(1)    EQUIPMENT/SETTINGS
This artwork is a composition of several images. Below are the EXIF settings of the main image with the old man.
DSLR camera NIKON D80 with Nikkor 18-200 VR at 175 mm, 1/2500 s, f 3.20, ISO 100, exposure correction -0.67, RAW, no flash, no tripod.

(2) IDEA
It was a hot and sunny day and the streets were full of people. In this crowd of people dressed with T-shirts, shorts and jeans stood out an unusual old man. He was very tall, with a cane and was dressed differently from the rest of crowd. Near him was a little boy, probably his grandson, who was throwing an inflated medical rubber glove into the air. The old man looked thoughtfully at the white glove. Sometimes the glove rose up to the air and triumphantly showed 2 fingers like Winston Churchill, and then it fell down with a gesture of "live or die". Light breeze shook the glove from the side. And it seemed like it is not a single glove, but many gloves. The old man kept staring at them as these were not gloves, but his dreams - fulfilled and unfulfilled or the dreams which destiny is still unknown...

This moment was the first inspiration for future artwork which I named "Allegory of a Dream".


(3) CONTEXT
This artwork is a composite of 5 main elements:
a) The main character - the old man
b) The white medical gloves - I took several photographs of the gloves in various locations.
c) The barrel
d) The doves
e) The wall with the window
All these elements I shot that same day, apart from the barrel, I took at a different place.

A few words about the composition - choosing the optimal location of all elements in the scene: in this particular case I felt that a square "stage" would be most impressive for composing the scene and locating the characters in it.
If you equally divide the picture by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines, the human eye catches in the best way the objects that are found near the edges of the inner square. These edges are found on the horizontal and vertical thirds.
The old man's head is located exactly on such edge (upper horizontal third). His eyes are located near this edge and on the diagonal line descending upper right corner; this line is also a perpendicular to the opposite diagonal. The man's center of mass is located exactly on the square center.
The barrel, the man and the window are located on the same diagonal that goes from the lower right corner to upper left corner. These classical laws of composition are used painters and masters of the past.

(1)   PROCESSING
I used Adobe Photoshop CS4 software for creating this artwork. I also used Adobe Lightroom for making a few adjustments on exposure settings on RAW images.
There are 5 main stages in creating this artwork:
1)      Building the background - the stage for the characters: a wall with window and a barrel on the land
2)      The old man - using the "pen tool"  - I've carefully cut the old man out of the original image and placed it in the above background.
3)      The shadows - I added a broken shadow of the old man in two parts - on the floor and on the wall.
4)      The gloves - I've cut different variations of gloves, adjusting the shapes to some of them. I've also created the balls from these gloves.
5)      The lightening - I've used the filter "Lightening effects" to create proper lighting on the gloves.  I've also created the gloves' shadows on the floor considering the lighting direction and the desired distance from the floor.
6)      The doves and finalization - finally I've added the doves and made final adjustments of contrast and colors until I got a final result that I liked.


(4) OUTCOME
In this work I wanted to tell a story about fulfilled and unfulfilled dreams, a story with an open end.
We all have dreams. Will our dreams come true?
"Yesterday is a dream, Tomorrow is a vision - yet everyday lived well makes every yesterday a dream of joy and tomorrow into a vision of hope..."

 This work has received several international photography awards.

(5) 3 HINTS
It's hard to advise how to create such artworks, but I think the following is important:
1)      Composition and Lighting - learn from the masters of the past, photographers and painters. Explore their works. See how these painters locate the characters, how they draw the light, feel the harmony of the colors, learn, get inspired, but never try to copy, seek for your own style.
2)      Technique - don't let creative idea to be ruined by a bad execution and a bad technique. It's important to be as accurate as possible, never forgive yourself small flaws, pay attention to details, learn from others and strive for perfection.
3)      Creativity - open your mind and flow with your imagination. Look around with eyes wide open. Don't be afraid to try and to experience, do crazy things. I think artwork can be created with any tool and any medium, but it should speak for itself and convey a very special mood. It should need no explanation, no elaboration and no apologies. It can be very aesthetic or the opposite of it. The most important thing - is freeing the imagination, so "the sky is the limit".

(6) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I was born in Moscow and came to Israel when I was 13 years old. My profession is algorithms engineer, specializing in computer vision algorithms.
I started interesting in photography during my travels around the world. This was my first push into artistic photography. But soon I felt too constrained by classic photography.  I understood that I can do much more with digital photography and extend my horizons. I didn't want to limit myself. I wanted to create dreams.

For me, art is something that appeals to our senses and emotions, and not to our intellect and instincts. My art is a world of allegories, metaphors and multifaceted associations. This world is sometimes absurd and paradoxical, sometimes strange and surreal, but this world is a reflection of my true feelings. In this world, different emotions coexist side by side: irony, fear, joy, pain, sometimes even madness and despair, but there's always a presence of hope and there's never hatred.  I don't like to impose my point of view on the spectator. I only slightly open a door to a wonderland, where everyone can find something of his own...

For most of my works, first I think of an idea, and it's only a basic melody of the work. Then I stage the scene and photograph it, it's like in music, when you make a composition for different instruments. And finally, like in a jazz, I flow with creative improvisation during the post-processing, which might take me far away from the original photograph.
But sometimes I simply walk with my camera and photograph whatever seems interesting around me. I call it "Potential material" for future works. These works wait for their time to be born...

If you want to know more about me, you're welcome to my site:
http://www.dinabova.com/">www.dinabova.com http://www.dinabova.com/">

thank you

Thank you very much, very detailed tutorial and a very good image

Really excellent tutorial and photo Dina! =)

Dina your work is inspiring and speaks volumes!!  Thank you for the tutorial.

thank you, Will!

thanks, Ralf

thanks, Uzay

Amazing work thank you for explaining it to us