Uelsmann-inspired Surrealism

I really like the idea of Uelsmann's house/tree root combination that he has achieved on film. I wanted to try out this idea of two images combined, but digitally. And instead of using the tree and house idea, I tried it out with different toys. The photos below show the selection of photographs I took of the toys which were simple front shots against two different areas of a room.

My idea was to try out a few combinations of the items, but always assure that the way in which they were combined was relatively seamless, joining in the middle of the photo along a horizontal line; similar to the images created by Uelsmann.

As you can see they have worked relatively well. I have met with the Uelsmann brief in making sure the centre is the combination point of the two photos. Something I have had to adjust within the images is the light levels to make sure they match and work together to make one image.

I tried my best to keep all other editing to a minimum because of course Uelsmann created these images on film so the only manipulation that would take place is that of double exposure in the dark room. However, I have in the photo with the gnome edited out the robots left arm because that was simply a composure error on my part. I didn't think to ensure the arms were going to be out of the way in the lower half.

I was able to combine these photos by using a gradient tool on a separate layer mask of the top photo. This created a very nice fading effect which was easily adjustable for a greater blend or a more of a stunted blend.

My favourite of these Uelsmann inspired photos is the robot and bear combination (top-left). I like it because it combines the two reasonably seamlessly, almost using parts of the robots body as a separate chunk of body. I also really like how the background seems to blend with the colours of the two being quite similar.

I have decided that the photo doesn't quite replicate the style of Jerry Uelsmann in quite the way in which I wanted to, so to improve this I have decided to do the simple technique of removing the colour from the photo to make it more black and white. I have also adjusted the contrast in order have darker and lighter areas, as well as employing the burn/dodge tools to further this.

The final image has worked quite effectively, and is a good replication of the style of Uelsmann's photography. The black and white tones work really well as copying the idea of film, and the dark room without actually using a film camera. The darker and lighter areas really seem to work well and compliment each other. Obviously it would have been more effective to use film to copy film photos, however throughout this unit I hope to continue and develop my ability to use photograph editing software, working on my skills.