Art, Photography, Urbex and Visuals by Francesco Perratone and DoPe
Category Archives: Photography
An image from the Italian Alps. Shots used for the work were taken during a short hike to a mountain cabin near home, in north-eastern Italy: rifugio Madonna della Neve (“Our Lady of the Snow”). There’s a small chapel nearby dedicated to her.
You can have a look at the beautiful view from near the rifugiohere …this time I wasn’t the one that took the 360 image 😉
At the sunset…
…we’re near the end of the hike, a few minutes from the cabin. The sun is casting some interesting rays from behind the mountains:
Without the large watermark and in different (higher) resolutions, it’s also April 2017 wallpaper, for my Patreon supporters.
You can receive wallpapers or prints each month, by becoming a patron! You can also help me creating more works by buying one: MatericLook shop, or with a small donation: .
A very nice historical city, with narrow alleys and steep stone stairs, lovely for taking a walk in a warm summer evening!
The city itself has a turbulent but interesting past, it has been controlled by Byzantium, Hungary, Venice, then the Habsburgs and Austria, more recently Dalmatia, Italy, then became part of Yugoslavia and finally Croatia.
The ancient settlement became a city at least from 1066 AD, when a document from the most important Croatian ruler, Kresimir (Petar Kresimir IV) refers to it.
A note on the shot itself: the horizon line is difficult to spot, (you can guess it from the mountains far back on the right).
The coastlines from the city and the opposite shore are converging, so the overall impression is somewhat “unstable”.
However the mind clings to a vertical line, shaped by the reflection of the city in the sea water, the fortress up the hill and the cloud above….
I personally like it, but probably not everyone will!
The eligible patrons already got their download link 😉
As always here there are the available resolutions:
-For quad-HD monitors and the like: WQHD – aspect ratio 16:9 – resolution 2560×1440
-Full HD: FHD – aspect ratio 16:9 – resolution 1920×1080
Here’s this month multiresolution wallpaper for my patrons, you can find the original article on Patreon here.
You can see part of the ceiling from the basilica, from the Sanctuary of Oropa. The Ancient Basilica is where the statue of the Black Virgin is kept.
The Sanctuary itself is a beautiful place, many of my pictures come from there or from its surroundings, you can see it depicted in some of my works. Plus, many nice hiking trails and walks start right from the Sanctuary, it’s situated on the Alps, near where I live.
You can see more images and find more informations on the Sanctuary here.
The church ceiling itself is interesting because of the decorations and the white “stars”. The painted plaster is dotted (I think it was “hammered”, small parts were removed to produce the starred effect). That, combined with the different hue paints and the lights creates a very nice effect.
As a wallpaper it’s nice because of the black space for icons and stuff, and because of the framing that suggests a window “peeking” on another place.
I’ve been absent for some time, mainly researching and testing in the fields of Virtual Reality (VR) and 360° photography… I’m now ready to share the first (decent) art experiment….
I took a 360 degrees picture of a nice sanctuary here in Italy (more images of the place here), from one of the top floor’s windows. I then applied some quick painting-like effects…. I had to modulate the type of strokes to retain more details where needed, mainly around the top church and its cupola.
In the image below it’s possible to look around by clicking+scrolling on a computer or by rotating your phone/tablet. The accelerometer permits to use the phone/tablet as a “window” through the portrayed place by reading its movements. The size of the image makes the file larger, it will take some time for it to load.
On the bottom right there should be an icon to switch to fullscreen mode, to better experience the view ;-).
Of course the best immersive result it’s obtained by using a (very cheap) VR viewer and your smartphone. A bit like being “right there” in the portrayed place. If you’re on a compatible device there should be a cardboard icon to switch to VR mode (also on bottom right)
The image and technique, something on VR and 360°
360° images, also called photospheres, have a high resolution because you must be able to “look around”, as if you’re inside the picture.
Each possible viewpoint has to be presented in a decent resolution. They’re also saved in a way that permits to retain all relevant information using standard image formats. It’s possible to do that thanks to a projection, that “deforms” the image and adapts it to a 2d space. Currently the main type of projection used is equirectangular.
This is what the saved image looks like (in very low resolution):
This is a monoscopic image (no real “3D” effect, at least for now), but it shows the potential and possibilities in that direction (VR and 360°).
All these aspects must be taken into account during the elaboration and painting of the image.
