These have been up on Flickr for a few days now and attracted, for my shots at least, a fair bit of interest. In reality I intended them as trial shots to work out the issues with my proposed technique for invisibility – which is to photograph the same scene twice (or more) from the same camera position with and without a person as the subject, overlay one on the other in PSE and then erase the flesh parts.
This is my first attempt and technically it works OK. However in this version there is the rather odd optical effect that makes it look as though my head has been replaced by the head of a large and partially transparent bird. This is rather surreal and a lucky accident that make the picture rather more interesting in its own right. Unfortunately I feel it distracts from the overall purpose of the picture.
This next shot, taken the same evening is rather closer to the ideal, in that it does not have the distraction of an optical illusion. A slightly lower angle to show the bottom of the trouser legs might have been useful, but this is close to what I am hoping to achieve.
Setting these things up in the controlled environment of my own hotel room is one thing, but to make it work as a theme I need to be able to do this in other, less controlled situations. The next two shots, in my local railway station show that this is achievable – these were complete without the use of a tripod – which is not ideal – and slightly realigned using PSE.
These two also work well from a technical viewpoint so I think the idea works technically.
Other issues
In looking at the comments on Flickr and thinking this through in my own mind I’m still undecided as to how invisible the people are. My initial thoughts are that they should not be invisible when interacting with other people, as at that point they are not isolated, but I’m still unsure in my own mind whether they should be visible in reflections.
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