I watched an instructional video about compositing on Adobe tv yesterday. And here is what I came up with.
"Origin of the Species"
One of the things you need to have on hand, in addition to the image that is your primary source, are some photos of texture. I’ve been collecting these for a while now, so I used my own texture shots on this photo of pomegranates hanging from the tree. You can also find textures on Flickr and other places on the Internet.
It would be good to have your textures saved in a file so you have them handy and don’t have to search just when you are working on your idea. (I find that sometimes my ideas are quite ethereal and easily disappear.)
If you haven’t made any composites, it’s easy. You need your basic image. It can be anything you like and you can manipulate it using any Photoshop tools such as puppet warp or maybe use part of another photo to add to it. Just do what ever your instincts tell you. The main thing is to begin. I learned that in a basic drawing class. You can’t just try to do the project in your mind. The doing of it causes ideas to start to pop.
I had the basic pomegranate pic. The fruit pops open like this when they are ripe. I’ve read that pomegranates are an ancient symbol of fertility. That idea of fertility made me think of the beginning of life and then on to the Darwin thing. That’s what happens when you start to do something. Who knows where you will end up?
I made the background go dark because that is what I like. I was happy with the photo as shot, but never printed it. After watching the tutorial on compositing, I looked through my texture folder and came up with one of vines growing up a wall and another of some text carved on a ruined temple.
I added the textures as separate layers, adjusted the blend modes, lightened some areas and voila!
I like looking at other people’s work when I am drinking my morning coffee. I’ve found some very interesting compositing techniques that make an ordinary shot look mysterious and intriguing. I love when that happens. Sometimes I bookmark them and try to figure out what the photographer has done to get the the effect. Maybe he has made his own textures, and then photographed them. So far I have not done that. That would require paint or ink. I just hate to get started with another technique, but I may one day.