Photo project

Here's a photo I took of Lindsay along a trail off of the Kancamagus Highway. I shot it in RAW and .jpg format simultaneously. The picture was Karen's idea, using the amazingly blue sky and vibrant green leaves as a backdrop. Karen held Lindsay over her head while I got her attention and took the shot. Due to the bright light in the background, I shot with the pop-up flash on... not much control, but just enough to provide some fill-flash. Lots of smiles, but this one was my favorite!


Using Photoshop CS2, I made some edits. 1st, I cropped, to remove Karen's thumb from the picture. I also pushed Lindsay over to the right just a bit to make the off-center seem more intentional and take advantage of the 2/3s rule... although I wasn't able to get all the way there. Next, because I shot in RAW, I was able to adjust the white balance, warming up the picture a bit to make the lighting feel more natural for that time of day. I then bumped up the contrast and saturation just a bit, while toning down the midtones slightly trying to reduce the hot spot effect on her forehead. Most importantly, perhaps, I lightened and saturated her eyes. In the original, her eyes are very dark and unnatural, while in this new version you get a better sense of their true color.




Then, just to see what it would look like in B&W, I used the Channel mixer to turn the photo to monochrome, pulling down the red tones and boosting the blue and green. That enabled just enough detail and contrast in her face.

I hope you like the results as much as we do! What a cutie!