Composite Image Making

Definition & Theory

Digital compositing is the process of digitally assembling multiple images to make a final photo, typically for print.

Hannah Hoch

This piece displays a crying woman with half her face covered by sculpted face, that appears displeasing visually; her head is also covered with what looks like cut-out templates of cutlery. The association of cutlery (kitchen based objects) around a woman is very stereotypical and degrading. I think Hoch wanted to spread a message of sexism in this photo, and how it is cruel to the women, represented by the fact she is crying. Furthermore, the sculpted cartoonish face covering the women suggests that this face is representing a man, making him look poorly to the view, and presenting him more like a monster, concealing and suffocating the women's identity.

Raoul Haussman

This piece displays a man who appears like a typical politician; due to how he is dressed and his surroundings suggest political topics. The features on the man's face, shoe on the forehead, childlike drawn mouth and eyes, suggests a distaste displayed for him; degrading him and removing his serious exterior. This allowing viewers to not take him seriously, which typically frustrates very right-wing politicians. The things surrounding him like the money and what looks like a newspaper cutout into a photo, suggest things this man is driven by, but also restricted by; since money is a very controlling power, that is the main drive for politicians but causes many issues for them as well.

Experimentation
I'll be experimenting with editing photos here.

These photos will be merged together.

 

Firstly, I use the 'pen tool' to select around the duck. The pen tool helps makes finer curves when selecting around something, so it fits well with a duck. Then to turn into an actual selection, I right-clicked and clicked on 'Make Selection'. 

 
Then, I used the 'move tool' to drag the duck onto the arctic landscape.

Using a 'layer mask' on the duck layer, I used a textured 'brush tool' to suit a snow appearance better, and covered the lower region of the duck to make it appear as if the duck is deeper in the snow.

Then, once selecting the shape of the duck I made another layer and filled the shape of the duck with the colour of the shadow in the background photo. Then rotating and adjusting it so it appears like a shadow to the duck.

Once adjusting the shadow, I used the 'blur tool' to smooth out the edges and make the shadow blend better into the photo.

Once that was done, and the finishing touches were complete. The photo is complete.


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Firstly, I use the 'pen tool' once again to select around the duck. The pen tool helps makes finer curves when selecting around something, so it fits well with a duck. Then to turn into an actual selection, I right-clicked and clicked on 'Make Selection'.
 
Then I used the 'move tool' to drag the duck onto the river. I pressed CTRL+J to copy the duck layer twice, creating three ducks to the photo, I then selected all three layers and pressed CTRL+G to group the layers into one layer.
 
I added a layer mask to this grouped layer, lowering the opacity of a black soft paint brush and painted on the lower region of the ducks to make it appear as if they are in the water.

The photo at this point is complete, but I decided to add extra detail to make the photo appear more merged. I added an adjustment layer on 'hue/saturation', pressing 'colorize' to make the entire photo one hue.
 
Making the hue orange, I then lowered the opacity so the colour was only faint. This added a faded warmer appearance so the ducks didn't look so harsh in colour in the photo.

Research
Victoria Siemer
Siemer, also known as Witchoria, is a Visual Artist based in New York. She works predominantly in the digital realm, creating surreal photo manipulations that reflect her interest for ennui, existential crisis, and heartbreak.

This piece is a landscape of a city at night, clustered with buildings and bright lights; with Siemer's well-known edit where she will grab a section of the landscape and will flip it into the sky. She added extra detail to this edit where it appears like the lights are raining down to the landscape; making it appear like a cloud above the city. This photo I think represents a homage to the city and its beauty, city evolution being a controversial thing to support makes this an even stronger message. The appearance of a cloud raining with the building landscape could present an ironic representation of nature, trying to show us how the world should be (back to a natural world).

Jerry Uelsmann

Uelsmann is an American photographer well renowned for his photomontage work and surrealistic styles in his photos.

This piece displays hands, merged into a tree, holding a birds nest with an egg inside of it; the photo also owns a wide range in tone. This photo shows a strong message of man vs nature, with the hands, merged into the tree, making them one, as if equal when it comes to this world. Also, the concrete floor appears restricted to the tree, like it isn't allowing it to grow; but the tree is still able to care for the nest and egg.

Image Bank

These photos represent the style of photos I wish to create for my personal photos. Both artists (Siemer and Uelsman) present mainly landscape nature photography and will edit them to create a modernised appearance. Siemer's work she uses reflection techniques and blending to create geometric landscape photos. The editing technique is fairly simple, but owns a powerful presence in aesthetics and viewer satisfaction, appearing professional with its clean cut detailing and reflection. Uelsman's work owns more symbolism to man vs nature and presents a darker appearance. His edit techniques own less consistency since each photo is different in style, but it typically seems to be blending and surrealism. I plan to focus on Siemer's work for my own personal photos since I prefer her clean detailing and professional appearance.

Raw Photos
These are my raw landscape photos, captured on my DSLR Nikon camera.

AO3: Record ideas, observations, and insights relevant to intentions reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intentions for composite image making was to recreate Victoria Siemer's work since I've been intrigued by her work for a while and it seems appropriate to experiment her work style in this blog. Her work owns clean detailing and presents the mind of a perfectionist in my opinion since every photo appears flawless. There's still a gloomy atmosphere and suggests ennui, Siemer appearing as a nihilist. I find this style admirable and aesthetically pleasing so I wanted to recreate it. I believe my photos have met my intentions; the landscapes are clean in detail and exposure is even.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques, and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Use of Camera

I used my Nikon D3400 DSLR camera in manual mode. For the first photo, shutter speed 1/320, aperture F5.6, and exposure at ISO 100. The second photo, shutter speed 1/400, aperture F4.5, and exposure at ISO 100. The final photo, shutter speed 1/250, aperture F8, and exposure at ISO 125. A tripod wasn't used since I didn't feel it was necessary. No other techniques were needed for capturing these photos.

Final Pieces

Since my intentions are to recreate Victoria Siemer's work, I needed to edit my photos in her photo style.

Firstly, I used the 'rectangular marquee tool' to highlight a section of the photo, pressing CTRL+J to copy this selected area making it a separate layer.

Using the 'move tool', I rotated the copied layer 180°, so it appears reflected, and moved it more to the centre of the photo.

Using a 'layer mask' on the copied layer, I used a soft black brush with the 'brush tool'and the opacity lowered slightly. I painted on the lower area of the copied layer so it blended out with rest of the landscape slightly.

 

Once doing this, the edit is complete.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My full inspiration being from Victoria Siemer, she creates a professional homage to landscape work and mainly nature; her work style also presents her as a person, appearing gloomy and like the mindset of a nihilist. I believe photo editing isn't for every photographer since I think some artists want their message presented in its purest form, but editing also helps artists visual their thoughts and fantasies since some are so abstract. I was well acquainted with editing before this but never had the opportunity to recreate Siemer's work and very pleased with the outcome of attempting her style.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

I believe I met my intentions in strengthing my editing skills and recreating an admirable photographer of mine. These are my final pieces.