Fine Art Photography Techniques: Sunday's Snap Shot Tech

Sunday afternoon - April 1st. 2012 - My son, Max, and his daughter Isla Marie, dropped by for a few minutes - while talking I said, hey, let me grab the lens and shoot off a couple of frames:

Isla walked up and down my front lawn - I manually focused, (I actually tried using AF, (auto-focus), yes, believe it or not - but I felt it was too slow for Isla's quick pace across the lawn), my heavy 70-200mm, set at F/6, and moved about to be sure the background was suitable in case I captured 'the moment'.  Always check for a suitable background - move yourself or subject - if possible - to accommodate the frame - the space.  I took 20 frames and captured the one illustrated above.

First Sculpture the Original Color Frame in Post Production:
In CS5 I slightly corrected color balance to make a bit less warm - the camera tends to cover some images with a color-cast - I slightly biased toward a cool interpretation.   Compared to the the rest of the photo, Isla's face and arms were a bit too dark for my taste - my interpretation: Using Dodge & Burn tools in Cs5 I was able to carefully lighten - but ever so little - Isla's face, and a touch on the arms.

BW Conversion: Efex Pro 2
The final was sculptured as follows: adding a Red filter; light application of vignetting; added a small adjustment to add contrast to Isla's face; Light-Copper dip; added a thin burnt-edge white frame.
Done.

Please, contact me with your comments-questions!  Have a great Day!
LAL