Hello friends of outer-space!
Do you want to shoot really fantastic
space shots? No problem!
So, what do we need? First of all, a few
sheets of black cardboard. Second, a
“secret explosive powder”. If you like,
you can pretend it’s really dangerous
and take cover behind the sofa… but
it’s only baby powder!
Sprinkle a tablespoon full of baby
powder into the middle of the black
cardboard. If you then blow through a
straw right into the centre of the powder,
you’ll get a wonderful black and
white picture of an explosion. Honest!

Here’s one my brother Markus prepared earlier (remember Markus, the allround
genius of my studio?).

This might not always work first time
round, but with a little bit of practise,
you’ll get there in the end. Finally, take
a picture of the best cardboard. It is not
necessary to have your best camera
for this (I normally use my little 200$
camera).
This shot looks like a dull black-andwhite
photo of a space explosion, but
it is a start.
Now turn it into a super cool spaceexplosion!
Use the “gradient curve” in
your image processing software like
Photoshop, ACDSee or whatever. Raise
the red and green curves on the right
side, and lower the blue curve on the
left. Play with this function and you
easily get a bright, glowing effect.
Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Now add a little “speed effect”. In
Photoshop there is a function called
“motion blur” in the Filter Menu (in
other software “pixel explosion” or
“speed effect”). This adds more power
to your photo, if you want to have an
“explosive” look.

This photo looks like a big explosion,
but if you use other colours, it looks
very much like “other galaxies”.

Here is a photo, that could be seen in
a huge microscope. The “baby powder
effect” is an interesting way of shooting
something never-seen-before.

Sometimes I do workshops. This photo was made within a day with my students.
Here in THELIGHT I show it a first time to a wider audience. Keep it as a secret…!

Let there be light!