Cut out

This is another photo from my “mediocre meander” a few days ago. Unlike most of the other photos, this one, although a lucky shot, was quite successful. I liked the pattern of the fungus on the branch, so tried to capture this. I underexposed the image and used flash, in order to only show a finite section of the plant. I may have planned the outcome but I don’t have live view, so this was the part that was potluck.

I was lucky enough to achieve the effect I wanted within one shot. I was happy with the composition of the photo, but thought that the background was too distracting in the original image. To reduce this, I edited the image using Photoshop. I increased the contrast and reduced the brightness, which removed some of the background details.

I removed some of the more distracting leftovers from this process using the healing tool. I chose to leave some background detail in because I didn’t want the image to be too precise; to me, Photoshop is a tool in which you can edit images so they stay natural, or edit them to make them stand out. When editing images to “enhance reality”, I feel that removing too many details makes it look fake. Finally, I increased the saturation to make the pinks and greens more vibrant, then sharpened the image,

I love under exposing with flash to cut out the background; it’s such a simple way to create a dramatic technique that focuses attention on the foreground. I discovered this by accident, but it has become one of the main techniques that I employ; a great reason why experimentation in photography is so vital!

Bex

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