I call this beauty "Theia." Theia is the name of a Greek titan/deity/goddess of the moon! I thought it would be cool to create another character from Greek mythology to go along with this image.

5 Reasons You Should Shoot With A Cosplayer

Robert Cornelius August 24, 2015

If you follow my work at all, you've probably realized by now that I did a shoot with Lopti of "Some Like it Blue." For those of you who don't already know, she is a cosplay artist/model/awesome person. What is cosplay you ask? (Well ... you ask if you don't know yet.) It's a word that's firmly in my vocabulary, but I say it to some people and they look at me like I have tentacles coming out of my head ...... which ironically is just the sort of thing a cosplayer might do, but anyway ...

"The Fall and the Flames"This is actually a fancifully edited outtake from this shoot that I did with Nathan Worden. — "The Fall and the Flames"
This is actually a fancifully edited outtake from this shoot that I did with Nathan Worden.

Just Because Everyone Else Is Doing It ...

Robert Cornelius August 7, 2015

Have you ever noticed a pattern in photography? ... And by a pattern of course I mean the same technique done by tons of photographers? Maybe I'm just living in a bubble, and I only really see images that are in my "niche" (if I have such a thing), but very often I see the same thing done over and over and over again. Just because everyone else is doing something, doesn't mean you have to do it too ... BUT it certainly does not mean that you can't or shouldn't do it!

"Entwined" does in fact feature none other than the Boy Wonder himself ... Joel Robison! This is from the Silver Lake Flickr Gathering I went to last year. You can read more about that grand experience here, and see all the images that eve… — "Entwined" does in fact feature none other than the Boy Wonder himself ... Joel Robison! This is from the Silver Lake Flickr Gathering I went to last year. You can read more about that grand experience here, and see *all* the images that everyone created here.

Not Every Photo Can Be a Unicorn

Robert Cornelius July 27, 2015

Ok let's be honest - your work is awesome, right? Right. You want every piece of your new artwork to top the last and be even more beautiful and well renowned, but they can't all be the best. It's just not possible (because ... science). All of your work can definitely be good or even great; you can love each and every one of your art-babies equally, but no matter what you do you're going to create a real winner every now and then. Sometimes you accidentally create a unicorn (ok not an actual unicorn ... well maybe you're making a picture of a unicorn ... but just stay with me.) - an image that just shines a bit brighter and sticks its head a bit higher out of the ever-filling pool of images flooding the internet these days.

How to Create a Magical Forest Scene

Robert Cornelius July 8, 2015

Obviously one of the most important pieces you'll need when creating your own gorgeous woodsy wonderland is a top-notch image of a forest (or other natural setting of your choosing). Unfortunately, I have been crazy busy with life, work, vacations, and side projects, so I didn't have the time to shoot my own background image. I thought I would turn to one of my photography friends to see if someone would be willing to donate an image to my cause.

I call this masterpiece "Happy Sparkle Glitter Glitz."

One Year Blogiversary

Robert Cornelius June 16, 2015

That's right people, today marks an entire year of weekly (well weekly-ish ... ) blog posts from this guy. *double thumb points to self* It's crazy to me that I've been doing this for that long. It seem like just yesterday I began to pour my thought, tips, tricks, and gifs out into the vastness of the internet, but alas it's been 365 days of hard work. Many a late night, countless hours of editing, gif making, file sizing, speed edit exporting, writing, re-writing, and re-re-writing all to meet deadlines that ... I make for myself. I love it all.

"Some are Born to Endless Night" featuring Lopti of Some Like it Blue

5 Tips And Tricks For Color Editing

Robert Cornelius June 12, 2015

Color plays such an important role in my work. As you all know (well some of you might at least), I adore black and white photography but have such a hard time creating anything without color. There is just so much that color can add to an image, so I find it nearly impossible to deny myself that extra layer to my editing process. Below you'll find five tips for achieving fantastic color in your images!

Fix Your Flaws

Robert Cornelius May 29, 2015

Too many times I've seen people upload pictures and say something like, "Uhhgg I don't even really like this ... the blah blah blah looks a little weird and I just can't seem to get the blah blah to look quite right. Oh well here it is ..." It's as if some photographers think that by pointing out the flaws before the viewer spots them, it makes them okay. Negativity doesn't cancel out flaws, it accentuates them. More than half the time, you're going to be the only person to notice whatever it is that's bothering you anyway. Why tarnish your own hard work by pre-forming your audience's view of the pieces as not being that great? Putting something up and asking for constructive criticism in a Facebook group or something is one thing, but throwing a "finished" piece up in your portfolio and bashing on it just makes me want dole out face slaps.

