Photo-Shoot #3

Initially, I planned to do this shoot in order to capture images I could specifically combine with the skull images from the previous shoot. However, whilst doing this shoot, I realised that the log in my fire place, with the "ash" effect beneath it, resembles a bridge going across a pit of lava that would be seen in a 'Fantasy' tale such as 'The Lord of the Rings'.

I have edited two of the images from this shoot on their own, without combining any other images with them, in order to experiment with the kind of fantastical effects I can create with just these alone.

Image #1

With this image, I hoped to give the impression of magic sorcery by adding a green 'overlay layer', then using a 'soft eraser' tool to remove parts of it, making it look as though the flames are a mixture of red and green ones.

I chose to edit this image as I liked the logs being in the shot, but the depth-of-field being shallow enough to make them out-of-focus -- this put the focus on the flames, which is what I wanted.

In terms of how others may view this image, I think that they will interpret the "sorcery" theme, for the most part, as green flames like this can be seen in several famous films, including the Disney classic, 'Sleeping Beauty' (the sorceress, Maleficent).

Overall, I really like the effect I have achieved with this image, and I am now excited to see what the scenes I can create when combining these images with others.

Image #2

I really like this image because of how dynamic it looks.

First of all, I chose to edit this one due to the strong saturation of the light on the bottom of the log; it creates a nice highlight which implies that a pit of fire/lava is beneath it. The flames in the background, out-of-focus due to the shallow depth-of-field putting focus on the log, make one feel trapped when looking at the log as it is "surrounded" by flames, and has a fiery pit below it. On top of this, I added the effect of sparks gliding through the air to furthermore create the implication of "heat". I created the "sparks" effect by using the regular marquee tool to select the particles underneath the log, then selected the 'layer via copy' option. I then 'duplicated' the 'layer' several times, positioned them accordingly, used the 'replace colour' tool to change the background colours to black, then changed the layers to 'screen'.