*Note: You might think I am "faking it", and I am...the finished image is really nothing like the original...but isn't that what we do as artists? We fake it? Sure is fun to play...
1. The original photo, as you can see, was cropped big time. With an 18mp camera, I have that luxury...after cropping, I still had a 10mp image...plenty big enough for a nice sized print. I usually don't crop this much...in fact, I try to get the composition correct in camera the best I can. However, in this situation, I didn't want to get right in this guy's face to take his photo. I asked him if I could take his photo, and he let me, but I kept my distance so I could get a more natural expression on his face. I find that once you get permission to take a photo, and you get close, they start to "pose", and no longer look natural...so, I backed off with my 35mm lens knowing that when I got home I could crop closer for a nice portrait...but it is not really a good idea to make this a habit...try to get it right in the camera.
I also cropped using the "rule of thirds" for a more pleasing composition. Took out the blue on the left as well.
2. After cropping, I liked the contrasting colors in the background, but thought it lacked texture...so, I went to my collection of textures (I have around 300 or so now), and added two textures. Changed the blend mode of those two layers to overlay, and masked out the textures on the man and the ground.
3. I then saved the image, and went back to LightRoom. I added a vignette to darken the corners a bit, darkened the shadows, and increased the saturation just a tad...you have to be careful increasing the saturation as you don't want to turn the skin tones to something that looks un-natural.
4. I reopened the image in Photoshop, and applied Unsharp Mask at around 150%. Then masked the entire sharpening out, and painted in the man's face, hat and clothes, then reduced the opacity slightly. If you are going to post your images on the web or print them for your wall, you must over sharpen...they won't look very nice on your monitor, but the web and printing will soften the image.
Have a great Weekend!! See you back here on Monday!!
The finished image...
The original photo...
Posts
4 comments:
The photos are beautiful. I paint oil pictures. One or two photos I took inspiration. Thank you very much!
Nicely done. Instead of an Unsharp mask, couldn't you have used the smart sharpen brush to paint in the face, etc? Would it give you the same effect?
Yes, that would do the same thing, Mr. Charleston..
Thanks for the tutorial. I must start making myself a texture bank.
Post a Comment