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COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN MANUAL

HYBRIDIZATION AND DIGITAL HYBRIDIZATION: CASE

OF PHOTOGRAPHIC MONTAGE

Ines Rekhis BelghithPhd student at the University Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Tunis

Assistant Professor at the Higher Institute of Multimedia Arts Manouba, Tunisia

71, street Alain savary, Block D, Apartment 52, ElKhadra City Tunis, Tunisia

ABSTRACT

This is a comparative study of examples of hybridization applied on the manual film photography and examples of

hybridizations performed by digital tools of the software of treatment and retouching; Adobe Photoshop. The focus is on

tools used in both cases for the same types of hybridization while wondering about some stakes of the esthetics of the

hybridization of photography.

KEYWORDS

Hybridization – montage – digital tools – software – photography – photomontage

1. INTRODUCTION

With the digital image we did not discern new inventions allowing the emergence of new types of

hybridization applied to the fixed photographic image. Cartier Bresson and Lavédrine (2007) think that today

the digital alteration substitutes the manual retouching. Even with the tools of the software of treatment andretouching; Adobe Photoshop, we simulate the manual tools of hybridizations which were exploited from the

invention of the photography (coloring, photomontage, transparency, optical distortion, solarization,

varnishing, dithering, scribble effect, blur, the third dimension, photocopying, etc..). Hybridization of the film

photography by the techniques of montage began with the invention of the negative which represent a device

located between the shooting and the print. With digital photography, there are no more negative and the

montage is done with the tools of image processing software. With digital technologies, the hybridizations

are carried out automatically and very rapidly and treatment options would be multiplied. Therefore, we shall

perform a technical and aesthetic comparative examples of hybridization applied on the manual film

photography and examples of hybridizations performed by digital tools by providing the tools used in both

cases for the same types hybridization.

2. PHOTOMONTAGE

The photomontage applied to the film photography is manual; it is often complex, it takes time consuming,

knowledge and artistic ability. Several methods are available to the photographer; it is done either by cutting,

by the printing of multiple negatives, by successive printing on the same piece of paper. According to

Manovich (2003) the technique of digital photomontage is much more pervasive than before but the visual

aesthetic which has undergone a fundamental change; borders photomontages are not hard-edge, but they aresmooth using transparency, blur, colorization and other easily available digital manipulations and which

often incorporate typography that is subjected to exactly the same manipulations. Thus, we will try to

compare the tools used to make a photomontage of a photograph conceived in 1887 (Figure 1) and between

the digital tools used for the realization of a photomontage of a poster designed in 1998 (Figure 2).

IADIS International Conferences Computer Graphics, Visualization, Computer Vision and Image Processing 2010

Visual Communication 2010: Creative Industries, Photography and Culture 2010

and Web Virtual Reality and Three-Dimensional Worlds 2010

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Figure 1. Carolling, Henry Peach Robinson, 1887

Figure 2. Saving Private Ryan, movie poster, 19981

The photograph of Henry Peach Robinson is determined by the method of photomontage, it is composed

of two persons and a landscape printed from two different negatives. First a landscape is to be taken by using

the landscape lens in order to obtain fine definition and distinctness of detail. Another negative is then to be

taken of some individual to be introduced into the view. The portrait negative is to be taken in the shade with

portrait lenses. A copy of this latter negative is then printed and very accurately and neatly cut out of thesheet, and after soaking it well in China ink, it is pasted on the landscape negative in the most convenient and

telling position. The rest of the sheet from which the figure is cut is also blackened with China ink and pasted

on the portrait negative, covering all except the figure. A copy of the landscape is then printed with the

blackened figure on it, which will leave a white untouched space, the shape and outline of the figure. The

copy of the landscape is then placed over the portrait negative, the white space being made to fit very

accurately the figure on the portrait negative, and then printed to the desired intensity, having all the otherparts of the picture except the figure carefully excluded from light. The great difficulty in this process is in

making the figure fit accurately in the white space.

To make a digital photomontage, the methods and tools are completely different. For the poster "Saving

Private Ryan" (Figure 2), is to scan the various portraits of actors and then treat them with software for image

processing such as Adobe Photoshop. On each photograph, we can make a clipping out of actors to detach

from the bottom with the pen tool. Once the outline is done, we can define a selection in a paths palette. Thenwe can reverse this selection to remove the background. Finally, we slide all the images on the same

background isolated each on a different layer in order to move, resize, apply effects and change the opacity,

transparency, each one separately. Other tools and methods exist for outlining photographs, but the pen toolof Adobe Photoshop is the most accurate.

The technique of photomontage is common to both images. Whether, through the manual or digitalmontage, the logic in both cases is the same, but it is the objective of hybridization that has changed. For

photography of Robinson, the practices of combining of photographic negatives take place in a high art or in

pictorial context. This practice was common in the nineteenth century; it was used to compensate for defects

in early photographic processes; it was impossible to obtain in one exposure both sharp foreground detail and

interesting skies (Ades, 1976). Thus, given this technical defect, usually, the professional photographer looks

1 This poster is from the site: http://www.web-libre.org/dossiers/vin-diesel,626.html (accessed May 19, 2010)

ISBN: 978-972-8939-22-9 © 2010 IADIS

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for a solution to this problem by taking different routes ranging from imitation (borrowing or copy of existing

solution) to the methodical and scientific research for innovative solutions (Belkhamsa, & Darras, 2009).