A Fun Trick for Turning Pictures into Paintings

Robert Cornelius May 15, 2015

I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting and shooting with Mackenzie Johnson! If you haven't heard of this lovely young lady, kindly press play on the video below .... I'll wait. So as I'm hoping you've gathered, she is an INCREDIBLY talented singer songwriter/sensational Youtube STAR! You can expect me to gush all about her and how phenomenal she is in future posts, but for today let's get down to business and learn how I made her portrait into a painting!! Not everyone is a painter, but with a little time and patience I believe anyone can achieve this effect.

Always Go With Your Gut

Robert Cornelius May 8, 2015

Go. With. Your. Gut. I know these "brain" things we have are supposed to be the almighty powerhouses of thought - in charge when it comes to decisions and figuring things out. However, I find time and time again that my gut is smarter than my brain. It just knows things. I've given up on fighting it, because my instincts have yet to steer me wrong. There have been many occasions when my brain is really encouraging me to do something, but my gut keeps saying, "Listen Robert, I know your brain is the thinker but I'm the artist, so ignore Mr. Logic and go with what feels right."

Today I present to you,"The Pyromancer" featuring Lopti of Some Like it Blue. In the wise words of Alicia Keys, "This girl is on FIIIIIIRRRRRREEEEEEEE! She's just a girl, and she's on fire."

5 Tips For Adding Fire With Photoshop

Robert Cornelius May 1, 2015

I didn't actually set a girl's hand on fire, although I'm told it's a thing that can be done without hurting someone - I'm just not ready to mess around with that quite yet. I mean, why temp fate (aka a giant expensive softbox up in flames) when you can digitally add the hot stuff to your composited masterpiece from the safety of your desk? Please enjoy these five tips to consider when adding fire to one of your images...

My Process for Creating Images

Robert Cornelius April 22, 2015

In the fall of 2013 I was doing a lot of listening to the podcast "The Candid Frame." It's one of my all-time favorite photography podcasts to listen to while I'm editing photos all day. If you haven't tuned in before, definitely give it a try. The host, Ibarionex, is a fantastic interviewer and always asks precisely the kinds of questions I really want to know. I'm not a big "gear-head" like some photographers, so the equipment used to create an image is less exciting to me. This is why I just love how Ibarionex really digs deep into the creative and emotional side of his guests' works - it's more about the story and why they made the image rather than how many mega pixels wide the picture is. (Not that there is even the slightest problem with being in the gear and techy side of photography, it's just not for me.)

How Collaboration Can Make You a Better Artist

Robert Cornelius April 17, 2015

If I were to always do everything by myself, well that would be rather lonely ... but also I'd miss out on a lot of opportunities to learn and grow as an artist. I absolutely LOVE to collaborate. Whether it be with a makeup artist, hair stylist, costume designer, cosplay badass, graphic artist, model, or other photographer, I always feel such a creative charge when I can throw an idea at another human and have that idea bounce back at me with even more imagination.

"Keeper of The Crystals" features the extremely wonderful Lopti of "Some Like it Blue." She is a cosplay superstar/ rather splendid person to know and work with! Expect to see and hear more about this lovely girl in future posts!! :D — "Keeper of The Crystals" features the extremely wonderful Lopti of "Some Like it Blue." She is a cosplay superstar/ rather splendid person to know and work with! Expect to see and hear more about this lovely girl in future posts!! :D

10 Tips On How To Borrow Ideas Politely

Robert Cornelius March 30, 2015

Sometimes as an artist I'll see an idea and go "CRAP! WHY DIDN'T I MAKE THIS!?!?!" There are so many brilliant images popping up on the internet everyday and there's no way I'm going to come up with all of them myself, no matter how much I want to. Oftentimes though, I'll see an image that I just can't get out of my head and I'll simply have to make it on my own. Now, I don't want you to think this is me saying, "It's fine to copy other artists." In fact, it drives me crazy when I see an image that someone has clearly copied from another artist and is passing it off as their own sheer brilliance.

