The following will demonstrate how I have edited my selected final images for my Genius Loci project using the industry standard editing software, Photoshop.
* In order to protect my images, I have watermarked my images. Because the images are being posted online, I want to minimise the risk of potential image theft.To begin, I selected which particular image I wanted to edit. In this case, it was the following:
This was one of my favourite images from all of the shoots I conducted for this particular project. However, there are a few details I would like to remove from the image; these details being the few visible (and distracting) lights that are present within specific areas of the photograph.
For this image, I am hoping to achieve a subtle and eerie aesthetic overall - however, I feel like I can only achieve this when I have rid the image of any distractions/ flaws.
Editing:
To begin, I opened up this particular image in Photoshop. I then went through and simply duplicated the background layer - this enables me to alter the image.
Once this had been done, I selected the 'background copy' layer and then opened the 'attachments' tab above and then selected the 'curves' option; below is what I was presented with.
In the curves section, I adjusted the 'curve' in the following ways:
- I moved the "dark tones" toggle right once
- I moved the "light tones" toggle down 19 steps
In response to this adjustment, the 'curve' and the image were presented as follows:
This is only a minor adjustment, in terms of the curvature of the line shown above, however it has altered my image in a significant way. As you can see, the sky behind the silhouette of the trees is much more subtle and the darkness behind the bench is much more prominent.
Once I had made this small adjustment, my next goal was to remove the distracting lights seen in different areas of the image. To do this, I made another background copy. Then, using the lasso tool, I selected part of the image that was near the light that I was trying to remove and then right-clicked and selected "layer via copy". Doing this enabled the piece that I had just selected to be metaphorically lifted from the image and be used to cover the problem area.
Below is a visual of what this process looked like:
After copying the selected layer, the next step was to select the 'move tool'. Doing this resulted in the selected area presenting itself; this allowed for me to then move this area over the 'problem area'. Both of the above steps are shown below:
From here, I continued the same process until the rest of the problem areas within the image were removed.
Below is the overall resulting image:
From doing this very simple edit, I have achieved the image 'look' that I was hoping for. I no longer have distracting lights within the image - the photograph now looks minimal and subtle ... yet still it projects an eerie atmosphere - even more so now that the distractions have been removed.
Because this particular image turned out so well, I continued doing this edit for the rest of my final photographs - I did this to ensure that my images look their best not only for my workbook but for the Contextual Report book AND the Final Show Exhibition.
Below is a visual of what this process looked like:
After copying the selected layer, the next step was to select the 'move tool'. Doing this resulted in the selected area presenting itself; this allowed for me to then move this area over the 'problem area'. Both of the above steps are shown below:
From here, I continued the same process until the rest of the problem areas within the image were removed.
Below is the overall resulting image:
From doing this very simple edit, I have achieved the image 'look' that I was hoping for. I no longer have distracting lights within the image - the photograph now looks minimal and subtle ... yet still it projects an eerie atmosphere - even more so now that the distractions have been removed.
Because this particular image turned out so well, I continued doing this edit for the rest of my final photographs - I did this to ensure that my images look their best not only for my workbook but for the Contextual Report book AND the Final Show Exhibition.
