#35
Final score:
63points
Miglė Makauskaitė 8 years ago
I wonder who gives the light to the belly of the whale in the deep water :D
#36
DancingToMyself 8 years ago
Have you read the article first? Nobody said anything about faking.
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#37
Khanh Phan 8 years ago
I doubt that it was a man. I saw this before and if I remember correctly, that was a female cosplayer who played the boy character 🤔 but still, the tall girl's pose nailed it 😂😂😂
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Maureen Zappellini 8 years ago
My son 14, is about 6 inches shorter than his girlfriend- she's so sweet, always bends her knees to appear shorter in photos. Adorable!
#39
#40
M O'Connell 8 years ago
The left photo says "I'm weird and brooding" the right photo says "I am a f*****g badass, and you love me"
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Shinomi Chan 8 years ago
Now all they need to do is slip and it's welcome to the town of pain.
#41
Rizzo Razz 8 years ago
There is a floor guard that they may not have wanted in the shot.
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Ben Hartley 7 years ago
I would bet that each of those strobes has a different color filter on it. The areas that get light from all three appear as if they're shot under white light. Because the strobes are in different positions they cast different shadows which each have their own mixture of colours.
Amanda Grace 7 years ago
Oh!! That’s such a great idea to avoid baseboards and outlets, etc!!!
#42
Ged Maybury 8 years ago
Once again - my praise to the people who say this opportunity and achieved such a good result. Love the 'ingenuity' such as it is.
#43
#44
#45
DancingToMyself 8 years ago
I'm interested what is the idea of such photo (it's again wedding dress!).
Steno RT Kaluba 8 years ago
And not a good one. It looks like: OMG, I can't make it look real. Ok, let's put a blur over it, so nobody will notice it.
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Edyta Złotucha 8 years ago
And how this one is fake? Those colors aren't even photoshopped, come on :|
Tracey Heater 8 years ago
I think that is the point. It can be done without photoshop.
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#47
Friedlander Rosenzweig 8 years ago
Everyone is beautiful in their own way and this lady is lovely and a bit wistful. The photo is tasteful and thoughtful.
Brandon Byrd 6 years ago
This response is clearly stating that you think she is ugly lol
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Diana Murtaugh 8 years ago
The wig she's wearing is awful! Loose waves, or soft bangswould've suited her and the photo much better.
Jo Bebe 8 years ago
maybe she is suffering hair loss or from cancer or something whotf are you to judge........smh
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Nikki Scott 8 years ago
This could be someone with a critical illness and they wanted to feel good...
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What do you think ?
Lilly Friedman 8 years ago
These aren't a lie. They're just a behind-the-scenes of how these pictures are made.
The Cappy 8 years ago
TERRIBLE headline. This is not a reason to distrust pictures you see (well, except for the toy car). These are reasons to be impressed. These are skilled and clever people making great pictures that you or I could have made. We have exactly as much opportunity — we just don't have the talent. Applaud the talent.
Rory Collins 8 years ago
Pretty lame that you guys didn't credit the photographers for these photos. A lot of these had very meticulous details and hard work behind them.
Captain Planet 8 years ago
You could have just named the title "Reasons not to trust photos". This practice isn't exclusive to social media. even world press photo's have been manipulated. It's the hunger for status, fame and money that drives people to do that.
Mae 6 years ago
This could've just been called Different ways to make creative photos but apparently it's not cool to give titles that actually work with the content
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Marysia Jawłowska 8 years ago
Why should people be surprised by any of them or feel cheated? It's the 21st century, photography has been with us for a while, I'm sure any reasonable person knows what it is.
Dane Pearson 8 years ago
Yes, the title is bad, but the photos are so good I don't care and I can't wait to try some of these effects!
Lilly Friedman 8 years ago
These aren't a lie. They're just a behind-the-scenes of how these pictures are made.
The Cappy 8 years ago
TERRIBLE headline. This is not a reason to distrust pictures you see (well, except for the toy car). These are reasons to be impressed. These are skilled and clever people making great pictures that you or I could have made. We have exactly as much opportunity — we just don't have the talent. Applaud the talent.
Rory Collins 8 years ago
Pretty lame that you guys didn't credit the photographers for these photos. A lot of these had very meticulous details and hard work behind them.
Captain Planet 8 years ago
You could have just named the title "Reasons not to trust photos". This practice isn't exclusive to social media. even world press photo's have been manipulated. It's the hunger for status, fame and money that drives people to do that.
Mae 6 years ago
This could've just been called Different ways to make creative photos but apparently it's not cool to give titles that actually work with the content
Load More Replies... Marysia Jawłowska 8 years ago
Why should people be surprised by any of them or feel cheated? It's the 21st century, photography has been with us for a while, I'm sure any reasonable person knows what it is.
Dane Pearson 8 years ago
Yes, the title is bad, but the photos are so good I don't care and I can't wait to try some of these effects!
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