Creating The Fate Sisters

Robert Cornelius March 17, 2015

So last year I created an image called "The Thread of Life" inspired by Greek mythology for which I did some research on "The Fate Sisters" (by research of course I mean I Googled it). Thanks to my intensive knowledge-gaining process I obtained the following information: "The Sisters of Fate" aka "The Fate Sisters" aka "the Fates" were originally known by the Greeks as the "Moirai." In all of the different versions of the myth there are always three entities.

"Atop The City of Light"(Yes the background images were taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris; you can see more of our honeymoon pics here!!) — "Atop The City of Light"
(Yes the background images *were* taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris; you can see more of our honeymoon pics here!!)

7 Things I Learned By Getting Married

Robert Cornelius March 9, 2015

Oh geez where to even start ... how best to put into words what this other human means to me? Well it went a little something like this: I met the most beautiful, intelligent, kind, hilarious, obnoxiously talented, funny, and perfectly strange girl I could have ever dreamt up. Then, I somehow tricked this once-in-a-lifetime-lady into committing the rest of her lifetime to my crazy ass. (Insert evil cackle here.) Last August I married Sara and I can't say I'll ever do a smarter thing for the rest of my days. Sorry to get all mushy-gushy, but she is absolutely the greatest and I'm so very lucky to have her...... forever (evil laughter ensues). Here are some things I learned about getting married...

The Do's and Don'ts Of Adding Wings

Robert Cornelius February 27, 2015

Ok let's just be honest for a second here, everyone and everything in the world looks marginally cooler with wings. Period. It's just the way it is. In middle school when I was heavily into my "drawing magical fantasy creatures" phase (it never ended by the way just ask my sketchbook), I used to check out this "how to draw animals" book from the library all the time. Really they should have just given it to me I had it checkout out so often. I loved to pick several animals and mix them together. I'd make all kinds of crazy critters like bears with lion tails and pig feet, you know, the usual. One common theme seemed to run through every one of these creations was...wings. I'm pretty sure about 95% of them had wings of some sort, (because as we've already been over, everything is more awesome with wings). Well internet I've decided to put my many years of bestowing flight to good use and share some do's and don'ts of adding wings to your images

It Never Hurts To Ask

Robert Cornelius February 4, 2015

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon in beautiful Philadelphia. My wife Sara is off having a "girly day with her ladies," and I'm left to wander the streets with my camera. Works for me. I find myself aimlessly meandering through Rittenhouse Square Park and noticing that, like in any city, there are so many interesting individuals gathered here. I spot this one elderly woman sitting alone on a park bench, seemingly deep in thoughts about the meaning of life. The warm sunlight is kissing her back and making the top of her ivory locks glow. Her face is fixed in a sad pensive expression. I know that I have to take her picture, and I start snapping images from a short-ish distance away. After a few frames she ever so slightly turns her head and looks straight down the barrel of my camera and into my soul. I was caught. It was in that moment as I pressed the shutter button, while this stranger looked into my lens, that a series was born. (I've ever so cleverly dubbed it, "Strangers In The Park.")

You Can Do It

Robert Cornelius January 28, 2015

Over the last several months, as I've been releasing new pictures, I've been noticing a trend. Now I'm not going to name names or point fingers (because it could happen to anyone), but I have been thinking a lot about this and figured it was time to share my thoughts. (Cuz sharing is caring...or so they say..whoever they are.) It's time to put an end to this.....

5 Tips & Tricks For Creating A Gown

Robert Cornelius January 20, 2015

Yes yes I know, "Robert, you just did a post about expanding a dress" (thanks for remembering), but this is totally different...kinda...mostly...it is, you guys. You see that post was about taking what is already a dress and showing how to make it larger and more glorious. The knowledge I'm going to attack you with today is about creating a dress from scratch out of something that was not a dress...at all.

Just Shoot It Anyway

Robert Cornelius January 9, 2015

I attended yet another photography meet-up, and as per usual at such an event I felt the need to make some art. For whatever reason though, I was just not feeling super inspired that day. Usually I'm swimming with ideas and can't decide which I want to shoot first, but every concept I was tossing around seemed to fall flat. Yes, I was coming up with ideas here and there but I felt like they were really lacking in story. There I was surrounded by some of my wonderful photography friends and a zillion props and costumes, yet I wasn't creating anything...