Concept: This week we were to compose an image using Adobe Photoshop out of at least four images that we have taken ourselves. 

Materials: Adobe Photoshop, Canon EOS 600D, Tripod, Blue Gels, Continuous Lighting

Process: 

As I did not have a lot of time this week to capture the images for the composite image, I decided to use some of the images that I took the previous weeks. This included the model session that I did with my friend and when I visited my parent's place in Mooloolaba and took photos at the aquarium there. I managed to get some awesome photos of the jellyfish and there was one image that looked kind of like the yellow jellyfish is swimming amongst the clouds. I wanted to use that image as the focus of my composite image. With that, I then went to Mt. Coot-tha to take some images overlooking the city and using a slow shutter speed I was able to take a photo of all of the people meshing in with the lights of the city.

With these images I wanted to create a really cool surrealistic image that had the jellyfish swimming the dark night sky as people gathered around to watch the rare and beautiful sight. I wanted to add in the stars and some texture by using the bokeh lights from the model image that I previously took and the debris and tentacles of a box jellyfish that was in the aquarium tank. The other jellyfish image I loved, especially how the shadows of the jellyfish looked remotely like the texture of the moon. I wanted to turn it black and white and add high tonal contrast to make it look like the moon in the sky. 

For my first attempt, I was slightly happy with the result but felt like the use of the bokeh lights to act like stars made the image look too unrealistic and not impressive at all. I also felt like the lights of the city, the face of one of the people appearing and the overall lack of focus on the image made the composition seem messy and unaesthetically pleasing. I take a lot of pride in my work when it comes to photoshop and I wanted to do it again. 

In my second attempt I felt like it was a massive improvement. First I used the side with the least amount of people so the composition wasn't too messy. I also used a portrait canvas as it made the image more spread out and composition balanced. I wanted to limit the amount of the city lights that we could see so I decided to add a brightness and contrast mask on the bottom half to 'hide' the details of the fence and some of the city. The negative space also helped balance the composition. I used a blue coloured overlay on the background and the city lights to make the colours all blend in together nicely and to contrast the jellyfish to the background. By doing this I was able to create a focus on the jellyfish rather than on the city or the people. I felt like this was more effective. I also made sure to add more "clouds" to make it look more balanced especially because the clouds are such a vibrant blue. I didn't end up using the bokeh lights for this round as I felt like it was a bit redundant, especially because I have already used four images. Instead using the texture from the debris and tentacles in the jellyfish aquarium, I was able to create an out of space-like vibe and the tentacles worked well to add both interest and directional lines that make the eyes follow the image both up and down. Overall I am really happy with the result, of course there is always room for improvement and perhaps I will look back on the image and think of better ways to make the composite image look more realistic and 'cool'.