Natalie Dybisz (aka Miss Aniela), twice named Saatchi’s ‘One to Watch’, is at the forefront of avant-garde art photography. Miss Aniela's work has been exhibited in the Saatchi Gallery, Waldermarsudde Museum in Sweden and the Houses of Parliament; a bestseller on Saatchi Art and featured on BBC World News.

Her book, SURREAL FASHION, showcases the best 70 Surreal Fashion images including the bestsellers, the earliest images, and the most recent CGI-based work in China. It also features the Face Series. No AI is used in any of the images in this book. In contrast, at the dawn of an age rapidly advancing into AI, it celebrates a wealth of 'real surreal' inspiration.

The Client

Miss Aniela (the professional alter-ego of British fine-art photographer Natalie Dybisz) stunned the art world by using Flickr to showcase her imaginative, multiple-shot self-portraits, breaking with the tradition of spending years as struggling, unknown artist.

The Assignment

Create an image that has the same look and feel as the picture on the wall, a reproduction of Fin de Souper (After Dinner), a 1913 work by French painter Jules-Alexandre Grün, showing people engaged in animated conversation around a table.

The Execution

"I used a Sony DSC-R1 on a tripod with the camera set to "Automatic" and the zoom lens pulled back to its widest focal length- 14.3mm (24mm equivalent for 35mm). All exposures were 1/25 sec at f/2.8 with an ISO of 400. In all, 25 captures were made from which I chose six."

Post Production

"I placed two main clones in the foreground who were to be the main focus of attention, as if they were in conversation. The placement and expressions of the other 'clones' in the background were equally important as accessories to a tightly-composed image and contributing to the feeling of bustle in the scene."

The Output

"Their Evening Banter is quite a dark image, resulting from the compositing and post-processing. It has heavy vignetting round the edges, with the shadow areas opening up to strong saturated orange tones by the candles in the centre of the image making it a challenge for any paper to reproduce faithfully, and producing varied results between different paper types."

"Using an HP Photosmart C4580 set to best photo quality, I chose Arctic Polar Luster as my paper choice because the paper's surface shows the saturation of the image in full, without distorting the shadow areas, and without the hindrance of reflection. The paper is halfway between gloss and matt with the benefits of both."

"I often exhibit my images behind frame glass and want to ensure the surface will not be too shiny and Arctic Polar Luster makes the image look vivid but with less sheen- in fact, the paper is barely reflective even when held next to a bright window."

See More of Aniela's Work