Description & Objectives:
Photograph a portrait of yourself or someone else (no selfies!) and transform it into a Black & White surrealistic environment by compositing it with found imagery in Photoshop. Use Blending Modes, Layer Masks, Gradient Layer Masks and Adjustment Layers in Photoshop as necessary to create a space that is dream-like and surrealistic. Your goal is to make the compositing as least obvious as you can. It will help to brainstorm a visual story you’d like to tell about your composited portrait, but a specific narrative is not required.
Artists to Research:
Henry Peach Robinson, Georges Melies (early filmmaker), Jerry Uelsmann, John Brosio (painter), Erik Johannsen, Gregory Crewdson
Notes and Examples:
Early image compositing
- Image compositing and blending began in the mid 1800’s
- An early pioneer was British pictorial photographer, Henry Peach Robinson
- Robinson was best known for mastering the technique of printing multiple negatives into a single image to create a new narrative.
- This technique blurred the boundaries of painting and photography
Contemporary Examples
Practical Uses for Digital Image Compositing
- Sketches for site-specific sculpture or installations
- Visualization for professional creative opportunity proposals like gallery installations, client proposals, or mural projects. (For example: digitally composite an image of a mural sketch on a photo of the wall where you’re proposing to paint it!)
Student Examples
Getting Started
- Complete Exercise 4 BEFORE starting project 4 to learn the tools.
- Complete the artist research and required sketches before beginning in Photoshop
- Carefully review the project sheet to make sure you fulfill all requirements and read over important project tips.
- Contact Erin at Erin.Anfinson@mtsu.edu with any questions.
Project:
Project Research Requirements (Prepare in a Word Doc)
Watch the required 5-minute video on D2L about Jerry Uelsmann. Research and write brief reflections about Uelsmann’s work and the work of either 2 additional artists from the list mentioned above or 2 other surrealist photographers whose work you are interested in. In your written response be sure to address what aspects of each artists’ work that you might explore in your own project. Copy and paste 2 images of each artists’ work, along with your reflections, into a Word document.
In the same Word document, write a brief proposal about your idea for the project. Who will be in your portrait? What surrealistic narrative will you tell? What kind of imagery will you blend with your portrait to tell a story?
Create a B&W sketch of your composited photo composition idea in your sketchbook. Take a well-lit photo of your sketch to submit it in the D2L Dropbox with your written research.
Upload your completed research to the class D2L Dropbox by the due date.
Tips for success:
Plan from your sketch and INTENTIONALLY photograph your portrait with the end result in mind. Use your sketch to plan the portrait pose. Good lighting is extremely important. Have your subject pose near a window, outside, or with good interior lighting.
Structure your process. Begin with the largest blended areas of your composition, and then move on to smaller blended areas and details/embellishments.
Utilize the power of adjustment layers, to match your varied imagery.
Project Document Specification Requirements:
Photoshop Document 8″x10,” RGB color space, 300 dpi (Pixel Dimension 2400px x 3000px)
Project Material Requirements:
You must use the following for your composition:
Photographed portrait of yourself or someone else
Public Domain and/or other personally photographed imagery to composite from one of the sources at library.mtsu.edu/art/images or Unsplash.com
Successful projects will demonstrate and be graded on the following:
Final composited image should be Black & White (Desaturate your source images before pasting into your project)
Effective composition and effort to find interesting visual connections between the blended imagery (Formal elements of art and principles of design)
Creation of a successful surrealistic narrative (Content & Subject Matter)
Technical quality of the work
Photo composite materials are imported at the correct resolution (300ppi)
Effective image blending through the use of Blending Modes, Layer Masks with Gradients, etc. i.e. How well does your composition fool the eye?
Effective use of Adjustment Layers and Adjustment layer masks to harmonize varied image sources where needed (brightness/contrast, levels, etc.)
Use at least 5 blended images that are from high quality image sources (personal + public domain)
Organization of your Photoshop workspace layers, etc.
Project Submission Requirements:
Label your file LastName_FirstName_BlendedRealities.psd
Submit your Photoshop file (.psd) via WeTransfer.com to Erin.Anfinson@mtsu.edu
D2L ePortfolio Project Self-Reflections
Export a 600pixel-wide Jpeg of your project file and upload it to the Project 3 self-reflection page in the class ePortfolio (Export demo video on our class D2L site in the ePortfolio section)
Complete the written self-reflection exercise in your ePortfolio by the due date. Questions are available on the class D2L site in the Project 4 folder. Copy and paste these questions into the appropriate text box in the ePortfolio template.
Label your file LastName_FirstName_BlendedRealities.psd
Submit your Photoshop file (.psd) via WeTransfer.com to Erin.Anfinson@mtsu.edu
D2L ePortfolio Project Self-Reflections
Export a 600pixel-wide Jpeg of your project file and upload it to the Project 3 self-reflection page in the class ePortfolio (Export demo video on our class D2L site in the ePortfolio section)
Complete the written self-reflection exercise in your ePortfolio by the due date. Questions are available on the class D2L site in the Project 4 folder. Copy and paste these questions into the appropriate text box in the ePortfolio template.