Artistic Photography Compositing

To create a powerful photo composite, as with any artistic work, you have to take into account certain factors and follow a creative process. Many people believe that everything lies in good postproduction but, for visual artist Carlos Herrejón, the previous phases of conceptualization and preproduction are equally important and the key to his well-known photo composites.

In this course, professor Carlos Herrejón will teach you how to make an artistic photographic composite, from his creative and narrative conception, preproduction, photographic shoots, editing, and final compositing.

You'll meet Carlos, who will talk to you about his photo compositing projects and some of his influences.

You'll start by doing some practical exercises to generate creative ideas and translating them into concepts, and then turning them into images with a solid narrative.

Next, Carlos will give you some tips for when you go to take the pictures. He will show you how to carry out a photoshoot and will walk you through the materials you’ll need to do it.

Once the photos are taken, you'll start doing magic with Adobe Photoshop and you'll see the necessary tools to create your own artistic photo compositings.

You'll make a selection of the best photos for your final project and edit them. Then you'll get to know the shortcuts of the tools you are going to use the most. You'll learn to master object trimming, in addition to some tips on the treatment of hair and skin for photo compositings.

You'll see the keys to assemble all of your image’s elements and you'll perform a brief color correction process. Then, you'll give life to your image by working the lights and shadows. Finally, you'll see different finishes that will help you find your own style and that will give personality to your future compositings.

You'll create a photo composite, from the idea to the production, of an artistic image with simple resources that will help you make your own pieces.

This course is for all photo compositing enthusiasts who wish to create artistic or conceptual works with simple tools, and for professionals who want to give a conceptual and artistic touch to their photographs or those of their clients.

You'll need to have basic photography skills, and knowing how to handle a DSLR camera and Adobe Photoshop. As for materials, you'll need a camera and a tripod, a computer with Photoshop installed, and a graphic tablet or mouse.