Surrealistic photography has been around almost since the invention of photography. Where techniques used to involve in-camera tricks, special processing techniques in the darkroom, and even cutting up and re-arranging of photos, many surreal effects can now be achieved much more easily and quickly using image editing software.
In this article we'll look at five different techniques for taking a normal photo and making it into something surreal.
Motion zoom can be created by zooming in or out while taking a photo with a slow shutter speed. Using this technique you can take a mundane subject, and change it into a surreal and abstract photo.
You can start at your lens' widest focal length and then zoom in while taking the photo, or start at the longest focal length and then zoom out, each has a slightly different effect. You can try zooming in and out during one exposure for a combined effect as well.
Zoomblur by Andreas Levers on flickr (licensed CC-BY)
