After looking through the photos I had taken for this rotation, I decided that I wanted my initial concept to be slightly dark and have a sense of foreboding. Using a layer mask, I removed the background of the poles located at the back, centre and bottom of my composition. For the poles behind the building, I lowered the opacity to make the shapes seem as though they are further away from the viewer’s perpective, and make them have a slightly ominious, looming feeling over the shorter buildings. Additionally, I overlayed some shadows on the flat background image to create that effect to a larger extent.
The shape at the foot of the composition was used the ‘Multiply’ blending mode, which makes it look more like a shadow, and then additionally, a ‘Guassian Blur’ filter was applied for the shadow to blend in with the ground. The same was done to the shape within the reflection, however, I left it a lot more prominent, so the eyes are initally attracted to the centre of the composition. The overall image itself has both the ‘Levels’ and ‘Curves’ adjustment layers in order to manipulate the blacks and whites within the composition and add depth to certain areas (e.g. the buildings in the background).
The doorframe in the centre of the composition was also removed from its original image using a layer mask. I thought it would be interesting for the frame to be placed in the middle (where there was originally a staue of a man on a horse) as it has very soft, curved shapes in contrast to the rest of the composition, which has straight-cut, uniform shapes. That way, the viewer’s eyes are focused on the middle of the composition, and then starts to see the more rigid shapes around it. My intention in this is to create a sense that there is freedom in an iron-fisted, dystopian world beyond the reflection, however, the looming shape within it says otherwise. I used the blending option ‘Drop Shadow’ to create a darkness around the centre shape to aide this.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of my composition, however there could be adjustments, predominantly along the bottom of the composition, which feels rather empty. If I could do this rotation again, I would focus my camera higher on the background photo so that there is more in the distance for the poles, which would make them look more threatening. This would also remove some empty, unsused space within the composition.
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