Your images must clearly show a change in the subject’s natural colour, form, shape, etc. Your image can show anything that the human eye wouldn’t ordinarily perceive. The ‘alteration’ can be done in-camera, in post-production, or both (see below for suggested techniques & ideas for both).
AI can be used in the way we normally permit, so you can use processes which do not contribute significantly to your image – such as ‘generative expand’ or ‘remove’. However, you may not use AI to generate any objects, backgrounds or ‘scapes. In other words, all of the key component parts of your images must be original to you.
In-camera
These rely on creative choices at the moment of capture, rather than software trickery afterwards.
Multiple exposures (in camera)
- Overlaying two or more scenes
- Subject + texture combinations (portrait + foliage, architecture + clouds)
- Repeated movement of a subject within the frame
Intentional camera movement (ICM)
- Vertical or horizontal sweeps
- Circular or spiral movement
- Zooming during exposure
- Shaking or jarring for painterly effects
Long exposure techniques
- Light trails
- Moving people becoming ghosts or disappearing entirely
- Water rendered as mist or glass
- Clouds streaking unnaturally
Slow shutter + flash
- Flash freezing a moment within motion blur
- Rear-curtain flash for surreal movement trails
Focus manipulation
- Extreme shallow depth of field
- Focus pulling during exposure
- Lens freelensing (holding lens away from mount)
- Deliberate mis-focus
Reflections and refractions
- Shooting through glass, prisms, bottles, crystals
- Water droplets on glass
- Mirrors and mirrored surfaces
- Kaleidoscope or prism filters
Lens and optics tricks
- Tilt-shift lenses (miniature or skewed reality)
- Vintage or “bad” lenses with aberrations
- Lensbaby or selective-focus optics
- Shooting through other lenses or filters
In-camera filters and effects
- Infrared conversion or IR filters
- Coloured filters
- Starburst filters
- Soft-focus filters
Extreme exposure choices
- Deliberate over- or under-exposure
- High-key or low-key abstraction
- Silhouettes that remove contextual reality
White balance manipulation
- Wrong white balance for surreal colour casts
- Mixed lighting left uncorrected on purpose
Shooting methods
- Very close macro that abstracts scale
- Extreme wide-angle distortion
- Shooting through materials (plastic, fabric, foliage)
- Shooting projected images or screens
Post-processing
These involve deliberate digital intervention after capture.
Colour manipulation
- False colour / colour swapping
- Selective colour
- Cross-processing looks
- Colour grading for non-natural palettes
- Duotone or tritone conversions
Infrared and simulated IR
- Channel swapping
- White foliage / dark skies
- False-colour infrared effects
Black & white abstraction
- Extreme contrast
- Solarisation effects
- Inverted tones
- High-key or low-key conversions
Compositing and collaging
- Combining multiple images into one
- Adding skies, textures or objects
- Repeating or cloning elements
- Creating impossible scenes
Digital multiple exposure
- Layer blending modes
- Texture overlays
- Double exposure portraits
Distortion and warping
- Liquify tools
- Perspective warping
- Stretching or compressing space
- Impossible geometry
Texture and painterly effects
- Digital painting over photographs
- Brush effects
- Canvas, paper or grunge overlays
- Impressionistic or watercolour styles
Removing or altering reality
- Removing people or objects
- Adding things that were not there
- Changing scale relationships
- Rearranging elements within the frame
Time and space manipulation
- Day to night conversions
- Motion blur added in post
- Star trails from stacked images
- Composite time sequences
Graphic and illustrative treatments
- Posterisation
- Pop-art styles
- Line-art or sketch effects
- Graphic shapes integrated into photos