The last example looked more or less at corrections to an image in order to improve its appearance. This example looks at some of
the more creative possibilities that photo-retouching allows.
Good composition is essential to any image, and ensures that the eye of the viewer is directed and attracted to the right parts of
the image. The aim is to achieve an overall satisfying balance of the component features of the picture. There are some basic
rules that go with this. One of these is the division of the image into thirds, and to place a (the) key subject roughly on one
or both of these two thirds. For a portrait, this would be the face and eyes. The subject should also be positioned such that
it faces into the greater part of the picture, rather than out of it. The composition can also help to set the mood of the picture.
An image that fills the frame and goes off the edges looks big and bold and powerful. A tiny image enclosed in the middle of the
frame looks lost and isolated.
The image I have chosen to work with was taken in Cairo. Our tour-bus stopped and everyone piled into a nearby gift shop
for souvenirs. I went the other way and found this young boy looking worn out. I only had time for one shot, and this was it.
I wanted to capture a sense of the deprivation and poverty that exists. The photo was taken on cheap 200 ISO film.
A mask is a powerful tool that lets you apply filters and functions to
certain parts of the image, whilst masking other areas.
The overall intention of this example is to adjust elements of the picture's background, whilst leaving the image of the boy intact.
To do this a mask must be created. From the Masks menu, choose New: From Image with the source luminance option set. This
creates a mask that is a black and white version of the picture.
You then need to edit the mask from the mask: edit menu, and using the paintbrush colour it into two solid
white and black areas, following the edge of the boy. A simple trick is to define a solid outline round the shape you want, then use the
magic wand tool to select the shape. Then use the fill tool with foreground colour set to black, and match mode set to
none, to fill inside your shape. Then choose selection: invert to select the rest of the picture, and then
selection: modify: feather, and set the feather to 2 or 3. Change the foreground colour to white, and use the fill
tool again to make the rest of the image white.
Composition and Mood
From a compositional point of view, the photo isn't too bad. The face of the boy is roughly a third of the way down the picture,
and his body is about a third of the way in. He's also facing into the picture, rather than out of it. There's a slight darkening round the
edges of the picture, caused by using a sun-hood on a long lens. Unfortunate, but unavoidable at the time. The strength of this
picture, in my mind, lies in the quizzical look of the boy, whilst the bleakness of the background hints at what he might be thinking.
This is what I want to emphasise.
Step 1: Composing the Picture
If we were to crop the picture strictly according to the rules I've given, it would probably look something like this.
This composition completely destroys the picture, because by losing some of the background (and indeed some of the
boy), the sense of isolation has been lost. That's why the rules are guidelines. This picture is neither one thing or another.
The boy alone is not really interesting enough to create a powerful portrait, and there is insufficient context to set the mood.
In this picture, I've left out a small chunk of the right hand edge of the picture, using the rectangular selection tool with
no feather. This has made the boy less central and made him slightly more dominant in the frame, which I think
makes a better composition. I've taken care to leave the man in the background intact, and not to break the area of white
at the top right. This makes the picture feel fully enclosed, rather than open-ended, so there's less tendency to wonder what's
happening just outside the edges of the picture.
Step 2: Enhancing the Colours
My next step is to improve the colours slightly. The film hasn't picked up the full intensity of the colour in the hot sun, and the scene looks
a little bleached. I used the Colours: Adjust: Hue/Saturation/Luminance menu with values of Hue -10%, Saturation +36%
and Luminance +4% to shift the colours slightly more red, and inject some brightness and intensity into them. Again, it's a subtle change, but
I'm interested in the colours on the boy, not the background.
Step 3: Making a Mask
Step 4: Creating a Mood
Once you have a mask you can experiment with creating all sorts of different moods, from subtle to quite bizarre, by applying straightforward
transformations to your image. Here's a bizarre example, that makes me think of nuclear radiation. This is created simply by applying
colours: negative image to the masked image. The boy remains unaltered. You're likely to find that the more subtle effects yield the
most pleasing results. One way to make the effects more subtle to is to add various gradients to your mask. You can use the
flood fill tool to do this.
Set the match mode to RGB and choose a fill style that has some sort of gradient.
Then choose mask: edit and set the foreground and background colours to different shades. Now simply fill the
blank space in your mask with the fill tool. Choose mask:edit again to go back to your picture, and then choose your effect.
Mask areas that are black will be unaffected, grey areas partly affected, and white areas
completely affected.
This one, for example, was created using a radial fill on the mask, and then applying colours:colourize with hue 189,
saturation 50.
My final image is semi-surreal. I've used a range of gradated masks, some circular and some linear to alter the colour balance
in the foreground and add the bluish tint of aerial perspective to the distant background. I've also used the
blur more filter to suggest further distance. A slightly surreal effect has been created by applying a tiny amount
of special effects: hot wax coating (using a dark grey mask, and a foreground colour of white). This adds a slightly puzzling element to the
picture, which complements the boy's expression.