Sindala

For a project in Amsterdam south east (a ghanese church ,community offices and a daycare centre) i'm looking for good colored people textures. I've searched the internet high and low but can't come up with the right looking images.

can anybody please help?

Ernest Burden

For issues of 'traditional dress' and typical hairstyles, etc. it sounds like your best bet would be to go to that neighborhood (it is in your city, you say) and take photos, or do sketches.

Look for photos via google images of the home country of the ethnic group, search the national gepgraphic site for articles on the country.

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Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

4DM

Just to let you know, (at least here in UK) when writing or speaking in English, the phrase "coloured people" is now outdated, and can be considered offensive.

Black, African, or even Ghanaian people would be better to use in this context.

Ernest's suggestion is a good one though.

Doing this kind of thing can be very delicate - I remember having to surreptitiously take photos of traditionally dressed women in Dubai for a hospital reception visual. That was tough.

Get a mate to pose in front of a group, and pretend you are photographing him - that's what I did !

Cheers,

D.

Sindala

I am dutch, sorry for not being politically corect, i was so unsure of how to write this.

My problem with taking photographs on the street is that i'm not sure if it's allowed to just photograph people on the street and shop them in pictures. Also the pictures will be put on a very very large billboard and used in a lot of other publications in the neighbourhood of the building and i don't want anybody recognising themselves in the picture. So i think photographing isn't an option.

Ernest Burden

You should find out what is legal in your country. In the US you can generally photograph and use images of people in public, outdoors. There was a thread about this a year or two ago, so search it out.

But photography IS an option. You can always use Photoshop to slightly alter the faces, perhaps blur them a bit, or just make all visible skin areas sort of a flat tone, like you were painting them and avioding too much detail. The point will be the clothes, the general postures, the overall skintones, etc, NOT specific people's portraits.

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Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

mbr

www.archvision.com has some, I believe. I know not many people like them anymore (me included), but for some things there extensive libraries are nice.

Not sure how specific you have to be, but I just bought another library from www.realworldimagery.com and took the images I need. If you need a ton, then rpcs or photography would be your best bet. Photography will usually look the best, but take time.

4DM

No worries - I assumed English was not your mother tongue - though, like most Dutch people's, it it just about perfect otherwise.
Colloquial expressions do change over time, and of course political correctness has been a fast moving dynamic for change within the language.

I reckon that if you asked around and explained the situation, some people would be quite pleased to appear in a billboard around their neighbourhood.

Why not ask the pastor of the existing church if he could help you?

Or ask your client if they can help you out and introduce you to some people who would pose for the image?

If you can get over to London, there is a big African community here in Peckham, among several other places, with a few African churches, and a thriving market and High Street that could provide you with a lot of opportunities for photos of African people in traditional dress without the problems of recognition in Amsterdam. Not sure if they are all from Ghana though - I think Sierra Leone and Nigeria are the main cultures. (I do have a Ghanaian friend here in London, but he is quite European in his dress and attitudes so that wouldn't be much help if I asked to take his photo.)

I did take a load of "people" pictures in a town in Surrey about a year ago or so, (though in Surrey they are mostly white and pasty!) and have used them in several Surrey based images. It occurred to me the other day that I could get an angry call from one of them about appearing in one of my visuals, but until it happens I am not going to get too worried about it.

Like Ernest says, you can fudge a lot of things in Photoshop.

Good luck.

D.

DennisHolland

Hoi ****,

even in 't Engels....

Yes, you should go out there and shoot some people (with your camera ) on a tourist hotspot like the Dam for instance? The suggestion of going to that church or community and have people captured in motion on different camera -angles shouldn't take days of hard labour and will certainly end up in a very great impression don't you think?

Forget the rpc. They don't even come close to the colourfull dresses that you see a lot in Amsterdam (or Rotterdam) so skip it. I'd suggest to take some time and go out there, spend some time and take some shots (photo that is) on eye-level from a certain distance and make 'm standalone + Alpha-channel in Photoshop man, it will turn out great!

Groet, veel succes.

Dennis

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PRIESTERMEDIA
3D Visualisaties & Presentaties
Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Sindala

Ok, photographs it is. thanks everyone.

My deadline 's monday so i'm off to south-east to shoot my girlfriend in front of small crowds (with my camera). The weather is good today so that should work.

thanks a lot everyone!

Susan

I'm sorry I missed this thread for a timely reply.


Had you wanted to do an NPR vesion I would have had a good many African-American people to just give you. I needed to create them for a rendering of Church Community Centre with an all black congregation. They were done very quickly in gouache and they are very serviceable in a rendering but not of the quality to sell individually, so I could have given them to you for free.

I have about 6 Black people rendered in a very high quality in my NPR People Pak Volume I.

http://www.entouragearts.com/showcase_entourage.asp

If you still have a need, and NPR will do, then I am happy to provide you with the free images that I mentioned.

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Susan
EntourageArts.com