Assignment 3 - Final Prints

I honestly had a lot of fun with this assignment. The great thing about compositing is it gives you the power to make photography not such a blatantly literal art form anymore. I dig. My first picture was a response to the cubism prompt. Rather than fuse several photos together, I just wanted to use one then use basic shapes to push and pull the brightness in them. My real challenge was finding the amount of action to keep the photograph interesting but not too over the top. The photo seemed a little flat at first, so I began to put some of the shapes behind the figure to offer a sense of space. I also subtly put some math equations in the background (4 or 5% opacity) to add a dash of more confusion into the composition.

I found the porta-potty composite to be the most challenging. Just getting it to look semi-realistic was a challenge. I'd like to go back in and refine the stairs a little bit. I think that would be the kicker of actually making this baby look real. Someone in critique also suggested adding a line, which I'm very open for. Although the location is where I found the original port-potties, there's not much frame of reference about why they're in that location in the first place. Adding some action could do just that. Overall, I think this is still my favorite of the bunch.

This image was my response to the several moments in time prompt. I first want to give kudos to my wicked awesome brother for even offering to fall down the stairs for me, he's the real artist in this endeavor. I tried to tie multiple moments of motion into a single moment. I think I could push the idea more, but an angle I approached the piece was having higher transparency earlier in the moment to make it feel like the past (even if that past is only seconds ago). I was originally going to add a little bit of motion blur, but I'm positive it would have muddled up the composition too much. I do need to add some blur to the right side of the image however, that line is starting to bug me. I'm pretty happy in the way that the photo conveys falling down the stairs, it's not too confusing.

One things this class has caused me to do is redefine what I originally believe was photography. I figured if composites were fusions of several images or ideas, why couldn't they be a fusion of motion as well? I didn't put too much motion into the piece because I still wanted it to have a slightly photographic feel. A sitting figure is simply erased and redrawn in much to his surprise. Lighting really challenged me in this piece. Until post, I didn't account for how much the position of the figure could change the lighting of the entire scene. I could have attempted to cut him out, but the shadows he casts are pretty vital in making the movement seem realistic. In later assignments, I'm definitely interested in experimenting with motion again.