What is a photo manipulation???
Photo manipulations are quite simply - photographs that have been manipulated.
Some are manipulated by taking the photograph print and drawing or painting on it or adding chemicals to the surface. Most of mine are manipulated in a computer from a digital photograh image using different software techniques. Although I frequently add other images to them from other photographs or scans of watercolors or ink drawings.
I started out like a lot of artists, taking photographs with a digital camera of scenes I wanted to draw or paint. Once I had the pictures in my computer and had rearranged things just a bit for better composition, or changed a color or used a certain filter to enhance a certain area, I discovered there was no need for me to paint it. The manipulated photograph was everything I wanted the painting to be. And, because most of them were so highly manipulated, they no longer looked like photographs. People had a hard time telling what the medium was. When I told them they started outs as photographs they were really surprised.
I have been using Adobe Photoshop since 1996 for graphic design, photo restoration, collages, poster designs, etc. So creating artistic photo manipulations was a natural for me.
But I don't want to make this sound too easy. It is not unusual for me to invest up to 20 hours in one image. My images usually have at least 20 layers before I finish with them. The files are really big, 100 mb is not unusual. I have a separate computer which is not hooked up to the internet which I use for my artwork.
And I take lots and lots of photographs and spend many hours going through them looking for just the right image or "part" of a picture to use.
And on the physical side ~ I now have a permanent twitch in my right shoulder (I call them mouse attacks) from too much fine tuning with a mouse. Mouses are a lot better now than they used to be.
If you are interested in creating photo manipulations for art shows - you may run into a few problems. I encountered some objections from our local fine art league when I questioned them about exhibiting photo manipulations. Photography appeared to be in a class of it's own and really didn't fit into their "fine art" category. But we worked that out and now my works hang in the gallery with their paintings.
Many photo exhibits require that works can not be manipulated and many fine art exhibits will not admit photography. However, "photo manipulation" is a form of new age art and is becoming more widely accepted.
"Moonlit Dreams"
"Moonlit Dreams" was photographed around noon in full sun. I faded out the back ground, turned off the sun and turned on the moon. It makes me want to go sailing in the moonlight.