Success! (at least with Reversal and Composite Montages)

Our mid-term presentation turned out to be fun--it was nice to see our montages on the big screen.  Here are some of the reversal and composite images that succeeded for me. I have also included one surreal montage that semi-succeeded!

A composite montage is made by overlaying two different photographs to create a new visual image. Thistechnique works well with images that contain a strong texture or pattern, such as stones, ripples in sand, orgrasses.  Weathered wood, stucco and rock surfaces can also be very effective. Once you’ve collected anumber of suitable images, the process involves experimenting with overlaying different images until a pleasing combination is found

Original photo of water in the Bahamas

Original photo taken on Prince Edward Island

Composite Montage

Original photo of Clivea

Duplicate of photo changed to B&W

Composite Photo

 

A reversal or mirror montage is created when two copies of the same image are combined. One copy is flipped horizontally or vertically, and either superimposed or set alongside the other. This works best when the images used have simple shapes or subjects, and often results in a new geometric shape or pattern completely transformed from the original image. 

 Both of these photos are the finished reversal montages.  One is an icicle that was duplicated and reversed.  The other is an abalone shell that was also duplicated and reversed.

Surreal montage is the most complex of the 3.  It consists of combining an in-focus photo with an out-of-focus photo of the exact scene. The original way to get these two images was by using a tripod and a zoom lens in the 75-300 range. The first shot is very sharp (F16 for example), the second shot is taken without moving the tripod and with the aperture set wide open. The lens is then zoomed until the object is blurred but not indistinguishable. The two images are then combined in Photo shop.

However, there is a Photo shop alternative: Instead of doing the work in-camera you can use Photo shop to duplicate the photo and then use the Gaussian Blur to obtain your blurred photo.  This alternative method of doing surreal montages is from a book by Andre Gallant called Dreamscapes.

Surreal Montage done using gaussian blur