Surreal Self Portraits

Purpose:

• To express yourself using the concepts of surrealism;

• To learn about surreal artists such as Salvador Dali, Renee Magritte, Frida Khalo and contemporary photographers: Rachel Baran, Laura Williams, Manu Pombrol;

• To continue to explore advanced Photoshop tools to create a seamless, convincing surreal self portrait.

The first skill you need when creating a surreal-self portrait is to simply map out your ideas for what you want your portrait to look like. This helps when you pose for the self-portrait and take background photos. One skill that’s necessary to be able to create a surreal self-portrait with your camera and Photoshop is to understand how perspective comes into play when you’re incorporating yourself or any object into your background. For instance, because the point of view of my suitcase was head-on, I thought back to the one-point room assignment drawing and was aware that the suitcase had to be facing forward. I also knew I wanted to place myself into the suitcase so I made sure I placed the suitcase in a position where I could be placed inside it while also making it clear that it was a suitcase. Making sure the angles and proportions are accurate makes the self-portrait more believable. Another thing to remember is lighting while taking your self-portrait and combining that with your background. However, if the lighting of your self-portrait doesn’t match the background, that’s where Photoshop comes in.