Creative Post-Processing

By Larry Brownstein

The Santa Monica Pier celebrated its centennial with a photographic exhibition, entitled "LALOP at the Pier." LALOP is the Los Angeles League of Photographers, a group of about two-dozen photographers who share a love of photographing Los Angeles. The group includes street photographers, photojournalists, landscape photographers, fine art photographers and even wedding photographers, so the variety of imagery is always fascinating, even when the group decides to focus together on one subject, as they did on the occasion of the Santa Monica Pier's centennial celebration.

Original captured image

I'm a member of the group, too, and I was pleased to hear that my image was chosen for the e-postcard and other press to promote the exhibit. (The opening reception was on March 20, 2009 in the historic Carousel.) When I forwarded the e-postcard to my mailing list I was surprised by the enthusiastic response, unlike any other invite I have sent out. My initial thought was that people love the pier and thought it was a cool and unusual venue for an exhibition, which is probably true. But as time went on, I received quite a slew of compliments on the image and I began to realize that one of those images cuts through the visual clutter and resonates with people.

As a photographer who wants to be able to increase my chances of replicating such success in the future, I analyzed what worked so well in this photo. Obviously, it is a colorful photo and a special moment with the sky ablaze and the seagull flying by, as if on cue. But most people are pretty blasé when it comes to sunset images. So what was different here? There is an ominous quality to the sky that no doubt gets people's attention so when I was asked by the Santa Monica Pier and by a local newspaper for a title for the image I came up with Heavenly Sky, Beckoning.

While I can't help you to replicate the special moment I was able to capture, I can fill you in on the special post-processing techniques I used to make the best of the image I captured. One day I noticed some high winds and dramatic cumulous clouds so I thought it might be a good day to visit the pier. I was walking towards the end of the pier where fisherman wait to catch their dinner, lovers walk hand in hand and tourists pose for snapshots. Out towards the horizon, the clouds were interesting looking. But when I turned around and looked back towards land, I saw the real drama. I quickly positioned myself and took three photos before the color in the sky began to fade. It was the one with the seagull that stood out for me. When I looked at the RAW image using Adobe Camera Raw I saw that I apparently had a choice: I could process it so the sky looked interesting, in which case the pier and water in the foreground would be too dark, or I could process it so the foreground looked good, but, in that case the sky would be washed out. Or, I could process it twice, once for the sky and once for the pier and water. Which is what I did. Subsequently, I merged the two images using Photoshop's Layer Masks.

	Processed for foreground detail

Some technical details that you can apply a similar technique when you run into problems with your sensor's dynamic range – the technical term for the limited range of intensities from the lightest to the darkest tones that can be captured, whether by film or a digital sensor. Film has a wider dynamic range—especially negative film—than digital sensors, thus the need for such a technique when shooting digitally.

I began in Adobe Camera Raw by moving the Exposure slider so that I could see the potential in the image. I underexposed to see the potential in the sky and I overexposed to see the potential in the foreground. I warmed up the image with the temperature slider and then added Vibrancy and Saturation. In Adobe Camera Raw 3, a Clarity slider was added. It adds what I think of as a small-scale or local contrast. So, it is useful in bringing out texture. I often use it on images with no people in them. I added some Clarity to this image to bring out detail in the sky.

I also wanted to enhance the warm colors in the sky without affecting the cooler colors in the foreground. Fortunately, this is easy to do in Adobe Camera Raw. I used the HSL/Grayscale palette, a mostly unknown but incredibly powerful tool! HSL stands for Hue, Saturation and Lightness. With this you can control the saturation and lightness of any color in your image. Just as Clarity can be thought of as a localized contrast control, HSL can be thought of as a localized color, saturation and brightness control—localized to a particular color. In HSL I adjusted the Saturation and Luminance of both the red and orange slider, leaving all the other color sliders alone. Simple and effective!

Processed for sky detail and showing masked region

Also in Adobe Camera Raw I added a subtle vignette using the Lens Correction palette. I found that a slight vignette brought the attention to the brighter openings of the clouds in the center of the image.
Next, I was ready to generate the two versions of the image—one optimizing the sky and the other optimizing the foreground. I try to restrain myself when I do this so the results will not look unnatural.
Then I merged the two files into one Photoshop file with two layers. Just do a copy command (Cmd/ Ctrl-C) in one image and a Paste command (Cmd/Ctrl-V) in the other image. Now you have a layered file. Go to the top layer and add a Layer Mask. Select a brush in the Tools palette. Use an opacity of less than 50% to give you control of the mask as you will be painting away one layer and revealing another. Most important, lower your opacity and shrink your brush size as you work in the transition zone where the sky and foreground are being merged. If you overdo it and things begin to look unnatural you can play with the layer opacity to dial down the effect.

	Final processed, layered image with layer mask

I layered the darker image over the lighter one so I used the Layer Mask to paint away the foreground on the top layer and reveal the lighter foreground underneath. As with all such techniques the key word is feathering so as not to reveal what you have done by leaving any hard edges in the transition area. The feathering is accomplished by use of a soft-edged brush and with lower opacities. Once you get some experience with the technique, you can do it in five or 10 minutes.

I'm a real fan of digital photography. I feel more freedom to experiment and create than I did when I shot film. One of the few downsides of digital photography is the limited dynamic range. Fortunately, the process discussed in this article can help extend dynamic range and improve your photography. With creative post-processing, the sky's the limit.

Writer/photographer Larry Brownstein is based in Los Angeles, California. He has authored several photography books, is represented by Getty Images, Alamy and California Stock Photo and has a growing wedding and portrait photography business. His website is www.larrybrownstein.com.