My source image was taken in the old part of town where a group of visiting students were happy to pose for me. This young man’s confidence and presence worked well for both of us.
I duplicated the background layer and used Topaz Remask 3 to select him from the main image, then a layer mask to make the final retouching to the selection.
I then used an exposure adjustment layer, above the original background layer, to decrease the exposure by two stops, giving this result:
The young man is now significantly exaggerated in the image. I felt there was no need to enhance the selected area, as the contrast between the foreground and background worked as it was. This is closer to the dodging and burning I practiced in the dark room, where the selection would have been covered by a mask while the rest would have continued being exposed.
Hiding the exposure adjustment layer, I then treated the background copy with Gaussian Blur (radius 48.6 pixels), to produce this image:
In this case, the contrast is between the sharpness and blurred areas. I prefer this treatment for this particular image.
Moving further, I applied palette knife filter to the background layer and made the exposure adjustment layer visible, increasing the exposure by one stop, to -1.0. It’s another example of what can be done using the layer mask, or selections.
It’s been a fun exercise, but not one I’ve learned much from as these are techniques I’ve used for some time.
No comments:
Post a Comment