Digital Manipulation: Initial Ideas

I've been thinking about what to do for the digital manipulation section of the course for a while and as usual I've had loads of ideas, all of which are far too complicated to be done within the time frame available. I have had a few ideas that I think are sufficiently interesting, both for me and the expectations people seem to have of me. As a bonus they're possibly even achievable!

1. Breaking out of the frame.
2. David Hockney style Photo Montage.
3. Photo collage.
4. Smoke pictures.
5. Skin Textures.
6. General jiggery pokery.

Breaking Out Of The Frame

I'm sure you've all seen his sort of picture. It basically entails taking something like a photo frame, or book, and photoshopping a photograph so that it looks like it's actually coming out of the object. e.g a waterfall cascading out of a picture and down the wall of the house. I like this idea, but the main stumbling block I foresee, is actually getting the necessary pictures within the next couple of weeks. I've got a few thoughts about shots that might be feasible, but I'll have to talk to Marie.

David Hockney Photo Montage

If you've read my Hockney research post (and I can't see why you won't have), you'll know exactly what I mean by this. Rather than take a week to go out and shoot a scene from various angles and at all times of the day though, I'll just use photoshop to cut up the picture and then modify the frames, so they look as if they have been taken at different times. This is probably the easiest of the options (so naturally I'm shying away from it a little), but I'm not sure quite how good it will look in the end.

Photo Montage/Collage

Again, this is a relatively simple option, and will simply entail cutting and pasting various elements of different photographs, to create a new image.

Smoke Pictures

I haven't really fleshed this one out properly yet, but I've seen some great pictures where people have taken photographs of smoke, inverted the image and then added various colours. I've sort of got one idea for this theme, but I'm not sure I could stretch it to four photographs, and have them still remain sufficiently cohesive.

Skin Textures

If you take a look at the post before this about using layers, you'll see the sort of thing I'm talking about. Taking a photograph of someone, and then overlaying another photograph, or photographs, to create a new texture and pattern on their skin. Obviously, my previous attempt was a bit rushed, so I'll have to make sure the quality is a lot higher for any images I do produce (as these one's will actually be marked!) Like the breaking out of the frame idea. the only problem I can see is actually getting the necessary photographs in time.

General Jiggery Pokery

This theme would be very similar to the photos Marie showed us in class (the two halves of the apple sewn together, that sort of thing.) I'd use everyday objects and then add a digitally manipulated twist. Again I've got a couple of roughly thought out ideas, but would need to check if they're achievable in the time frame available. I'd also need to check if "everyday objects" is a good enough theme.

I appreciate none of these ideas are very detailed at the moment, but I just thought I'd get them out there for people to see. Once I've settled on a couple I'll do a more detailed post.