The Power of Photoshop

The human eye adds a lot more "drama" to a picture than a camera can record. This shot is of a very romantic old farmhouse along the famous Staunton (VA)-Parkersburg (WVA) Turnpike that saw a lot of action during the Civil War. The original image if flat and disappointing (probably because it was taken on a hot summer day around noon). But with the quick selection tool in Photoshop, I was able to selectivel;y saturate different parts of the picture, turning it more into the image I had in mind when I took the picture.

When Less is More

This photo of this old house in the heart of the mountain conflict in western Virginia between Confederate and Union troops was taken on a hot summer day when the light tended to wash out the colors anyhow. Solution? Convert it to black and white (Image menu>Mode) and up the contrast (Image menu>Adjustments) just a tad. Now, without the distraction of the weak color, the deteriorating lines of the house dominate the image.

Depth of Field

This is what a good telephoto lens can do. Notice this picture, taken at a Nat's game in DC yesterday, also follows the rule of thirds. The woman only takes up a third ofo the pictures, and the shallow depth of field which puts the bleachers and other fans out of focus pushes her to the sharp forefront of the picture.

Below, BTW, is the original version of this picture, before I cropped it a bit (keeping the proportions), lightened just her face, and saturated the colors, all with Photoshop.