Compositing

The concept of compositing has been around for a very long time. Many artists combine images and mediums to create collages and composited images. With modern software programs, this process has become easier and faster. I too have created many photographic composites over the years. In fact, I’m often on the lookout for subjects that would make an interesting photo illustration. One example is this image of a plane flying into the sunset. The plane was originally shot in the daylight. I stripped it out of its background and laid it on top of a sunset I painted in Photoshop. The result is a simple but effective composite.

Composite plane image - click to view original

One that was a little more complicated was this image of the old lighthouse at Cape Spear on Newfoundland. I had to turn the image into a “night” image with the lights on and then composite in the snow and the moon. Here are the stages of the image:

Point mouse at any thumbnail for larger view

Cape Spear final image - click for larger

Recently, I was shooting in southern Ontario. I came across a Steam Locomotive at a museum in Brighton. I instantly thought it would make an interesting composite. I shot several images, some close some further away. The sky was a washed out grey. The first step was to choose the right composition. I then went about replacing the sky. Next, I wanted to turn on the light at the front of the train and last, I added the “smoke” from another image. I think it has much more power and interest like this. What do you think?

Click Composite left for larger view

Creativity - Where Does it Come From?

Ideas for images come to me in the night. They come to me while I'm driving somewhere or doing something other than photography. Where does creativity come from? I'm not sure anyone knows. It comes through me and from me and when I least expect it. It's not something I can force or control. Sometimes I get a great idea when I'm stressed and under pressure, or sometimes when I'm bored and navel gazing. Whatever it is, it's the most wonderful feeling when you complete the cycle of a creative idea: capturing the image and then finally showing it. I hope to share with you through this blog, my creative journey.

Cape Spear Old Lighthouse (Digital Composite)

One fall I was under pressure to come up with an idea for an Xmas card. At the time, I was teaching image compositing at Seneca and was working on a class demonstration to turn a daylight image into night. The image was the old non-working lighthouse at Cape Spear in Newfoundland. I had just finished the image, complete with lights on, when this Xmas card crisis hit. The problem with using the lighthouse was that it was photographed in June. A winter image was needed. I looked for a snow scene with the light coming from the same direction as the lighthouse and found an image of snow drifts and grass from Manitoulin Island. I blended in this image but something was still missing. I needed a strong light source. For this I added a moon image from Northern Ontario. The final step was to add a blue tone to make it look like a cold night. It took about 48 seconds to come up with the idea but the whole process to create the image composite took about 48 hours. This was one of the first images we had posted with Getty.