Abstracted Reality

Jane Trotter’s Contemporary Abstract Photography

  • Home
  • Galleries
  • Shop
  • Interior Designers
  • About
  • Blog

How to Create a Multi-panel Piece

I’m frequently asked “how do you create your triptychs?” “Where do you decide to crop and how do you assemble it all together?”

Even for an experienced eye, it can sometimes feel pretty daunting and overwhelming. But with a little practice and patience, you’ll quickly begin to conceptualise and visualise your final image.

So, as a bit of background into how I go about making a multi-panel work, I thought I’d give you some insight into how I created ‘Ascension Blue’. This is actually a nine-panel piece, but my approach, experimentation and work flow follow the same path as my triptychs.

Where to Crop?

It really depends on what you’re looking for. For this multi-panel work, I knew I had to have contrasting colours in the panels so I could play them off against each other.

Here is the original base image with my cropped sections overlaid. This particular cropping is pretty straightforward, but I’m not averse to making my selection on an angle if I think it’s needed.

I’ve written a blog post on ‘Creative Cropping for your Triptychs’, so if you want to delve deeper into how to crop your images, you’ll find plenty of ideas and examples there.

Constructing Your Work

Now the real fun begins. It’s time to start playing in your photo editing programme.

First – create a blank file with plenty of space for you to put your panels on. Make sure you’ll be able to shift them around easily and, that you can add more panels than necessary. This is especially useful if you want to try out what various combinations will look like.

Next, add your panels by dragging them up from the photo bin. You can do this multiple times if you wish. See all of the extra space I’ve allowed in anticipation of adding extra material.

As my panels aren’t square, I had to decide what their orientation should be.

I felt there was more potential with a vertical presentation as the folded paper began to look more like steps.

Rotate and Flip are Your Friend!

I should mention at this point that I use the rotate and flip functions – a lot! Abstracts are great as they lend themselves very readily to this kind of experimentation.

Remember, if you only want to rotate or flip a single panel and not the whole image, select ‘rotate layer’. There have been numerous times when I’ve inadvertently flipped my entire image and thought “hhhhmmm – that’s not what I wanted to do…” Thank goodness for the ‘undo’ button.

As an example, here’s the blue and gold panel in its various orientations.

Of course, all this flexibility can be a double-edged sword. You’ve now got many more options to make connections, shapes and patterns across your panels. On the other hand, the number of different permutations to calculate and attempt can become unnervingly large. Still, I’m a “glass half full” kinda girl, so really relish the chance to try out all the different possibilities.

The Nine Panel Conundrum

So now I had nine panels to work with. I began to play around by shuffling the panels into different locations, flipping and rotating. At this stage, it was a real hodge-podge without any structure, but I needed to get a ‘feel’ for what the image could look like.

After a while, I began to ‘see’ the potential for a blue ‘staircase’ down the middle panels. This would be the main anchor-point of the image – my ‘Ascension Blue’.

Next, I had to sort out what to do with the gold and green panels. By chance, there happened to be four of them, so positioning them in the four corners seemed like a good idea and would add an element of symmetry to the overall design.

The finishing touches were added by flipping and rotating the two remaining blue and gold panels.

How Do You Know When It’s Finished?

Of course, there was a great deal of trial and error as I negotiated my way through the bewildering array of configurations. When constructing an image like this, sometimes it’s very difficult to know when to stop and say, “yes – this is it – it’s finished”, especially as there’s always the temptation to tinker just that little bit more.

More often than not, I’ll end up going with my gut – if I feel visually satisfied and content, even though intellectually I know I could attempt other things, then I will leave it. Don’t underestimate your instincts and learn to trust them.

Jane Trotter - Creator of Abstracted RealityJane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.

