Color Selected Multiplicity

The subject of my multiplicity photo is me, myself, and I; this taken in front barn doors in our shop since it offered an interesting, yet not too distracting background. This photo was made by propping my phone up so that it couldn't shift or move around (I ended up using clamps) with screen side facing me so I could see what was in the frame. Then I began with the elevated one because it would be the most difficult to do, so everything would revolve around it. I set a ten second timer, then quickly got into position holding myself up from the top of the door frame. After I got this photo, I used it as reference for the second one, marking on the door so I would know where to put my hands. Finally, I just filled up the remaining space by having me look at the other two portraits. Once I had all three photos, I put them into Photoshop to edit them: I opened all of them into the editor, then created something similar to a layer mask, selecting what I wanted to keep in the photos and eventually combined them all into one (I don't fully know what I did so this was relatively vague, but in the end, it worked so...). Then to create the selective color, I put a gradient map adjustment over the finished image, and began to erase the grayscale effect on the part I want to have color show through, for example the pants. There were not many materials that I needed to use in this photo, but I guess the "must haves" were my phone to take the picture, and Photoshop to edit them. I chose to create this image because from the start I knew that I wanted to somehow have the three of me to interact with each other, finally resulting in this after many iterations. The specific elements and principles of design I used in this photo are color, space, balance, and contrast. This image is composed in a balanced manner because there isn't more weight towards one side of the image.

The composition rules and techniques I show in the photo are formal balance since the image isn't weighted towards one side, grouping/repetition since there is multiple of me all grouped together in this one photo, and framing since the photo is sort of framed in the doorway. Throughout this project my photo evolved a lot, but one specific thing I changed was the original planning of what would happen in the photo. In the beginning, I was going to be tucked up into a ball and have me sort of sitting on my back, but this proved to very difficult. I couldn't get the images to line up, so eventually I just scrapped that idea and moved on.

The story behind this image is that one of my triplets and I are focusing on getting our circus act correct, since I will never be able to be a professional photographer, and he is balancing perfectly. Then my other triplet walks in, and he is absolutely astounded by the idea that we are training instead of doing our homework. This project relates to my life because I was finally able to capture all three of us on camera, a truly rare and memorable time in my life. If my artwork could be stronger, I think it would be in the area I cropped all of the photos together: there is a faint visible line, which I later found a way around when I was creating the one of Kyle.