My friend Steve emailed a photo he took this weekend as four of his grandchildren walked though a museum. It’s a classically beautiful shot which I hope he enlarges and prints. It’s one of his best shots ever–very evocative.
We traded emails back-and-forth talking about it and what to do with it. The secret of 21st Century photography is it’s not finished when you press the shutter. There’s lots that can still be done.
I decided to add my touch this evening. My idea was to make the children more dominant. To that end I converted the photo to monochrome boosted the luminance a little and isolated the four kids from everything else. Then I blurred the background slightly while increasing the contrast on his subject.
Whether I am right or wrong in changing his image is almost inconsequential, because it’s really all a matter of taste. There is no right or wrong way to make a pleasing shot. It’s all subjective.
Jeff – I like what you did… another technique that might be interesting is to use selective color, perhaps just on the kids shirts.
Like the re-worked one a LOT. It tells the story even better. ANd, for that matter, it shows the original photo was a great composition to begin with–didn’t need color to tell the story.
Hey, there were a lot of things done in the darkroom to classic photos–why not use a little digital magic to sweeten the photoo?