Exercise: Improvement or Interpretation.

This is all about taking a photograph and making 'improvements' to it.
These can take the shape of several things but the main objective of this exercise is to take a portrait style photograph and select the person from the setting and make them 'stand out'.

Having bribed hubby again I set about taking a photograph in the shade, when I was reasonably happy with the photograph I started the processing. firstly I cropped it in camera raw as I didn't want the top of the fence with wires showing, I then adjusted the clarity slider before opening the photograph in camera raw. I then used the quick selection tool to 'draw around' him and then used colour curves to make my adjustments.

Above is the screen print showing the adjustments made by me.  As you will be able to see I didn't make a huge change to the photograph, one thing for me to remember for next time is no check shirts as it flares, this is something I am normally aware of I don't really know why I forgot this time.

Above is the final photograph I am not 100% happy with this as I think there has been a bit of adjustment to the rest of the photograph which I didn't want.

As this exercise is about 'improvement' I think it is important to make some adjustments but not too many, there are many arguments for and against adjustments I think I will follow the exercises and see how my feeling change as they progress.  e. I have been asked to say how far I would go in making adjustments, my answer to this would be remove any noticeable blemishes, maybe brighten the eyes or smooth out the skin I would not however be happy altering body shapes.At the moment I believe in keeping images as close to the original object, person or what ever without loosing sight of the 'clients' wishes if there is one.