3.24. Surreal photomontage

Until the arrival of digital imaging in the late 1980s, photomontage was a laborious task. It often involved painting masking fluid onto photographic paper, exposing one image, then removing the fluid and repeating the process with other negatives. This was done in the darkroom and required precise registration of the imagesand plenty of time. Artists such as Jerry Uelsmann, Philippe Halsman, and, more recently, Dan Burkholder, have produced amazing images in this way.

This pleasant image of a lake in Tuscany had even lighting and attractive reflections, so, in tribute to Uelsmann, I decided to add a couple of flying trees. I needed two photographs: one of a tree with leaves, and one of a tree in winter without leaves, to use for the roots. Most of the digital darkroom work is in isolating the trees from their surroundings, so it's a good idea to shoot some images specifically for such a project. Shoot trees against clear skies or very dark backgroundsanything that will make it easier to cut them out.

This photograph, despite being taken in Tuscany, was rather plain and needed something extra to make it stand out.

For this project, choose trees with clearly defined backgrounds. The trees in this image came from Utah in summer and northern England in winter.

Open one of the tree pictures and use Color Picker to sample the tree's background. Choose Select > Color Range and then use the Shift key to click and add other, similar tones to the selection, and Alt/Opt to remove others. Adjust the Fuzziness slider until the tree is nicely outlined, select Invert, and click OK. In the Layers palette, double-click the image layer, then click OK to dismiss the dialog box. This removes its locked background status, allowing the use of transparency. Click the "Add layer mask" icon and the background will be hidden, leaving only the tree showing. You may need to refine this mask. Click on it in the Layers palette, then paint with black to hide pixels and white to show them. For painting large areas, such as the rocks, hold down the Alt/Opt key and click the maskonly the mask will be visible. Paint onto it as before. Repeat this process with the winter tree and then turn it upside down, using Image > Rotate Canvas > Flip Canvas Vertical. Open your main image and activate one of your tree windows. Drag its thumbnail from the Layers palette and drop it into the main picture. Do the same with the other tree. Use Edit > Free Transform to resize and position each of your trees. From Photoshop CS2 you can easily move more than one layer at a time. Hold down Shift and click each layer, then use the Move tool or Edit > Transform. Here, both trees are selected. Once they are perfectly positioned, duplicate both trees and move one of each to the top of the layer stack. Select the top layer and choose Merge Down from the Layers palette menu. Click Apply and the tree and its "roots" will be merged into a single layer. To make the reflection, use Ctrl/Cmd + J to duplicate the combined tree layer, then turn it upside down with Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical. Choose Edit > Transform to move it into position. If you also hold down the Shift, Ctrl/Cmd and Alt/Opt keys, Photoshop lets you drag the Transform box's corners outward, giving the impression of perspective. To make the reflection blend into the water, change the Reflection layer's blending mode to Multiply and reduce its opacity a little. If you need a shadow rather than a reflection, apply some Gaussian or Motion blur to this layer. Jerry Uelsmann's images are hauntingbut don't ask me what they mean. Here, in my tribute to him, trees from two continents float over a lake. It takes a little care to extract the trees from their backgrounds, but then the possibilities are endless.