Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Photography Techniques for Surreal Scenes

Photography Techniques for Surreal Scenes

Surreal photography is a particular challenge. The photographer appears to capture real images of impossible realms. It takes particular creativity to achieve this type of effect. You can use any of several different techniques to create a surreal photo. Some involve taking the photographs, and some involve darkroom or digital manipulation.

Making a Composite

    One technique for creating a surreal photograph is compositing opposing or disparate elements. Surrealism creates a clash of ideas like those experienced in dreams. Real-world logic goes out the window in surrealism and things are never seen together are found in the same place. Most high-end image-editing software programs like Adobe Photoshop have tools that let you isolate visual elements and place them in different images. Create intricate and dramatic surreal photographs with this technique.

Long Shutter Speeds

    The shutter speed on a camera is excellent tool for creating surreal scenes. Normal shutter speeds last less than a second. A very fast shutter speed can "freeze" action like falling water. Long shutter speeds, those over a second, do the opposite. Long shutter speeds blur motion and can create a dreamlike effect for things like water. Have a subject stand completely still while activity occurs all around them during a long shutter exposure. This will blur the background and leave the subject isolated.

Play With Perspective

    One striking visual characteristic of a dream is the way that things may not be quite the correct size. Evoke the strange imagery of the unconscious by giving the subject an everyday object that is several orders of magnitude larger than it should be, like a gigantic pencil. Additionally, using an object which is only slightly too large or too small is a great way to create cognitive dissonance. Changing the size of a room (i.e. making it too large or too small) is a great way to create tension in a photograph as well.

Be Unexpected

    Create surreal tension in a tableau by forcing things which are unrelated, but not opposite, into the same scene. For example, using fire and ice is not surreal, but conventionally opposite. Use things that are unrelated, like fire and computers or ice and pillows. Things that are tangentially related or related in abstruse ways are much better for evoking the feeling of a dream than simply choosing opposites.

Use Innovative Techniques

    Using techniques like infrared photography to create unexpected images. By blocking the visible light getting to the sensor of your camera, you expose an unseen world. Because infrared light has longer wavelengths, and therefore carries less energy at any given point in time, these photos also require longer shutter speeds to create an image. The effect tends to be spooky. Use a tripod when attempting to take infrared photos. Purchase inexpensive "IR" filters from a photography supply store.


Photography Techniques for Surreal Scenes

Surreal photography is a particular challenge. The photographer appears to capture real images of impossible realms. It takes particular creativity to achieve this type of effect. You can use any of several different techniques to create a surreal photo. Some involve taking the photographs, and some involve darkroom or digital manipulation.

Making a Composite

    One technique for creating a surreal photograph is compositing opposing or disparate elements. Surrealism creates a clash of ideas like those experienced in dreams. Real-world logic goes out the window in surrealism and things are never seen together are found in the same place. Most high-end image-editing software programs like Adobe Photoshop have tools that let you isolate visual elements and place them in different images. Create intricate and dramatic surreal photographs with this technique.

Long Shutter Speeds

    The shutter speed on a camera is excellent tool for creating surreal scenes. Normal shutter speeds last less than a second. A very fast shutter speed can "freeze" action like falling water. Long shutter speeds, those over a second, do the opposite. Long shutter speeds blur motion and can create a dreamlike effect for things like water. Have a subject stand completely still while activity occurs all around them during a long shutter exposure. This will blur the background and leave the subject isolated.

Play With Perspective

    One striking visual characteristic of a dream is the way that things may not be quite the correct size. Evoke the strange imagery of the unconscious by giving the subject an everyday object that is several orders of magnitude larger than it should be, like a gigantic pencil. Additionally, using an object which is only slightly too large or too small is a great way to create cognitive dissonance. Changing the size of a room (i.e. making it too large or too small) is a great way to create tension in a photograph as well.

Be Unexpected

    Create surreal tension in a tableau by forcing things which are unrelated, but not opposite, into the same scene. For example, using fire and ice is not surreal, but conventionally opposite. Use things that are unrelated, like fire and computers or ice and pillows. Things that are tangentially related or related in abstruse ways are much better for evoking the feeling of a dream than simply choosing opposites.

Use Innovative Techniques

    Using techniques like infrared photography to create unexpected images. By blocking the visible light getting to the sensor of your camera, you expose an unseen world. Because infrared light has longer wavelengths, and therefore carries less energy at any given point in time, these photos also require longer shutter speeds to create an image. The effect tends to be spooky. Use a tripod when attempting to take infrared photos. Purchase inexpensive "IR" filters from a photography supply store.



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