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Cropping and Highlighting
At the end of part two, there was a problem for you to tangle with, how to improve the picture of the barges and canal at Tring.
There was a little debate on the forums about what is 'enhancement' and what counts as 'manipulation'. Here's a good way to differentiate the two:
'Enhancement' is the act of improving the picture by cropping, altering contrast and/or brightness and maybe rotating the frame to correct levels. In short, trying to correct mistakes or get the best out of the information that was recorded in the frame at the time without altering any detail that was/wasn't there in the first place.
'Manipulation' is when images are merged/copied into one another or something is removed. In the art or commercial world, such manipulation is commonplace and - subtly done - it can be virtually undetectable. It's harder to manipulate landscape photography, although the infamous 'move that pyramid' National Geographic cover shows even famous vistas can be worked on. On a more down-to-earth level, changes like changing the colour of the barge and using special effects that stops it from being a record of the scene and moves it to a piece of art. While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this kind of manipulation, it's generally frowned upon in landscape photography and honesty really is the best policy here.
So, stick to simple editing. After some consideration, the only changes made to the barge picture was to trim a little off the right side to reduce to amount of grass and to bring the barge more into the one-third-in zone, as established using The Rule of Thirds . Having done that, all that's left is to take a little off the top to balance the format up again, and that removes a few branches sticking out in the process.
Cropping
So where should you use cropping? Just about everywhere you are not happy with what has been recorded, that might have been your fault for not zooming in close enough, or it could be the fault of the camera. For example, most cameras always take a little more than what you see in the viewfinder or on the back screen.
Take the following example of Wavel Castle in Krakow, what you could see through the viewfinder didn't include the red and white warning tape. The camera viewfinder shows only 95% of the image.
So, you have to remove it because the tape is a distraction and not something you want to have in the image. In the process, you can also remove those twigs top left. The end result is far more like the picture originally visualised.
This Madrid fountain (Madrid is full of fountains, and many are absolutely stunning) is another one that needed cropping. You often don't much time to frame images properly in the camera (especially on holiday). In this case, the image was taken in the middle of busy traffic, and the Spanish are not too forgiving of the stupid English getting in their way. In such cases, a quick snap is safer, and can be cropped it later to product the right result.
Given the circumstances, this image didn't need too much work. Just chopping some frame off the right; and this brought the couple into a better place, away from dead centre. The lady wearing the red top draws your attention to the fountain, which is both useful and pleasing.
Rotating
How often have you taken picture only to think later that you must have been under the influence of alcohol when you took it? Well, with me it happens a fair bit, but Photoshop (and other software) has a feature (ROTATE) for rotating the image clockwise or counter-clockwise. You can do it either by 90° or by a random factor, the latter is the one to use and here's how I do it and what I use it on.
If you look back to the first part of this series, there was a picture of the river that looked like the water wasn't level. Here's another image of a lake where the tilt is more subtle. It's only when you look at the image carefully that you notice the water is not straight, hold a ruler to it to see, or look at the ripples.
In Photoshop, go to Image>Rotate>Arbitrary to fine tune the level. Guess how many degrees (experience will tell you with practice) you need to rotate the image and key that into the options, also select CW (clockwise) or CCW (counter-clockwise). Press the Enter key or left click the mouse and look at the result. If it needs more, press EDIT - UNDO, correct the number of degrees (increase or decrease them) and try again. Keep doing this until the water is level, but every time you try and fail, always UNDO the result and go back to where you started otherwise you will eventually ruin the picture.
Of course, when you rotate the picture, you end up with funny corners because everything is now at an angle and where there is no image, it's blank. You then have to crop away the blank bits and some of the image in order to get the right image out. However, the result is that you end up with a decent picture instead of a bad one.
Adjusting Brightness and/or Contrast
On some printers, photos that come straight off the can seem a thin, bland and lacking depth and definition. Whatever, there is a way to adjust this very easily with Photoshop.
Click on the 'adjust' menu and select Brightness and Contrast. Try one or the other and then try both, play around. You'll find it enriches your picture and deepens it. Shadows look stronger, highlights look brighter, but don't overdo it.
This is an image of the Tapis de Fleur (carpet of flowers) from 2002. The event is held every two years in the Grande Place in Brussels. This particular image is taken from the Hotel de Ville, which is open to the public during the flower carpet weekend.
The building on the other side on the right is the King of Spain's Palace. It dominates the scene and looks a little morbid. It's simply a record of the event really and not meant as a piece of artwork or competition entry.
This is the final result; the changes made are very subtle indeed, but the new adjusted version makes for a better print and certainly looks much improved on my screen.
Think you can take better pictures of this event yourself? Well, this is your lucky year because it's taking place again this year, at the Grand-Place of Brussels, on the weekend of the 14th to the 17th of August. If you do go, try to get there on the first or second days, whilst it's all very fresh, especially if it's very hot and sunny as the flowers do tend to fade. A perfect excuse for a glass of Kwak or Belle View, too; those beers go nicely with the moules and frites.
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