Thus, in this example, the practice of hybridization by the photomontage represents the solution of a

technical problem. On the other side, in the 1990s, the practice of the digital hybridization of the poster has

become a habit of action rooted in the actions of professional graphic designer. The designer no longer needsto be a professional photographer to master the tools of the hybridization of the photography, but he must be

expert in handling tools of hybridization and this requires from him a precise and finished rendering almost

impossible with the manual tools of hybridization of photography.

3. HYBRIDIZATION WITH DRAWING

The second example is to compare the tools for hybridization of drawing and photography. Thus, we will

compare the techniques of achieving a comic portrait designed in the late nineteenth century (Figure 3) andthose of a comic portrait inserted in a poster produced in 2006 (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Caricature portrait, late nineteenth century

Figure 4. Posters advertising campaign, Ricoré, 20062

For the drawing on the photographic medium (Figure 3), Fraprie & Woodbury (1973) indicate that a card

containing the grotesque drawing is held by the sitter on his knees and arranged by the photographer in such

a way that his head rests just above the neck of the painted body. A white background is arranged behind and

when the negative is made all traces of the edges of the foreground are removed by careful retouching. On

the poster (Figure 4), we suppose that to achieve this hybridization, we first scan the drawing and caricature,

using Adobe Photoshop, we proceed by elimination, by clipping the white paper on which is comiccaricature. Then we slip on this cartoon picture of a man whose head needs to be cleared. It is with the

selection tools and the eraser tool you can select and delete the head of this man, and it is with the move tool,

you can drag the selection of the human body with the mouse instead chosen either in the same file or

another. Hybridization of drawing and photography can be achieved with other tools and methods using, for

example, different software, like Adobe Illustrator. Indeed, we can design vector graphics in Adobe

Illustartor and then import and treat them with the software Photoshop.

2 This poster is from the site: http://www.actuabd.com/+Les-cafes-a-la-chicoree-Ricore-s-inspirent-des-Idees-noires-de-Franquin+

(accessed May 19, 2010)

IADIS International Conferences Computer Graphics, Visualization, Computer Vision and Image Processing 2010

Visual Communication 2010: Creative Industries, Photography and Culture 2010

and Web Virtual Reality and Three-Dimensional Worlds 2010

543



The logic of the manual and digital montage of drawing and photography, in both examples, is the same,

but the goal of hybridization is different, in fact, hybridization of comic portrait is simply a transgression of

the rules of the classic portrait, on the other hand, digital hybridization of the poster, integrates with the

aesthetics of hybridization who becomes the norm (Manovich, 2006); that is to say that these days, the

aesthetics of the hybridization is almost in all forms of the image which is the juxtaposition of previouslyseparate visual languages of different media (Manovich, 2006).

4. CONCLUSION

The hybridization of photography with its different varieties, juxtaposition, synthesis and alteration

(Levinson, 1984) is a practice that has accompanied the path of technological evolution of photography.

Thus, any innovation in the materials and tools appears to increase the hybridization techniques of

photography and offer to graphic designers more choices and more ways to create, in fact these digital toolsare only a transposition of manual tools of hybridization of photography who involve an aesthetics of the

hybridization integrated into the habits of designers and has become a norm for the usage of the photographic

image.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My heartfelt thanks and sincere gratitude to Bernard Darras, Professor at the university Paris 1 Panthéon

Sorbonne, for his encouragement and personal guidance

REFERENCES

Ades, D., 1976. Photomontage. Thames and Hudson, London.

Belkhamsa, S. & Darras, B., 2009. L’objet et le cycle des habitudes et des changements d’habitude. Approche

sémiotique. In B. Darras & S. Belkhamsa, Objet et Communication. L’Harmattan, Paris. MEI, No. 30-31, pp 147-160.

Cartier Bresson, A., & Lavédrine, B., 2007. Retouche. In A. Cartier-Bresson (Ed.), Vocabulaire technique de la

photographie. Marval, Paris, pp 426-427.

Fraprie, F.R., & Woodbury, W.E., 1973. Photographic amusements: Including tricks and unusual or novel effects

obtainable with Camera. Arno Press, New York.

Levinson, J., 1984. Hybrid art forms. Journal of aesthetic Education, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 5-13.

Manovich, L. (2006). Image Future [En ligne]. Animation : An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol 1, No. 1, pp 25-44.Available online at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.118.6066&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Manovich, L., 2003. New media from Borges to Html [En ligne]. In N. Wardrip-Fruin, & N. Montfort (Ed.), The new

media reader , pp 13-25. The MIT Press, Cambridge. Available online at

http://www.d.umn.edu/~sbauer/3017_fall08/3017_readings/Lev%20Manovich_New%20Media%20from%20Borges

%20to%20HTML.pdf

Robinson, H.P., 1860. On printing photographic prints from several negatives. British Journal of Photography, No. 115,pp 94-5.

ISBN: 978-972-8939-22-9 © 2010 IADIS

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