I’ve been a little quiet creating images of late as I’ve been focused on other matters photographic. But with an entry required for a creative print competition on the horizon it was time to get the creative side of me back into gear. And lo, a new image was born – The Changing of the Seasons

I could have left it at that and just posted it for you all to see – but instead I thought I would share my thought processes and the methods that I use to put together my little meandering images.
First things first and it’s the compiling and developing of an idea and his happens outside of the computer as I start to visualise the end product – how will it look / feel – what will the story be – what mood should it have – what colours will be included / excluded.

Then its time to look in the PC to see what images I have already got that will fit the brief and also what I need to capture to finish it off. I have a folder with sub-folders full of images that I have taken with the intention of using them in composites, often taken with a phone camera. The ones below were used in putting this image together.

Then I suppose it’s just a matter of blending them together using various techniques such as dodging / burning / Layer opacity / blend modes / shadows / etc until it looks and feels as I want it. This stage is all about getting the overall look of the image to my satisfaction. You will notice that I have drastically changed the colour of the dress so that it doesn’t overwhelm everything else and helps to create a pleasing set of analogous colours.
Then it will be saved as a Photoshop (.psd) file and a Jpg and left for a day or so. I then critique it with more attention to the detail, making sure that the masks, cut-outs, blends have all worked as intended and I also try to remove distractions and processing errors. I look at this as the finishing stage (and there might be a couple of these stages), I then save again, run off a print and leave it at that.