Friday 4 May 2012

125. Fix it Friday // Lightness


Both the colour and the weight of these dandelion seed heads are incredibly delicate and light. So lovely. 

I took lots of photographs of them, around my garden, earlier this week and this shot was actually one I was about to discard, in favour of clearer, sharper images. In the end I thought I'd use it for a 'Fix it Friday' post. 

Here is the original shot...pretty uninspiring and flat...


However, I realised that the centre of the dandelion clock was actually sharply in focus and created an interesting contrast with the blurred background and seeds. I edited the shot using the following steps:

1. Open in Adobe CameraRaw and adjusted the exposure - by bringing this down the details became clearer.
2. Still in CameraRaw, I pulled the blacks up significantly - to about +50, as well as the contrast. This helped to define the seeds and create more striking colour. I didn't need to up the saturation as the increase in the blacks created this effect. 

3. I then opened the image in Photoshop Elements and cropped it in tight around the dandelion clock, so the focal point of the shot was the central seeds.

4. Finally I added the Pioneer Woman 'Boost' action to really make the colours pop. 

A big improvement, don't you think? 

Happy Friday everyone - and happy snapping this weekend. 

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