Photzy

USING POST-PRODUCTION TO IMPROVE A COMPOSITION

The Campsite
Written by Kent DuFault

THE CAMPSITE // © PHOTZY.COM 1

 I know many of the Photzy followers are also Lightstalking.com
members. If you’re not, you may want to consider it. A lot of
good information is shared and passed around both on the
Lightstalking blog as well as in the forums.

One of the forums on Lightstalking is titled; “The Shark Tank.”

The Shark Tank has a simple concept. You upload a photograph

and all the other members get a chance to critique it. This is not
one of those forums where everybody pats everybody else on
the back telling him or her how great everything is. No. You get
a response from member photographers (many of whom have
a lot of experience, but not all) who are going to give you the
straight scoop on your image.

That’s where this Quick Guide began.

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 One of the
Lightstalking
members,
Choctawjake
(his real name is
George), uploaded
a photograph to
The Shark Tank,
which he had titled
“Campsite.”

Here is that
photograph.

Figure 1:  Photograph by George Silvas

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 George took this
photograph in
Harper’s Ferry, West
Virginia, at a Civil
War reenactment.
He then did some
post-production
magic using the
following NIK
filters: Silver Efex
Pro and Analog
Efex Pro. The filters
gave George “the
antique look”
that he had pre-
visualized for his
picture.

When the critiques

started posting,
most of the
members liked the
image—with the
exception of one
The two window frames formed a large, black, rectangular area right element.
smack in the middle of the picture. It was obvious why The Shark
Tank found it obtrusive. It was far too dominant in the composition.
Figure 2:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault
You really could not see past it to the men in the background. The
window had been intended to be a tool of composition called “a
frame”. In this case, it’s literally a frame. However, that large black
area disrupted the flow of the shot.

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 When I posted my comment in The Shark Tank, I told Choctawjake that it would be a
fairly easy fix in Photoshop to reduce the size and dominance of that central area. I also
told him that if he weren’t sure how to accomplish that, I would do it for him.

He gave me permission, and I went to work.

Then, after viewing my initial final edit, I came to a conclusion. I felt that it could be
even better, so I added something else to the edit.

I shared both versions with George and The Shark Tank. The general consensus was
that the second version was the best.

George was happily surprised, and he wondered if I could show him how I did it. I told
him that I could write a Quick Guide and share it with everybody.

He gave me the permission to do that.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of how I completed the edit, I want to tell you that
my initial edit on George’s photograph from the beginning all the way through to
completion took less than three minutes.

I tell you that because developing your editing skills are just as important as your
photography skills. In this case it’s more important, because Choctawjake could not
shoot his pre-visualized image any other way than through that window—and that is
what the window looked like.

I think you’ll be surprised by the major difference in the viewing pleasure that this subtle
edit makes.

Let’s get started…

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 Using the rectangular selection tool, I
selected the right half of the image. I
want you to pay special attention the
left side of my selection. Take notice
that the area of the black rectangle that I
included in my selection is approximately
the same width as the other, lighter,
Figure 3:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

struts of the window frame. You’ll see

why that was important in a moment.

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 After making my selection I did a “Copy”
or “Command C” on my Mac computer. I
then “Pasted” or “Command V” that copied
section onto a new layer called “Layer 1”.

Figure 4:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 Using the “Move Tool” I dragged the pasted
portion of the image on Layer 1 to the center
of the “Canvas” so that you can clearly see
Figure 5:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault
the outline of it.

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 I then dragged the image data on
Layer 1 back into position so that
it was aligned with the background
layer at the top and bottom. Then I
dragged it to the left until it covered
up the entire dark rectangular area
(that we want to get rid of). This is
where the width of the dark area
that we kept in the original selection
becomes important. Notice that the
center, upright, strut is now about
the same width as the other struts in
the window frame. You’ll also notice
that we have some overhang on the
background layer to the right. We
will take care of that in a minute.

Figure 6:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 Using the “Crop Tool” set to “Unconstrained”
we begin on the left. We set the crop box as
full frame from top to bottom. Then we drag
the crop box to the right until we get to the
outside of the frame from our repositioned
section of the picture (that would be the
second arrow from the right). The first arrow
from the right shows us the area that we are
going to crop off of the picture.

Figure 7:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 After we crop the image, we are going to merge the two
layers. This is done in the “Layers Palette” using the “Drop
Down Menu” in the upper right. You can choose “Merge
Down” if Layer 1 is currently selected, or you can choose
“Merge Visible” or “Flatten Image” which, at this point,
would all accomplish the same task. I always use “Merge
Visible” because I like doing the “Key Command” on the
keyboard, which is “Command/Shift/E” on a Mac.

