The concept of this Photomontage is more fantasy and fairytale-like. I used a monochrome photo of a lantern as the main subject of this picture. I used the quick selection tool on the masking level to crop out the inside of the lamp. Since it is almost Christmas, I found a photo of a light-up Christmas tree and use the same technique to crop out the Christmas Tree and put it behind the lantern. I then found an image of shining lights and a starry sky as the background of the Christmas tree. I overlapped both photos and turned the opacity of the shining light image down to 39%. Then, I used the "Linear Dodge(Add)" on the Christmas tree to blend it into the background. I tried to use blending mode on the lantern photo, but the results were not ideal. Instead, I used a light grayish color around the edge of the lantern on the masking level. I wasn't satisfied with the photo yet, so I adjusted the level of the photo. All images I used for this image are from pexels.com.
The concept of this photo is COVID-19 and quarantined at home. I found a photo of a dark room with an opened window. I wanted to contrast the dark, lonely room with the wild situation outside. We all want to return to our norms before the pandemic, but the virus and is preventing us. I cropped out the window and put a photo of NYC behind. Then I used two paintings; one was wild, the other was funky. I used the quick selection tool to isolate the top of the buildings. Then, I edited the masking level of the wild painting and used that as the sky. Then I cropped the funky painting as an overlap over the buildings. The funky painting kind of reminds me of the virus. I was trying to create the motion of virus spreading by overlapping the paintings over the buildings of NYC. I used "Linear Burn" on the sky and "Vivid Light" on the funky painting to blend it in. I also cropped out a photo of a globe wearing a mask and used "Luminosity" to blend it on one of the buildings. Then, I cropped out a bird to used "Divide" to blend it into the sky. It symbolizes freedom in the chaotic world. On the left side of the window, I wasn't sure how to create a reflection, so instead, I colored the masking level with a light gray to keep parts of the window to make it look more like a reflection. I did all cropping on the masking level, so all editing is non-destructive. All images I used were from pexels.com.