The Art Of Superimposition By Alessio Trerotoli

This article is a guest post by photographer Alessio Trerotoli, all photographs contained here were created by Trerotoli.  You can see more of his work by visiting his websites here and his Facebook page here.  He’s been featured in many different publications and exhibitions around the world.  I consider Alessio Trerotoli to be the foremost pioneer/expert in Superimposition Photography.

Superimposition

In graphics, superimposition is the placement of an image or video on top of an already-existing image or video, usually to add to the overall image effect, but also sometimes to conceal something.

urbanmelodies021Sometimes a picture talks, but also a picture needs someone within to talk!  If a picture talks, think how much four or five pictures could tell when put together in a unique image. Superimposing photos is like an art that needs creativity, fantasy, curiosity, most of all, lots of patience.  It’s like a puzzle, an enigma to solve; a solution exists, the right combination exists, but we have to find it.  There are no preset rules, only the rules that we decide to impose, and I think that these rules are in the four words I quoted a few lines ago; creativity, fantasy, curiosity, and patience.

Creativity

Feel free to play with levels, with opacity of every image, to raise or decrease contrasts or luminosity.  Move images on the right, on the left, high and down.  Free your creativity.

Fantasy

If creativity is like a car, fantasy is like a road, a highway, to cross with the windows rolled down and hair in the wind.  Imagine in your mind what you want to realize, use your imagination while you are shooting, build with your mind (and with your camera) all the roads that you will cross in post-production with your creativity.

Curiosity

As in every job, you need enthusiasm and passion.  Be curious, save a composed image and then do it again with the same pictures, completely changing the work and the image just done.  Be curious to see the different images you can create by simply letting the pictures talk between themselves: like in every conversation there is always a louder voice, someone who talks more than another.  Learn which is the “leader picture” of your composite image.

Patience

If the first composed picture that you’ll see seems to be good, maybe you are wrong! It seems to be cool, but be patient, the best is yet to come.  Don’t be in a hurry to create, stop working on your pictures from time to time and if you are not sure you have found the right combination, save the project and open it a few days later. The best solution will come at the right moment, so learn to wait for it.

My “Urban Melodies” project was born from here: curiosity mixed with creativity and fantasy, but they couldn’t work without patience.  Don’t be discouraged thinking that someone has already done this kind of artworks, remember an important thing: nobody has already done it like you.

– Alessio Trerotoli

If you’d like more inspiration head over to his website and browse his incredible work.  You can check out his about page to read some of his accolades.  Don’t be a Grinch, visit his Facebook page and support a fellow photographer by liking the dickens out of it.

If you would like to write an article for PhotolisticLife or DecisiveShot you can do so here.

 

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