DRAMATIC EFFECTS

As much as you may try to inject all your creative juices into an image, sometimes it just doesn’t seem to have that “WOW” factor you had hoped to obtain. 

This was one of those images.  Several times, I had looked at this image, processed it, and saved it for later.  When later came, I processed the image again, and once again saved it for later.  This patterned continued for several months.  I just could not find a way to make this image come to life.  Oh sure, it was a fine family memory.  It was suitable for a photo album that contained other snapshots of similar settings.  But, I had hoped for something more.

Almost out of boredom, I imported the image into Photoshop one more time.  And even as I was completing the importing process, I said to myself, “This is likely a waste of time.”  I started from scratch – the original image, completely unedited.  While make some minor adjustments, it hit me…and it hit me hard!  This image captured a single, solitary, emotional moment in time.  But, the original lighting didn’t allow for that.  It was too harsh.  The entire image needed softened, somewhat.  By ever-so-slightly diluting the sharpness I could see a huge difference in the way the image was more effectively mirroring the emotion of what was actually happening!  Then I applied a drastic vignette to the overall image, which allowed the background to almost completely disappear.  Now one last step: a lighting effect that would intensify the emotion by drawing the viewer’s attention directly into the focal point of the action.

And, this is the result:

Never give up on an image.  You never know when you have a diamond in the rough!

~ by photographyfree4all on January 14, 2013.