Peter submitted this gorgeous photo of a fawn. It is well-composed, and the focus on the eye is tack sharp, as we say. I’m going to use this shot as an example of how I view photo editing.
Do you see the cool color cast across the photo? Cool colors are blue and green, while warm colors are red, orange, and yellow. Notice the bluish tint across brown hair. I can tell from the deer’s left cheek (right side) that sunshine is hitting it. The shadow angle tells me the sun is low—early morning or late evening. Either time suggests golden-hour lighting, but this photo is far from golden. Cameras often nudge colors to the cool side. But that is where post-processing photos comes in. Photographers are artists. Artists want their art to be however it is they want it to be. For me, that is usually going to be warm colors.
In Photoshop, the editing software I’m familiar with, there are various ways to adjust colors. I’m sure the same applies to other editing programs. But, to see what I did to warm up the sunshine on the fawn before it dashes off, look at these palettes.
Notice the cool color blue on the left of the temperature bar, and the warm color yellow on the right side.
My first move was to move the temperature from 0 to +37. Secondly, I moved the dehaze slider to +16. To begin with, I stopped with these two simple adjustments. I came up with this result.
While this is much improved, a subtle detail I didn’t prefer was that the shadow holes of the vegetation were too bright. By moving the shadow slider to -58, the shadows were darkened and provided greater depth to the photo, and higher contrast to the foreground.
While I was not present when this photo was taken, I’ve often been in similar settings. I know these warm tones can be very realistic, on the one hand, and I prefer that the sunshine illuminating the deer and vegetation actually look like sunshine.
But my way is not the only way, just my preference, and now you know why.
Trails and Tales Contest Honorable Mention
