How can you make a unique photograph? How can you push the bounds of what a photograph can be? A single exposure, a single shot, that can create a great pet photograph no doubt. However, it is limiting in just how unique a shot can be. I am always thinking of ways to make unique and interesting pet photography shots, and photographs in general. In the above composite photograph of me and my beloved puppy Kiki, I took a shot I made of Kiki over a year ago and combined it with a self-portrait I just made this afternoon. Below is how I did it:
I already had the shot of Kiki edited onto a white background. The original photo was mostly white in the background, but I still used the Quick Select Tool in Photoshop to cut Kiki out of it and then paint in a digital background. I have that photo printed out and on a shelf in my bedroom so I see it every day. It popped into my head recently to put myself into that image to make it appear that Kiki was about to swallow me. There was not enough space under her upper jaw for me to really be seen, so instead I used a flipped self-portrait in a perspective showing me to be actually smaller than Kiki, adding to the uniqueness and strangeness of the final composite image.