Changing the weather in post-production

Original image of Lake Rotoiti in New Zealand’s South Island (courtesy of John Hay)

For some commercial photographers making good photographs even more memorable using Photoshop is all part of the creative process, whilst most photojournalists and documentary photographers, on the other hand, are not allowed this creative freedom. The question ‘When does a photograph stop being a photograph?’ is one that each photographer must answer for themselves, as photographic images have been manipulated since the very early days of photography and photographers have always been very divided on the answer. The commercial studio photographer is able to control the quality and direction of light to create the precise mood in order to meet the requirements of the brief. On location, however, the photographer is at the mercy of the weather and the limitations of time (budget). Photoshop is able to lend some assistance to manipulate the mood so that the final image aligns more closely with the requirements of the client and still meets the specified budget. In the illustration above we can perhaps only begin to imagine what it might have looked like as the shafts of light penetrated the morning mist over the still waters with their mirror-like reflections of the distant mountains, but it is possible in post-production to attempt to wind back the clock so that the photographer can recapture the mood, mist and tranquillity of the dawn shot. In post-production the distant mountains were copied and pasted on a new layer. The Transform and Warp commands were then used to perfect the reflection (simulated reflections are rarely as simple as just flipping a copy layer so the Warp Tool was used to massage the reflection into shape). A combination of adjustment layers and the Shadow/Highlight adjustment features was then used to change the color and contrast so that the light emulated the soft light of dawn. The introduction of morning mist and some subtle shafts of warm light complete the picture of tranquility.

Mark Galer

Creating shafts of light

Creating eff ective landscape images is not exactly rocket science. Choose a beautiful landscape just after dawn, or just before sunset, and add dramatic natural lighting to create emotive and memorable landscape images. Clear blue skies are great for holidays on the beach but the best natural lighting for photography is provided by broken or fi ltered sunlight through partial cloud cover. Some feel the most memorable of all lighting is when shafts of light break through the clouds. Finding partial cloud cover when the sun is low is relatively easy; being present when shafts of light fl ood your selected vista, however, can be an elusive and rare event. Th is fi nal and quintessential ingredient requires patience, persistence and good fortune - or a good helping of post-production editing courtesy of Photoshop. It is possible to add the artifi cial drama to photographs by selectively lightening an image using an adjustment layer and painting into the adjustment layer mask to restrict the lightening to just certain areas. Creating a custom gradient with soft-edged stripes can be used to eff ectively create shafts of light. Th e Free Transform command can then be applied to the mask to make the light seemingly radiate out from its source.

Activity 5

Change the mood or drama of an image in post-production by changing the hue, saturation and brightness of selected areas of the image. Keep a copy of the original image for comparison. Comment on whether you feel the image appears realistic and what could be improved to increase its sense of realism.

Original Venice image by Craig Shell (sky by Mark Galer)

Changing the sky to change the mood

The sky is an essential ingredient of any memorable landscape image. Unfortunately it is not something the photographer can control unless we have limitless time and patience. The commercial photographer is often required to deliver the goods on a day that suits the client rather than the photographer and weather forecast. In these instances it is worth building a personal stock library of impressive skies that can be utilized to turn ordinary images with bland skies into impressive ones. The digital compact set to a low ISO is ideal for capturing these fleeting moments. The most useful skies to collect are the ones that include detail close to the horizon line, i.e. captured without interference from busy urban skylines, such as can be found at the beach or in the desert. In most cases the sky must be adapted to fit the landscape so the montage is not immediately obvious. In the illustration above the new sky was made brighter as it approached the horizon line and also behind the buildings on the left side of the image to imitate the setting sun.