Somewhere

[AntonioCorreia]

When I photographed this man, whom I have known for years, I wanted to capture the authenticity and closeness that his simple life exudes. His broad gesture and fleeting expression conveyed a life story in that moment.
I opted for backlighting and a shallow depth of field to highlight his face and hands, leaving the background blurred which, in my view, created a serene atmosphere and enhanced the natural quality of the portrait.

The soft light helped to bring out his features, although I believe that perhaps showing more detail in his beard and hair could have further reinforced his character.
In composing the shot, I focused mainly on the face and expression, emphasising the emotional side of the image. Including a bit more of the surroundings, which would have provided additional context to the gesture, was not a deliberate choice.

[Geoff F]

For me, his face and the background work well; but I am not keen on his out of focus hand dominating the foreground. I would be tempted to crop closer to his head and lose that hand?

[AntonioCorreia]

Thank you, Geoff, for your comment.

The hand isn’t out of focus but rather blurred due to motion—he was explaining something that was happening to him, as you can probably guess from his facial expression.
Perhaps if I cropped just the face, the illuminated area would become much more impactful, and the image would take on a different dimension and meaning.

[DanK]

I like this a lot. The hand doesn't bother me. However, with my usual interest in de-emphasizing the background, I would desaturate the background. I did a quick one in ACR, reducing the saturation of the greens substantially and the yellows less. I left more yellow because it is complementary to the blue of his jacket. Would changes in this direction help?

[AntonioCorreia]

Indeed, I’ve noticed that desaturating the background is a habit of yours.
And you know what? It’s not bad at all—actually, it works really well! Honestly, it’s an excellent choice.

But Dan, I had already reduced both the brightness and saturation of the background. However, your approach took it even further, with a refinement I haven’t yet experimented with—playing with colours to achieve better chromatic contrast.

Thank you so much for your work! It turned out great !

[DanK]

Antonio,

One of the things I try to avoid is backgrounds that are distracting and that draw the eye away from the main story. What that means varies from image to image. It might be burning, or desaturating, or cropping, or even blurring. In this case, I noticed that my eye was drawn by the yellowish green, which is why I desaturated it. A somewhat more complex approach would be to select those areas, based on color, and darken them. However, I don't think that's necessary here.

Dan

[AntonioCorreia]

Dan,

Once again, thank you very much for the comments you kindly shared.
I completely agree with you, and this was also a lesson learned here, from your advice and Manfred's as well.

The original image already had reduced saturation and brightness. The day was very clear, and the sunlight was hitting with some intensity, although it was a bit cool, but nothing too extreme.

I've known the model for many years, so it was easy to capture this photo while he was talking about the urban expansion invading the city here and elsewhere, as is happening all over the world.

[DanK]

Antonio,

One other thought. I did this the easy way, with a global adjustment. As a result, the man's face became a slightly colder color. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the detailed color mixer tool in LR and ACR I used for this doesn't seem to be available for selections. And as far as I know, photoshop doesn't have something comparable. The only way I know to make an adjustment like this locally rather than globally is to move the image into photoshop, create a duplicate layer, put a mask on that layer, and select the camera raw filter for that layer, which will give you the detailed color mixer. You can then use the mask to apply it where you want, or to remove it from places where you don't want the adjustment.

If someone knows a simpler method, please post it.

[AntonioCorreia]

Dan, now it's time to set the table, put the soup in the pot to warm it up, slice the bread, and get the water and fruit ready.
I did all this in an instant.
I'll explain more later but unfortunately, it won't be today because I'll be busy this evening.

[AntonioCorreia]

Dan, here is a photographic sequence of what I did to achieve the result.
It might not be exactly the precise adjustments but it's pretty close. I hope this provides a fairly reasonable explanation of the process and if there are any questions, I'll be here to try to clear them up.

The Colour Range adjustments could be more extensive like for example, increasing brightness or saturation in areas of a specific colour but that can wait until later. One thing I know for sure: it’s fascinating!

I appreciate you raising the question about the procedures, as it forced me to put together, do and show how I do it. The demonstration took me more time to work on than the portrait itself which by the way, took between 5 and 10 minutes to do.

Oh and something else: needless to go to Camera Raw Filter as it is about the same / or the same as LR, unless you want to work with huge, huge Smart Objects.

[DanK]

Antonio,

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I have never used the adaptive profile and only rarely use Auto, but other than that, your procedure is quite similar to mine. The specific steps aren't the same, but the general procedure is similar.

ACR and LR, Adobe's two "parametric" editors, have almost identical processing engines. Occasionally, Adobe will introduce a new feature only in one of the two, so temporarily, they have one or two differences, but for the most part, they are the same thing, just with a different user interface.

What is really striking is just how much more powerful this parametric editing is than it was just a few years ago. Not that long ago, most people thought ACR/LR was useful only for the most basic edits and that for anything complicated, one had to move to Photoshop. That isn't true anymore. There are still some things for which I need Photoshop, but far fewer than there used to be. One can now make complex local adjustments in LR and ACR, and in fact, the color range adjustments are better than in Photoshop.

Dan

[AntonioCorreia]

Dan, lately I have been using the Adaptive Profile and to my surprise, it has often given me considerably better results.

I believe there is absolutely no issue in using automated tools when they make sense. I apply the Adaptive Profile and if the result is satisfactory, I move forward otherwise, I simply revert back.

In fact, I also turn to Photoshop to address specific situations such as background replacements or repairs, making use of the available automated tools. I think that over time these solutions have evolved significantly, allowing for increasingly better results.

After all, isn’t selecting a background or an object with a simple rectangle also a form of automation?

I remember a small group here in Setúbal some time ago who took pride in showing their photographs exactly as they came out of the camera always well-executed and technically impeccable.
However, over time many changed their perspective and came to accept and even appreciate, the use of digital tools in the editing process.

[DanK]

I believe there is absolutely no issue in using automated tools when they make sense. I apply the Adaptive Profile and if the result is satisfactory, I move forward otherwise, I simply revert back.

I agree, but I view it as an experiment--for example, I sometimes use Auto, evaluate the result, look at the specific changes it made, and think about whether I want similar changes. One of the nice things about FR is that it's nondestructive, so you can go back to where you were before, or take auto as a starting point and change it.

[AntonioCorreia]

Exactly. I frequently use Snapshots, which allow access to different treatments applied throughout the image editing process.

This can, of course, be effectively combined with the History panel to great advantage…

Lightroom is indeed excellent for certain types of images. In fact, one of its strengths is the file size because it uses *.xmp files as sidecar.

Cheers !