Project 52 - Kristianna-Marie (Kris V)

[Kris V]

I've been going through old family picture-albums and had a play with one snapshot taken by my brother. It's one of the few representing our 4 generations, shortly before my mother passed away.
I'm finding all kinds of things in PhotoShop that I never had time to explore, so I'm constantly trying new things, to see how it comes out.
Does the edit do it justice?

Original scan:


And an edited version: (Tips for improvement welcome!)

[Geoff F]

Yes, there are certainly a lot of options with software which I never use; to say nothing of the various editing methods which are possible.

You have increased the contrast with this image but I wonder if you have slightly overdone the shadow darkening where a more gradual working of the midtones might have retained a subtler result.

I don't know how you did this edit but I would probably have used Curves and mostly darkened by moving the line between the midway point and shadow end of the curve line. A bit like a classic S shape curve but leaving the top half alone.

Alternatively, a duplicate layer with the Blend Mode set to Soft Light may have been worth trying; this would gently increase the saturation as well. And set a suitable layer opacity.

When doing that sort of edit I often simply add an Adjustment Layer (eg Curves) but don't do any alterations. Then change the Layer Blend Mode. This has the same effect as a duplicate layer but with much less increase in file size.

[Kris V]

Thanks Geoff.
Hm, never thought of curves.

I duplicated the window on a new layer and did a graduated fil on it, then blended in Soft light.
I then converted to LAB, created a new layer and used Apply image on all 3 channels in overlay mode. Blending mode Normal at 80%.
Reconverted back to RGB, copied all layers into one new layer and did a little clean-up on this new layer.
I think that was my final workflow for this picture - I played with it for about a week before I got a result that I could live with.
The wall and curtain look pretty close to the original colour.

[Kris V]

An intriguing fungus growing on a downed tree in the woods. I used a screw-on close-up filter on the kit lens of my Nikon D5000.