You improve...
... at whatever you spend
time doing – running,
maths, art. This wasn’t
obvious to me at the
outset. For instance,
lots of my work involved
Photoshop, and to a
lesser degree oil paint.
As a result, I became
a Photoshop wizard
over the years and my
traditional oil paint skills
evolved s-l-o-w-l-y. If I
want to be a great oil
painter, I’m going to
need to do a lot more oil
painting. Be proactive.6
Checking in with the client
When it can excite rather than freak out my client,
I share. Too early can be disastrous, so often I’m putting a
very developed image forward initially. The danger is that
I spend too much time on a rejected draft, but I find the
risk is minimised if developed sufficiently, so I go on. But
most importantly, I need the image developed enough for
me to know I want to complete it. I rarely show multiple
ideas, because I want to choose the best direction myself.5
Constructing the context
Background ideas gel in my mind, where they
are enigmatic yet f lawless. I composite, warp and scale
imagery to realise them, but the f laws often control
the development and steer the image in completely
unanticipated directions. I really don’t know what
I want until I see it. This one is elusive, and there were
points where I thought it wasn’t going to work, but
experience begets persistence.
7
Developing the figure
Once the background concept is decided, I develop
the figure within that context. I selectively replace, warp,
shape and scale. I try to light consistently within and
across shoots, in order to ease mixing and matching parts.
I tweak placement and silhouette relative to background
elements, then modify the value and colour contrast of
figure against ground, seeking optimum “pop.”
August 2017 81
In depth Photobashing