Global warming

Photomontage of four elements: The sky, the lighthouse, the walker and the naked body. I like the use of a naked body to create a landscape...to create something a little abstract from the human form. A tanned body colour can certainly begin to look like sand. It can be enhanced using an 85b Orange filter, and of course, further enhanced in Photoshop using Image/Adjust/Hue-Saturation and increasing the saturation slider control. using the camera flash for this kind of image is not much use...it is frontal lighting that gives no texture, but rather produces a flat looking image. This means either taking these shots outside or using a studio light or flash to the side. When doing a montage like this it is important to maintain the direction of light. The original lighthouse image has been flipped horizontally in Image/Adjust/Rotate Image, so that the shadow falls on the left, as it does on the body/landscape. If there was a sun in the sky, it would have to be on the right of the picture.

LIGHTHOUSE 3

LIGHTHOUSE 3, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds and bold colour.

LIGHTHOUSE 1

LIGHTHOUSE 1, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. A minimalist shot making use of the rule of thirds. The column of the lighthouse is about one third from the right of the frame. The other point of focus is the red top to the lighthouse, which is about one third down from the top frame. The shape is simple and bold and the colour saturation has been increased also.

LIGHTHOUSE 4

LIGHTHOUSE 4, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales, U.K. When using a wide angle lens, the depth of field is usually quite deep: items are in focus from about one or two feet to infinity. This can be capitialised on by having smaller items of interest placed prominently in the foreground to counterpoint a more distant item. In this case, the remains of a small concrete structure partly buried on the beach counterpoints the distant lighthouse. Notice that the horizon is not in the middle of the frame: this is a common mistake and serves only to divide the picture in two. Using the rule of thirds, the horizon has be placed on the lower third to maintain a feeling of space.

LIGHTHOUSE 2 - tutorial

LIGHTHOUSE 2, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Lighthouse at Talacre beach, North Wales. Another minimalist shot using the rule of thirds. The horizon is placed on the bottom third to maintain a feeling of spaciousness...there is twice as much sky as land. The wide angle lens enables the use of the foreground rocks to lead the eye into the picture from the bottom right of the frame to the line of the vertical third from the left. The lighthouse is slightly more than a third in from the left: it is not in the middle - this would split the picture in two. But it is not on the third because it competes with the figures on the beach. Thus the end of the rocks at one third from the left, lead the eye into the picture to both the people and the lighthouse, the average point of interest between them being at about one third from the left. Auto contrast and colour saturation in Photoshop were used to further enhance this picture.