Draw Attention to a Subject

Renaissance artists used a simple technique to draw the viewer's attention to the main subject in their paintings: They applied darker oils around the edges of the scene, leaving the subject in the brighter area.

You can simulate that effect in your photographs with Photoshopand you don't have to be Rembrandt.

Here's how I used the edge-darkening technique to enhance a picture of a leopard I took in Botswana (Figure 2.18). I could have used the Burn tool (press O: Mac or Win) to darken the edges, but that approach would have taken a long time (and it would have been difficult to burn the edges evenly). The following method is easier and provides an even burn around the edges.

Figure 2.18.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1D Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 400mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.

I first selected the Elliptical Marquee tool (press M: Mac or Win) (Figure 2.19), clicked inside the image, and created an oval around the main subject (Figure 2.20).

Figure 2.19.

Figure 2.20.

Next, I chose Select > Inverse to select the area outside the oval. That's the area that will eventually be darkened.

I chose Select > Feather to bring up the Feather Selection dialog box. For my 300 ppi, 5x7-inch picture, I selected a Feather Radius of 250 because I wanted a very, very gradual transition between the darkened area and the untouched area (Figure 2.21).

Figure 2.21.

Now it was time to evenly darken the edges of the picture. I went to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and pulled down the curve from the center of the grid until I was pleased with the effect (Figure 2.22). (If you're in CMYK mode rather than RGB mode, you need to pull the curve up.)

Figure 2.22.

Here's how my leopard photograph was enhanced using this techniquewith a little extra help from the Burn tool, which I used to darken the out-of-focus twigs in the foreground (Figure 2.23).