A Morning of Fall Magic

I can believe in nothing more appealing than a morning of fall magic when the fading warmth of the sun arches lower across the sky to awaken a morning mist stirred by dormant breezes.

It is then one experiences a feeling of change in the air, a pleasant change whose stirrings unleash persuasive life connections.

I can find no other time comparable to the gentle emotions induced through the cleansing of the air and the crisp aroma of falling leaves. A morning of fall magic returns us to memories of better times, to remembrances of a youthful hope, and the sweet hypnotic embrace from the best of seasons.

Fall magic not only reminds me of these things, it reminds me of what is most important...the goodness of life.

Stretch Your Imagination - Visualize Your World in Unique Ways

I once heard it said that the main difference between your average shade tree mechanic and Big Daddy Don Garletts is that Big Daddy was not afraid to go against the established ways of doing things. He was constantly questioning why things were done a certain way. Then he would try something different just to see what the results would be. One of his most famous innovations was putting the race engine behind the driver when the trend was that engines were suppose to be in front. Oddly enough, his innovative techniques and constant trying of new things propelled him into drag racing legendary status.

Photographers can  learn a great deal from Big Daddy's approach. We tend to fall into the same ole traps doing the same ole things the same ole way. Often what we end up with is a collection of cliched works. They may be good photographs, but they look just like every other photographers photographs. To truly separate yourself from the trend, you must stretch your imagination by visualizing your world in unique ways.

A few years ago I was attempting to photograph a sundown in front of a friends former home. She and her family had recently moved away and wanted some photos to remember the view from her kitchen window. She had always loved watching the sun go down across the fields in front of their house. Several times I tried to capture that unique sunset, you know, one of those rosey fingered affairs with all the dramatic clouds and sun rays filling the sky. Well it just wasn't happening.

One day as I stood next to the wooden fence waiting for the sunset to materialize, it became apparent it just was not going to work...again. The potential was good with broken clouds but most of them were drifting behind me in the opposite direction of where I needed them. As the sun settled and my hopes of obtaining that legendary photo diminished, I had one of those incredible moment-altering ideas...I turned around...and looked the other direction. Sure enough those broken clouds were being illuminated by the setting sun, but their hue was rather ordinary...sort of soft and creamy instead of dramatic and bold. Then one of those what if Don Garlett ideas popped into my head...What if I pushed the white balance all the way out to 9000K instead of using the standard 5200k. So I tried it just to see what would happen. The results were, how can I say it...Wonderfully Alive.

Those ordinary looking clouds suddenly became vivid with bold color and cast a dramatic atmosphere across the landscape. What I saw in the camera was not what I was seeing visually, but it was what I was seeing emotionally. It was one of the best attempts to visualizing the world in a unique way...not just accepting what was there, but looking beyond the obvious and using the cameras ability to capture light in unique ways. Stretching your imagination is one of the best creative tools you can develop and use.

Make Your Subject Stand Out

The young lady sat on the edge of a low-water bridge, with her feet dangling over the edge, tossing a few stones into the creek. Catch lights were infiltrating through the long strands of her blond hair creating natural highlights photographers love to use. She wore a light pink thin sweater and a lacy skirt that covered off-white tights, all of which tended to blend with the pale surface of the bridge. Although the scene setup was perfect, the lighting was marginal and it required a bit of touchup to make it work. (click on each image to get a closer look)

Using a single speedlight to fill in the shadows on her face, the image was snapped and eventually loaded into Photoshop Elements. Out of the camera it wasn't bad, a bit dull requiring a tweak of brightness and exposure compensation to bring the lighting back to within more normal limits. Doing so helped, but it needed something else. My subject needed to be separated from the background to create a more pleasing composition and dramtic light arrangement.

Although there are numerous ways to accomplish this requirement, some in camera and some post processing, I'm going to describe a simple way to separate your subject just enough to make them stand out.

First thing to do is to go ahead and make all of your normal post processing exposure tweaks. Things like brightness, contrast, color correction, sharpening...you get the idea. Once all of those tweaks are done we begin the process to separate your subject. The primary tool we use is the Lasso tool. You will want to set the feathering setting to around 20 pixels, then gently and loosely draw an outline around your subject. You do not have to be real precise, but try to stay fairly close to the edges of your subject.

After completing the initial outline, you will need to click on the Select drop down and click on INVERSE. This will select everything outside the perimeter of the outline you just drew. Now click on Enhance, Lighting, then Levels and depending on the make up of your image you will need to slide the Middle Tone Slider to the right a few clicks. This will begin to darken the background. Do not overdo it, just darken it enough to allow your subject to stand out.

Once you have completed that step to your satisfaction, click on Select again and Inverse once more. This will return you to the original outline. You can if you need to, boost your subjects brightness just a few points, then move the Lasso cursor off the page and click to turn it off. Your image now takes on a deeper, richer, more dramatic look.  It's that easy.