Idea Blog VI - Surreal

Surreal

Webster defines surreal as marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream; also : unbelievable, fantastic <surreal sums of money> [1].  I really want my images to take on a dreamy appearance  and to have a luminosity to them. I have recently discovered the work of Harold Ross who utilizes the process of light painting and gets a very painterly quality to his images.  What I have currently been doing is stitching images with High Dynamic Range methods.  What this means is that by bracketing my shots I can get the complete range of tonal values in a scene.  However when you map the colors back to a printable color range it takes on a quality of being surreal.  High-dynamic-range (HDR) photography is a technique for increasing the range of light shown in a picture in order to create vivid, page-bursting photos that exhibit a distinct, often exaggerated, level of realism [3].  I also shoot at either sunrise or sunset, times when I can get the best colors in my imagery.  Slepukhin-Zamachnaia states that “Images created during twilight are normally characterized by warm colors of unusual hues, enveloped in shimmering blues or rich cobalt. The richness and variety of hues of the blue palette available depend on the stage of twilight [2].” I would love to try lighting painting my landscapes but the sun has been an important part my compositions.  Maybe it could be replaced by the moon.  I feel that experimentation is probably in order.


[1] "Surreal - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Merriam-Webster Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surreal>.

[2] Slepukhin-Zamachnaia, Tatiana. "Surreal Twilight." PSA Journal 75.6 (2009): 26-29. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Oct. 2010.

[3] Porges, Seth. "The Surreal World of HDR Photography." Popular Mechanics 186.9 (2009): 120-121. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 Oct. 2010.