If you go back and look at Figure 7, you’ll notice that there

is a distinct line of demarcation at the top of the frame. The
bottom of the frame blended nicely. We are going to get
rid of that line of demarcation by using the “Clone Tool.” I
keep my “Tool Bar” on the left side of my “Work Space.”
The clone tool is the ninth tool down from the top. I’m going
to use a brush that is 35 pixels, with the hardness set at 10%
and the opacity at 100%. Thirty-five pixels will make the
brush just a little bit smaller than the width of the frame we
are trying to fix. The hardness is set to 10% because I don’t
want a hard edge line—but I also don’t want my work to
feather out past the boundaries of the frame itself. I’m going
to take my sample from position 1.

Then, I’m going to position my brush just to the left of that

line. I will work my way from left to right along the frame,
looking to make sure that I don’t create “Artifacts” and that
my cloned area blends nicely.

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Figure 8:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 It may be difficult for you to see in this guide, but I can see
this on my monitor. There is a visible line along the black
strut where the new layer pasted over the old layer. It was
caused by a slight variation in the level of black between the
new layer we created and the original background layer. It’s
very subtle, almost invisible, however we want to do our very
best to create a believable edit. I’m selecting the “Blur Tool”
on the left from the Tool Palette.

I’m setting the strength at 20%. I have found that with the
“Blur Tool” and the “Sharpen Tool” it’s best to use a low
setting on the strength, and then build up the effect by
going over the area you’re working on several times. I’ve
chosen a brush size that is almost the width of the black strut,
only this time I’ve changed the “Hardness” of the brush to
0. The reason for that is I don’t want the brush to bleed over
the edges of the strut. The line I described is so light that it
only took one stroke of the brush to eliminate it. I started at
the top and slowly dragged the brush to the bottom.

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Figure 9:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 Figure 10 is the original final photograph
that I was going to create for George.
If you go back and look at his original
image, you will see that the center upright
strut now carries much less weight in the
composition.

However, as I looked at the photograph,

I realized there was still a problem. The
dense black color, along with the strong
rectangular shape, made it still too
dominant in the composition. The viewer’s
eyes just did not want to move past it to
the men in the background.

I decided to change the tone value of the

center strut to match the other struts.

Let me show you how I did that.

Figure 10:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 I am going to use the “Clone Tool” to change the tone value
of the center strut. However, I don’t want to entirely change
the shape of the center strut. That could be done to make
it match the other upright struts perfectly; but that would
be a much more complicated edit, and it wasn’t important
that it match the shape exactly. All I’m trying to do is tone
the strut down so that it doesn’t become an eye snag, and it
looks real. By the way, if you’re unfamiliar with composition, I
have written two books on the subject. They are available at
Photzy.com. These two books delve deeply into the subject of
composition, and they explain such principles of composition
as eye snags. Okay, so we’re going to change the tone
values but not the shape of the upright center strut. I chose
the “Clone Tool”. I set the “Opacity” to 50%. This setting
will draw some tone values from my sample area without
completely changing the center strut. Again, I’m working
with a small area and I don’t want my changes to bleed off of
the strut so I set my “Brush Size” to 30 pixels and the “Brush
Hardness” to 0. I’m making my selection from the frame area
on the left; I’ll start at position #1. The “Clone Tool” will be
placed first at position #2 (on the center strut), and I’ll drag
the clone tool all the way from top to bottom. Then, I’ll do it a
second time starting at position #3 and dragging downward.
I’m sure that you can see that there is a hard line that formed
between our two passes down the strut. We will fix that by
changing the “Hardness Setting” on the brush to 40. We will
then take our sample at the top of the strut just to the left of
the one we are working on, and we will drag the clone tool
from top to bottom on that center strut following the hard line.

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Figure 11:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 One of the key attributes of a good photo
retoucher is paying attention to the details.
Little telltale signs that a photograph has been
edited are called “Artifacts”. When I finish
an edit, I always study the image for artifacts.
There were three artifacts when I finished my
last changes on the center strut. At the top
arrow, there was still a visible hard-edged
line that was several inches long. The second
arrow points to a white spot. This being a
“Grunge” photograph, that wouldn’t be a
problem except for one thing. It’s an exact
duplicate of the white spot on the left side of
the frame where I took my samples. Finally, at
the bottom, I over-ran the strut and bled my
cloning into that dark horizontal line that runs
along the frame. To fix these artifacts, I did the
following. I used the “Blur Tool” to blur out
the hard-edged line. I used the “Clone Tool”
to remove the white spot on the center strut. I
used the “Clone Tool” to sample another part
Figure 12:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault of the frame at the bottom and then cleaned
up my overrun area.

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 Here is the final image.

As you can see, the center strut

now matches the rest of the
window frame. The effect is that it
now blends and no longer draws
attention away from the men.

Figure 13:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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Figure 14:  Photo Illustration by Kent DuFault

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 About the Author

IF YOU’D LIKE TO CONTINUE

LEARNING AND IMPROVING YOUR
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Kent DuFault is a professional photographer and author.

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