Entries tagged "image manipulation"

This image originated from the palette of photos I captured when working on v2 of my Spirits in the Woods panel. I was experimenting with one idea when I saw potential for another, and took things in a different direction.

I've done a quick write-up showing the stages the image went through.

Some photographers claim to only take photographs for themselves, and it's a bonus if others like them too. This isn't a viewpoint I completely subscribe to, but I do tend not to explain my images - preferring to let the pictures set the scene for viewers to interpet in their own way.

With that in mind, all I will say here is: this piece is not as disordered as it might seem; it's all deliberate. The one bit that didn't work out as I wanted is the sky area - one day I'll create a revised version to put that right - but the rest is as intended.

Thinking in terms of versions of an image is a technique I'm finding useful - it allows me to complete images whilst accepting they aren't 100% how I'd like. Far better to consider an image as the first iteration than to have it remain unfinished and unseen by anyone else.

Sometimes it can be a long time between photographic capture and realisation of an image. This one began life back in 2012, whilst out walking along by a lake that had flooded and caused a swamp-like area amongst some trees, but it was a couple of years later before the image emerged.

I use a collection in Lightroom to keep photos with potential but that are not yet completed images (for whatever reason), every so often I look through what it contains to see if inspiration bites. This one sat there for a while until I figured it out, but was worth the wait.

To see how I gradually tweaked an initial shot which many might reject, and used the versatility of both layer blend modes and adjustment layers to arrive at the final image, keep reading.