Until now the software and hardware are limited, especially if you’re an experimenter on a tight budget. I’m partially working with DIY tools and using complicated workflows.
I’ll create some more similar content, using both photography and 3d graphics….. let me know what do you think!
The picture was taken a few days ago, on a cold 31st of December 😉
While the Sun was disappearing, those beautiful colors faded in…. the view is from the main bridge crossing Donauinsle , an island on the Danube. The area is mainly recreational, restaurant, bars, and nice places to take a walk or a run.
The church silhouette is from St. Francis of Assisi church, also known as Mexico Church or Kaiserjubiläumskirche. Unfortunately it was closed at the time, so I couldn’t take a look inside.
Looking in the opposite direction there was an equally magnificient view. A glass skyscraper was reflecting the light and colors, blending with the background.
Apart from the colors and contrast, I like the geometry and composition, with that nice slice of Moon peeking through the sky…
Enjoy!
My eligible patrons have access to different high resolution versions of the above image, to be used as wallpapers. you can check the Patreon campaign post here.
As (almost) all my works, this is available as a print on large canvas (limited to 10) or cotton paper (signed). If interested you can take a look at the shop. If it’s not available yet, you can contact me directly.
Here are some free works for download as wallpapers, as well as some animations to watch.
If you like this or other of my works, please consider supporting me on Patreon with 1$/month, or donate something through Paypal:
From Freiburg (Germany), Martin’s Gate or Martinstor, one of the ancient city gates.
Hello everyone! I’ve just completed a few jobs that were absorbing me during the last weeks (mainly 3d animations and some electronic assembly for video recording and wireless transmission).
So…. I’m finally able to get back to MatericLook and some (art)works! Months ago I sent out a survey to my subscribers… During the next days I will implement some of the precious suggestions I received back, thanks!
Germany, Freiburg: Martinstor
-The Place
A few months back I visited a dear friend during a weekend… he lives in Alsace, so we had the opportunity to visit Freiburg im Breisgau, a beautiful city in the Southwest part of Germany, close to France and Switzerland. Freiburg is very nice, with a beautiful historical center. It’s the ideal place where to take a walk and have a look at the stunning squares, a merchant’s hall and various gothic buildings, and the cathedral.
-The Work
The shot I used for this work has Martin’s Gate (Martinstor) as a main subject, surrounded by beautiful historical buildings. The lovely geometries of the roofs and top floors give a nice perspective and direct the eye toward the open sky…
I started from an HDR photography (single shot), so I created a few variants, each one optimized to better present a specific part of the image, in terms of lights and shadows. I then used the various parts to assemble more (and nicer) variations.
Then I experimented on each one with some filters and digital painting. This time I used a lot of different digital painting techniques, fully manual but also automated. The latter are almost always unexciting because you have basically no control on the type of strokes and direction… generating, in my opinion, patterns too “uniform” and uninteresting.
I wanted some specific effects I created during the painting. For example the lower parts of the buildings are “streaked”, following each building’s facade direction, to give a more dynamic shape. The sky at this point has a almost uniform “wormy” pattern. I wanted the clock face to look fragmented and a bit fluid, like if seen through a textured glass.
Here’s a detail of the final image (a bit less than half the final resolution). You can see different patterns and strokes all around:
I then identified all the parts I would like to have in my final image, proceeding to put them together (mostly through masking, to control how they overlap and dissolve into each other).
At this point I proceeded with the final steps… After some minor color and light corrections here and there, the lower part of the buildings needed some more darkening. I used a black painting “creeping” on them, following the painting patterns. Also the sky needed some movement through the dark/light “waves” in the middle-right. Plus some more chaotic patterns around the top and right border.
Last steps: some highlights/reflections accents on the gate rooftop. And slight modifications to all roofs’ tops to give them a twisted, more gothic and less perfect look. These also disrupt the shapes geometry and perspective alignment. I think it makes the work more interesting to look at.
And that’s all for now, I hope you’re enjoying the images and the description has been somewhat inspiring 😉
As (almost) all my works, this is available as a print on large canvas (limited to 10) or cotton paper (signed). If interested you can take a look at the shop. If it’s not available yet, you can contact me directly.
Here are some free works for download as wallpapers, as well as some animations to watch.
If you like this or other of my works, please consider supporting me on Patreon with 1$/month, or donate something through Paypal:
