College Library

[rubik]

Hey all. Been lurking for a bit, first time posting though. I took this photo a while ago. Every now and then when I learn some new techniques in PS, I like to go back though some of my images and see if anything new stands out. That's what happened here. I found that I really like the expressions of theses subjects and I wanted to try to capitalize on that. I feel that the full color version is a little too much to handle, maybe too many different colors?(I'll provide it for your editing pleasure though) I also wanted to keep that foreground desk in there to provide a sense that the two subjects are in their own space. Feel free to let me know what you would do. I give full permission to edit this photo as long as you only post it back into this forum. Thank you.

[jiminyClickit]

rubik, Welcome

With the many colors (mostly of similar hue) are lots of almost-horizontal and nearly-vertical edges. I'd start with those, then blur background only to focus attention on the stars. Fun shot, well done.

[ELAY]

Hi Rubik --

I agree with Jiminy that one approach would be to do something to emphasize your models here, especially given what you have said about wanting to capture the sense of their inhabiting their own space. Selective blurring is one option, but I also thought of a black vignette.

The vignette would also wash out some of the colours you mention.



Here's an example with a vignette -- my method is to use a black-to-transparent radial blur done on a separate level, with the opacity toned down. As you can probably tell, I also desaturated and added some contrast (too heavy a hand here -- highlights on guy's face not good), and did local contrast enhancement.

Given the colours and subject, this might also be a good shot for a Lomo/cross-process treatment.

EL

[ELAY]

By the way, is the shot from WWU?

My parents used to own a place on Lake Samish, and I spent the better part of 6 summers in and around Bellingham.

EL

[rubik]

ELAY... Yes it is located at Western, good eye. I like the vignetting, maybe a little too much though. It's a good idea.

Jim... Some slight bluring might help. I wanted to crop out some of those glass panes in the background, but I felt that any lower of a crop made it all seem too tight.

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll play around with it some more in the next few days and post the progress.