Before:
Original photo - by Beth Icard
During a family trip to Northern California a few years ago, I caught this picture of my father standing above the ocean because the image reminded me of a painting I liked. I wanted to play with the picture to imitate Casper David Friedrich's "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog," but I never actually had the opportunity (or resources) to do what I wanted with the file. This assignment reminded me of what I'd always wanted to do with this image, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to manipulate the original picture into what I wanted.
After:
After applying Camera Raw settings, left, imitating "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog," right.
Camera Raw Settings Used:
- First, I cropped the image so that the size and composition were similar to the image I was imitating and so that uncomfortable tangents were avoided. I also cropped my image so that the main figure was knocked out of dead center. (Rules!)
- I adjusted the exposure a bit.
- I adjusted my highlights and shadows/blacks and whites.
- I adjusted the color/contrast/clarity.
- I reduced the noise and sharpened the image.
Design Thoughts:
- Even though I tried to move the central figure out of "dead center," it's probably more centered than is normal for proper composition, but I chose to ignore that fact, as I was deliberately imitating an image with a centered figure. (Rules? What rules?!)
- I played with the hue/vibrancy/saturation to match "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" as best I could, while trying not to go overboard on the color manipulation so that the image still retained some realism.
Settings: