Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a nerd. I grew up in Laurel, Mississippi. My brother and I would always buy comics at this place called Dexter’s Card & Comics. This is what started my nerdy obsession with superheroes.
Compositing is a problem-solving tool and an extension to my photography vision. It adds layers to the idea and helps me be more creative. There are different reasons why you might want to use compositing in your work. Here are some of the reasons why I create composites.
However, when it comes to photography, we can actually tell a great story with just two elements: the characters and the setting. Since our medium is a visual one, each image we create needs to have those two key integral components and the audience does the rest.
I think we are living in exciting times for photography. There are a lot of amazing developments in the photography field. Some of them will help us to do our job easier, but also can transform us into lazy photographers. Competition as pro photographers is going to be bigger and harder. Now more than ever photographers have to be really well-prepared and develop their unique style.
Sal said it best and it is the mantra that I have tried to live my young photography life by: “Innovate or die.” Innovation can always come from seeking education from others in our industry, but it must begin with you. Ask yourself a simple question: “What am I consistently struggling with?” Focus on that until you have a grasp on it.
I’m not a patient, nurturing person by nature, so being at home with a 2.5-year-old and a 5-month-old is literally taking up 120% of my effort, patience, and mental capacity. I couldn’t help but feel like the moment I’d put one toy away, another one had exploded all over the floor. How is this happening?! She’s only one kid! My head was spinning from her boundless energy and short attention span. So that’s where the idea for this image was born. Composites don’t have to be hard and daunting, and you don’t need to be a Photoshop guru to create them either. If you keep a few important concepts in mind, you’ll be shocked at how easy it is. In this article I’ll walk you through the step by step process for creating this image.
To bring a story to life through composite art in Photoshop, I often begin with the existential question: What is speaking to me? This doesn’t always come in the form of a place or location, as it did for Sal that day. The spark of an image can begin with a single emotion, a piece of music, a line from a play.
To make a beautiful composition in Photoshop, a photographer needs time and the necessary skills, to be sure. But perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is to have vision for the image. What’s the story you want to bring to life? Who are your characters? Where do they come from? Here are five steps to creating alternate realities in Photoshop. By following these suggestions, you can bring other worlds and characters into focus (and possibly inspire other up-and-coming composite artists).
