The purpose of my assignment was to use surrealism as an inspiration for images in photoshop. I found photos online that were looked interesting and decided to use those as a starting point. Since I wasn’t particularly pleased with how my original surrealist collage turned out, I wanted to try something similar. I liked using the photos as inspiration instead of just trying to emulate them because while I was taking pictures I had another idea that was similar but wasn’t the same as either of the pictures. I think the biggest challenge while working on this project came from the fact that I wasn’t totally sure how to go about creating the image I wanted to. I had a vague idea of how I might make it work, but it was trial and error after a point.
I think one thing I learned from this assignment is how to layer the same image multiple times when I am combining multiple images so that I am more able to manipulate the look of the photograph. Another thing I learned was to utilize the ability to make the eraser and the layers less opaque. In order to make only the right parts of the image underneath show up without looking like you made a huge hole in the layer over it, you need to use a more transparent eraser. It gives the image a more surreal quality and makes the image stronger. A third thing I learned was that even if I tend to like having the photos in color to see how the colors pop, it can sometimes be more effective if the picture is in black and white. The things I learned will impact my future learning in that I will know some of these techniques without having to experiment my way through as much of a similar project. They will also benefit me in that with this knowledge I will be more able to try new things in photoshop and maybe be encouraged to experiment with the saturation of a photo if something is a little off in the color version.