Exposed #8: Mystique & Astral Plane

Spoiler Alert!  In my 'Exposed' series of articles I reveal some of the secrets behind how I created my images.  If you don't want to know how I made 'Mystique’ and ‘Astral Plane' stop reading now!
Mystique and Astral Plane - Abstract Photography by Jane Trotter

Mystique and Astral Plane

I can’t help myself. When it comes to colourful objects I’m like a moth to a flame! So when I was looking for some coloured pieces of paper for a task completely unrelated to photography it was a herculean effort to keep from picking up my camera. With that incentive, I made short work of the job at hand and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with paper.

A4 sheets of coloured paper used to create Mystique and Astral Plane

A4 sheets of coloured paper used to create Mystique and Astral Plane

Choosing the most vibrant colours, I began arranging my A4 sheets in different combinations to see how the colours played off against each other. While this was a useful exercise, I soon decided I needed to get a bit more ‘creative’ with the paper – flat sheets were just a little too ‘flat’.

Folding the paper to add depth

So out came the scissors and I started to cut the paper into smaller sections. Wanting to add a little depth into the equation, I also made several small folds. This was starting to look a lot more interesting and gave me more scope. But I was still in a horizontal mindset.

Exposed08D

Standing the folded paper up on its side

Then it hit me – why not try a vertical orientation and stand the paper up on its side? This made all the difference. With the sunlight from my window providing strong side lighting, the shadows became an integral part of the set up and added an extra dimension to the geometric patterning. I spent a good deal of time exploring these shapes and shadows.

Get Moving

And in the spirit of exploration and broadening interpretations, I decided to start moving the camera as a fun way to finish off the photo shoot.

Exposed08E

Original ‘in camera’ image for Mystique

This is the original image for ‘Mystique’. With a ¼ second exposure, I used a panning action with a tight, quick, circular motion right at the end. I particularly like the tubular effect this created.

Exposed08F

Original ‘in camera’ image for Astral Plane

Here’s the original image for ‘Astral Plane’. Also with a ¼ second exposure, I used a similar technique, but this time with a more continuous and flowing action.

Orientation Games

One of the big advantages of working with abstracts is that you can play with different orientations far more easily than if you were taking more representative shots. I liked the effects I’d achieved by moving the camera, but in the originals, the orientation wasn’t the best. So I decided to crop a little and rotated both.

Exposed08G

A vertical orientation

Now I was looking at a much more dynamic pair of images. The original for Mystique felt more active with a strong sense of diagonal movement down across the image, while the original for Astral Plane took on new life, suggesting a waterfall of light and colour.

Continuing on my experimental journey, I decided to see what these images would look like mirrored.

Exposed08H

Experimenting with mirroring effects

I really enjoyed the symmetry of line, colour and form, and felt I was definitely onto something. But the images still felt incomplete and unbalanced. Everything was very top heavy with nothing to act as a counter balance at the bottom.

Then I began to see the possibility of a second mirroring effect, using what was at the base of the images.

Exposed08A

Final presentations of Mystique and Astral Plane

These are the final versions of ‘Mystique’ and ‘Astral Plane’. The horizontal mirroring has now provided much more of a sense of stability and solidity, as well as an identifiable focal point for each image at the ‘T’ intersection of the triptych. I’ve also cropped in even tighter to help isolate the main material.

I’m quite fond of both of these images and really enjoy the synchronicity of colour and form, as well as the sense of layering and depth created in each shot. It was definitely an enjoyable learning curve as these pieces of paper began to take on new dimensions and creative possibilities.

‘Astral Plane’ and ‘Mystique’ are not my only triptychs using paper as their source material. If you’d like to see another example, please visit ‘Exposed #16’ on ‘Back in the Fold’.

Jane Trotter - Creator of Abstracted RealityJane Trotter is an abstract photographer living in Dunedin, New Zealand. Reimagining everyday objects found around the home, Jane transforms them into colourful and dramatic pieces of contemporary art. Her Fine Art Prints are available in sizes A4 to A1.

All material on this website is protected by copyright.

No content may be reproduced without express written permission from the author.

Contact Me
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2014–2022 Jane Trotter · All Rights Reserved