Saving the Lion King


Let me begin this lesson by telling you that I'm a proud member of the North American Nature Photography Association (www.nanpa.org). All my fellow members and I stress honesty in photography and digital imaging. If one of our pictures is digitally enhanced or manipulated, we say so: no ifs, ands, or buts. For us, honesty is the best policy.

I'm sharing this photo philosophy with you for three reasons. First, this lesson features a digitally manipulated image, which I'm using to illustrate how you may be able to save one of your own photographs from your computer's outtake folder. Second, I want to stress that if you manipulate an image, it's important to say so, especially if your picture is published. Third, I want you to understand the power of the digital darkroom.

Let's explore that power.

I photographed these lions in courtship while on a safari in Botswana (Figure 4.103). It was late in the day, and the sky was overcast, so the straight-out-of-the-camera picture looked a bit flat and soft. That was easy to correct with Levels, Curves, Hue/Saturation, and Brightness/Contrast adjustments.

Figure 4.103.

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


The big problem with the photo was that the male lion's front left leg (on your right) was cut out of the frame. Photoshop surgery was needed!

The first step was to increase the canvas size (Image > Canvas Size). In these two screenshots, you can see that I increased the Width of the canvas by one inch on the right side of the image (Figures 4.104 and 4.105).

Figure 4.104.


Figure 4.105.


My new document looked like this after I increased the Canvas size (Figure 4.106).

Figure 4.106.


Next, I used the Clone Stamp tool to copy existing grass areas into the blank areas of the canvas. Then, I used the Lasso tool to trace (select) part of the lion's right leg (on your left). After making my selection, I copied it and pasted it over the lion's left leg. Doing so placed the copied right leg on a new layer on top of the original document. I used the Move tool, Eraser tool, and Burn and Dodge tools to blend the new leg with the old (Figure 4.107).

Figure 4.107.


After completing the Photoshop surgery, I decided to enhance my picture's color and contrast. I did that using Levels and by increasing the Saturation. I decided there was too much dead space around the lions, so I used the Crop tool for a tighter crop, which resulted in a more dramatic image.

Now you can see the near-final result of my enhancements (Figure 4.108). The new leg was still a bit darker than I wanted it; a bit more work had to be done. What's more, if you look closely, you'll see that the male lion had two right paws!

Figure 4.108.


To hide the flaws in my changes and the fact that the lion now had two right paws, I used a digital photo frame in onOne Software's PhotoFrame Pro 3.0 (Figure 4.109).

Figure 4.109.


All you keen-eyed readers probably noticed something else: The background is more out of focus than in the original picture. I blurred the background by making a duplicate layer, blurring the entire layer, and then erasing the areas on the same plane as the lions. That's similar to the effect I would have gotten had I used a longer telephoto lens with less depth of field.

I hope this lesson has given you some ideas about how you can fix your photographs. In the process of fixing and getting published, please remember that honesty is the best policy. The image is your work, but any post-capture enhancement should be duly noted.

So, you may be asking, "How close was Rick to those lions?" Well, they were only about 30 yards away when I took the picture. The moment after I took the picture, they both looked at me (shooting from a safari vehicle) and then slowly walked toward us! When they got to within just a few feet of the vehicle, rather than having lunch, they simply lay down and took a rest. Whew! That was close!

 




Idea to Image in Photoshop CS2(c) Rick Sammon's Guide to Enhancing Your Digital Photographs
Idea to Image in Photoshop CS2: Rick Sammons Guide to Enhancing Your Digital Photographs
ISBN: 0321429184
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 72
Authors: Rick Sammon

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