|
Once you've taken some shots that's just the start, due to photo manipulation software you can really got to town and create a variety of results from a single image.
However, it's worth pointing out at this early stage that no amount of digital tweaking can ever make a bad shot into something great. If you have a small ugly dog and you put a bow on it, remove the bow and you still have a small ugly, dog.
Some images will suit certain treatments and the best way to find out is to get stuck in and start experimenting. As with most things, you'll soon learn what works and what doesn't. However, once you start to experiment things can start to get a little complicated so make sure you use your history pallet, which will allow you to step back in stages.
I normally start off with a duplicate of an image, that way if it all goes tiffs up I can at least go back to the original. Don't forget if you really like a result - eg. Saturation +8 and Hue +25 make a note of it. You will forget, I know this for a fact! Right that's enough background let's get cracking…
An image with a good amount of contrast can be converted to black and white/mono, just select the image and choose grayscale. The image may need further tweaking, it depends on the result you're after - I normally hit auto levels just to see what happens and then I hit undo and go to levels, curves or contrast and have a play. There aren't any hard and fast rules use your own judgement (unless you're shooting for clients and then it's best not to completely hammer an image.) You can really funk up an image by some well-deployed time and effort and it's great fun.
original
grayscale
a little more contrast
An image over-exposed (often with bleached out highlights) creates a contemporary feel and high contrast in mono images are great not just in environmental portraiture where gritty realism is the order of the day but also in portraits of children and can be extremely flattering.
High contrast can also work really well in colour and this technique has become the mainstay of quite a few portrait studios producing modern contemporary portraits of children of all ages. Proceed with caution though as you can go too far. Noses can be reduced to nostrils and faces can end up with very little definition (ok with children who've been tickled with the ugly stick but everyone has some redeeming features that are nice to keep.) High contrast is not everyone's cup of tea, especially if you've gone in with a tight crop, I have occasionally overheard a grandparent utter 'very nice but a bit too bright where's the rest of her head?' To get the max contrast use brightness/contrast and then push the saturation, when it works it can produce some real crackers.
original
pushed contrast
pushed saturation
There's also the option to do the opposite and decrease contrast reducing tonal values, which create a rather muted result. Not all images suit this but it can convey something a bit special when deployed on candids. It's a very simple technique (hurrah) just go to saturation & hue and decrease the amount of saturation.
At this stage why not also consider changing the tone - just select colorize and move the level of the hue, it can be tempting to go overboard but try to keep things subtle.
original |
less saturation |
sepia hue |
You might also like to try handcolouring this can take a bit of practise but with digital things are so much faster, although you do need a bit of patience and a steady hand for small areas. You can select areas - it depends on which photo manipulation software you're running but I tend to take the simple route and this is what I do…
Just duplicate your shot, create a black and white version (were you paying attention earlier?!) and then layer the coloured version over the black and white. Then it's simply a case of using the eraser tool and rubbing out the bits you want to remain in colour. Use the layers tool and reduce the opacity so you can see that the two images are lined up. If you want to check on how you're doing just put the opacity back to 100. Once you're happy, reset the opacity to 100 and then layer the image. Told you it was easy!
original
black and white
being overlaid
erasing
final image
So there you go, having taken an image is just the start of your adventures!
| 
