As per the brief - my creation was based on a futuristic android theme with a hint of religious based Apocalypse.
The back ground shot was of a section of the National Portrait gallery car park. while shooting I kept in mind the perspective that would be best to include a person.
The shot of the "android" was done at home with a single speed light and reflector as the light source - this was appropriate to the lighting at the car park. I positioned the speed light to match the main light in the car park image.
After deep etching the android, I liquefied the eyes to make them larger and more android like.
After placing the android onto the background (the exact order of things is a little hazy), I duplicated the layer and mask everything but the arm and rotated it into position. Shadows were placed onto the severed arm to add realism.
Other images were then applied using masks and various blend types to add to the story; flames, embers, Jesus picture and tangled wires. Perspective lines were created to position the row of "Jesus" pics.
Photo filters were used to adjust the overall colour tones to suit.
A Gaussian blur layer was used to add correct photographic depth by blurring the distant objects.
Artificial elements used are;
Shadows - by using a combination of brightness and contrast adjustment layers and new layers with a soft black brush.
Smoke - made by rendering a cloud layer and mucking about with size and opacity (subtle but it is there).
Flames - in addition to the flame image, artificial flames were painted around the door way etc.
Charring - new layers with a black paint brush.
Overall I am very happy with the final result. The PSD is a little messy (it was a bit like an oil painter not cleaning his brushes and mess as he paints ), I was focused on the image and not how crazy the PSD was looking but perhaps next time I could be more mindful to keep things a little neater.
