WINTER WILDLIFE WORKSHOP

January 5 -10, 2024

What’s wrong with this picture?

TThere is nothing wrong with this picture per se. The composition is good with Shiprock off center, the lighting is beautiful, and the complete depth of field shows everything in focus as it should be with landscapes. But, despite the striking shape of this landform, it’s a boring picture because: 1) the sky is dull and uninteresting and 2) the foreground is boring as well.

So, what to do in a situation like this? You can accept the image as is and be somewhat disappointed, or you can use Photoshop to improve it. The picture on the next page shows you the remarkable difference.

Here is what I did. Planning ahead, I looked for a foreground I wanted to use and spotted these grasses. I photographed them with a 24mm focal length. The grasses were too far away from Shiprock to make the single capture look good because the wide angle lens made the impressive rock too small.

In Photoshop, I used Image > canvas size and expanded the canvas, i.e. the picture area, into a vertical composition. I then copied the horizontal grass picture into the clipboard and pasted it (Edit > paste) into the Shiprock image.

I then added a layer mask with Layer > layer mask > select all. Finally, I used the gradient tool (with the foreground/background color boxes black and white, respectiverly) to blend the grasses with the original landscape beneath the mountain..

Everything was now perfect except the boring sky, of course. So I used the sky replacement feature in Photoshop (Edit > Sky replacement) to add a more dynamic one. §

1. When painting with light at night, as I did here in Old Car City in Georgia, you have to keep the flashlight moving. Your shutter has to be long enough to give you the time to do that. Otherwise, you’ll have hotspots in the picture. This was done over a 20 second exposure.

2. You don’t have to accept the fact that a beautiful subject is in an unattractive location. This classic English building was right on a road through a small village, so as I drove around England I looked for a foreground that could replace the road. I used this field of grass, and then I cloned from one picture to the other.

3. Telephoto compression looks great with a repeating design as in Bibury, a village in England. However, it’s essential to have complete depth of field so all of the elements from the foreground to the background are sharp. Either raise the ISO so you can use f/22 or f/32, or use a tripod.

4. Photographers typically prefer black backgrounds for subjects, and admittedly they look great behind flowers. But white is also effective. A simple white poster board works well to achieve this kind of look. Just make sure the bright white background doesn’t adversely affect the meter reading. §