BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Phello Photogs- Week 3 Ellen

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May 16, 2009

When I first saw this image I knew that I wanted to keep your original concept of the shot intact. My goal was to find a way to accent the purpose of the scene. At least for me the purpose was to get the viewer to take the path through the gate and enter the meadow of flowers in the sunlight.

To do this I first leveled the shot and then cropped especially from the left. The image didn't need to be framed from all sides because the overhead tree and the trunks at the right did that. The tree at the left was more a distraction from the real star, the gate.

Since the image was washed out I did a multiply blend at 100% and saturated to +12 and flattened the image.

To take a little attention away from the leaves of the tree and more to the gate and the meadow, I applied the 'filter/artistic/dry brush at all the max settings on everything except the meadow.

I then flattened the image again and cloned the bright sky from the upper right tree area, duplicated the image again and applied a soft-light blend at about 30%.

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May 16, 2009

	Gate to the Past Michael Kelly

I certainly agree with the assessment of the concept, but took a slightly different path to bring it out.

I started by leveling the shot and then did a fairly strong crop to bring the opening closer to ROT.

Adjusted levels and converted to B&W with a custom sepia tone.

Did a high pass with soft light and a linear burn blend cat very low opacity.

Flattened the image and applied poster edges filter.

cloned a few remaining bright sky spots out.

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May 16, 2009