Surreal Image Number 3

Deciding to stay with the London theme, I travelled back to the city and walked along the River. This is something that I haven't done for a while, which is normally what happens when you have lived in the same place for such a long time; you realise you've seen more outside the city compared to where you actually live. I took quite a few interesting photographs yet I feel the most interesting where of some ducks I found not far from the River.

(Aperture: f/5.4, Shutter Speed: 1/200sec, ISO: 64)

(Aperture: f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/250sec, ISO: 500)

(Aperture: f/5, Shutter Speed: 1/250sec, ISO: 1000)

(Aperture: f/5.6, Shutter Speed: 1/125sec, ISO: 500)

I didn't particularly think I would be able to combine two completely different images together yet I feel that for this 'surreal' task anything can become possible, and that was also the point of it; to push your creativity and skills using Photoshop. I then started to experiment with the pictures I had taken of London, specifically St Paul's Cathedral. I began creating more depth within my photos, adding different London Landmarks into the background that were not necessarily visible from this point of view in real life.

This was when I began experimenting the most, by inserting the image of a duck from one of my photos. I tried many different sizes and positions, for example having the duck flee from the top of St Paul's Cathedral. I thought this looked interesting yet it didn't really contribute much to the image as a whole. If I wanted to combine two extremely different images together in one photo, it would have to be something much more bolder and eye catching. The duck would have to be bigger and perhaps the centre of the picture, competing with the grand building that is St Paul's. I also felt that the sky needed to be a lot deeper in sense of colouring, which is why I also experimented with this. I enjoyed using Photoshop to really just let loose and try as many different things as possible. This I feel is how I came up with an interesting final surreal image.

This is a printscreen from when I had inserted the image of the main duck, yet I wanted to cast a shadow to make it look much more realistic. I decided to do this by duplicating the original image of the duck and rotating it 180 degrees. I then selected the shape of the duck and selected the layer that was the image of St Paul's Cathedral. I then decreased the brightness before finally hiding the layer of the duplicated duck so that a realistic shadow in the same shape as the animal above was cast across the building.