Welcome to the first official imagination series post! This post features my latest work "When Two Worlds Collide". This is a project that I've been working on for quite some time now and I finally get the chance to share it with you guys. But before I do, Lets take a look at what the inspiration behind this project.
The Concept
The early concept for this project was all over the place. All I knew is I wanted an astronaut in it and I wanted to somehow incorporate jelly fish into the finished product. My goal was to bring the land we know as home and the mysterious sea, merge them together, and give you the feeling that you were in an entirely different planet. In order to do so, I needed the help of other artist/photographers to help bring my vision to life. That's where the search began.
The Search
I needed three specific images in order to deliver a convincing other worldly vibe.
A background that would deliver a mysterious vibe
Jelly fish because they are so contrasting and alien like but majestic all in one
An astronaut to give the image the human touch to perfect the connection between you the viewer and my vision.
This is the image i decided to use as my background because it give me that mysterious vibe with a sense of wonder. I also loved the way the light was coming in from behind the trees. This photograph was created by Daniel Angele | You can take a look at more of his work by clicking on the image below.
For the Jelly fish i decided to go with 3 different images. Each one unique in color and shape, and they all have that majestic look that I was looking for.
Last but not least, The human touch. The Astronaut was key to giving you the viewer the human connection . Adding the human element to the image I thought would give you the feeling that that could be you in this mysterious but mesmerizing world.
Photo by Adam Miller - Spaceman
Making it all come together
The Background
Making it all come to life was both fun but very challenging. Composite photography is something I'm completely new at but I enjoyed every second of it. As you can see from the image below, the first step was choosing the colors for the background. The original had a darker moody look (which I really liked) but I wanted it to be a little warmer and a bit more dreamy. I decided to go with more of an orange/redish tone and that managed to set the mood for the rest of the image.
Spaceman
The second task was the "Spaceman". In the original photo the colors were natural and overexposed which worked well for what the original artist was going for but in order to make this look like it all belonged together, I had to make a few color temperature changes to make it blend in better with the background but darken the shadows at the same time to make the "Spaceman" stand out. I also changed the color of the visor to make it mach the light and added the jellyfish reflection to give it a bit of realism and to satisfy my OCD of course ;)
Jellyfish
The third task and probably the most difficult task was to place the jellyfish in the right sequence to make them look alive and like as if they actually belonged in the environment. They key was to make them look as if they were all floating towards the light source coming peeking through the trees. The other important step was ensuring that they jellyfish actually had some depth. This meant placing them behind the trees and branches which I believe did the trick.
Giving it a second look
Once I finished, it was time to give it a nice long look. In doing so I realized that it needed a little more. I needed a little more of that dreamy look. In order to accomplish this I decided to add some particles. If you look closely, the particles start at the end of the background and travel all the way to the forground where the "Spaceman" is standing. That for me was the cherry on top!
And there you have it! The finish product! I hope this gives you a better look and understanding of this image and hope you enjoyed the read.
If you are interested in purchasing your own unique print, you can do so by following this link : https://edgar-meza.pixels.com/
Until the next one!