It's one thing to capture a moment and yet
another to interpret it as a finished
image.
What follows is an example of the steps and motivations
to adjust the tonal relationships between elements of a
particular photograph.
What follows are the steps I took in Photoshop to interpret
the image. They could just as easily have been steps
in a traditional darkroom, though with different
physical processes.
|
Taking stock of the initial image.
What you see here is essentially what came from
the film scanner, though with a slight crop.
This isn't exactly a full-frame image, but it's
pretty close.
|
|
|
Adjusting the overall contrast.
Since the original scan looks pretty dull,
the first step is to alter the overall contrast.
I created the following curves adjustment layer (Layers > New Adjustment
Layer > Curves):
|
Place your mouse cursor over this image to see the effect of
the adjustment layer.
|
|
Actress Meg Brogan's costume could be brighter.
This was a key point in interpreting the image.
Meg's blouse is a light sand color and — given
equal amounts of light —
should register differently on film
than the white shirts worn by the other
actors in this scene.
However,
since she's so prominent
in this photo, it felt like the overall dynamics of
the image would improve if her costume was a bit
lighter.
I also felt that lightening Meg's costume would
provide a more interesting contrast to her face, most of
which is lit (from this perspective) only by
reflected light.
Here's the curve I used to lighten Meg's costume:
|
Place your mouse cursor over this image to see the effect of
the adjustment layer.
|
|
Perform an automatic-level adjustment.
Photoshop provides a fast, automatic way to set the white
and black points in an image, shifting the overall
tonal relationships accordingly.
It's not always desirable to
use the auto-levels feature because, at least in my
experience, it can cause unpleasant noise in shadow areas.
But, in this case
I think it improves the image.
I added the Levels adjustment layer shown below,
simply clicking the button labeled Auto.
|
Place your mouse cursor over this image to see the effect of
the adjustment layer.
|
|
Brighten up everyone's faces.
I selected everyone's faces and applied the
Curves adjustment layer shown below.
|
Place your mouse cursor over this image to see the effect of
the adjustment layer.
|
|
Improve the contrast on the camera in the foreground.
Even with an auto-levels adjustment,
the video camera in the foreground
doesn't quite have the contrast I'd like. I found it's lack
of strong black distracting.
Below is the adjustment layer curve I used on the
video camera. Note that in the
Layers dialog I used the opacity control to
fine-tune the amount of contrast-change,
finally deciding on 50% opacity for this adjustment layer.
The change in contrast is subtle.
|
Place your mouse cursor over this image to see the effect of
the adjustment layer.
|
|
Darken the window panes.
Finally, it seemed to me that the window panes were
a bit light, so I used an adjustment curve
to darken the window area slightly. I didn't want to
go too far with this adjustment and lose the sense of
daylight streaming in the window.
|
Place your mouse cursor over this image to see the effect of
the adjustment layer.
|