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Joe Farace is Colorado-based photographer/writer who specializes in glamour,
fashion and automotive photography. Visit his websites at www.joefarace.com
and joefaraceshootscars.com.
| Time to Complete
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Tools Required |
20 Minutes |
• Adobe Photoshop CS2
• PhotoTune’s 20/20 Color MD
• Pixel Genius’ Photokit Sharpener
* These power tools are
optional; you can use the
program’s built-in features,
but it may take longer.
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If you read my October Digital Diary column, you know that my approach to travel
photography is interpretive rather than realistic. One of the techniques I like
to use for these interpretations is to tell a story by combining two or more
images into a single photograph.
While traveling in Japan I was struck by how modern elements of Japanese society
coexisted with traditional ones, sometimes in close proximity. This thought
was in the back of my mind when I made a photograph out my hotel window; but
the final concept for “Two Faces Of Japan” didn’t occur to
me until later when I made another image and saw how the two might blend together.
The concept was to use Adobe Photoshop CS2 along with a few digital manipulation
techniques to combine both files into a single photograph.
As with most of my other digital imaging projects, I apply the “20 minute
rule.” It’s my opinion that if you can’t make what you see
on the monitor look like what you originally conceived within 20 minutes, chances
are you never will (but like any creative activity, you gotta go with the flow).
STEP 1: Capture An Image Or Two
This first picture was made from my hotel window either before I went to bed
or after I got up; I was too jet-lagged to remember and the camera’s EXIF
data is set for my home in Colorado. I used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel with an
18–55mm EF-S lens that was set at 18mm. An ISO of 1600 gave me a shutter
speed of 1/30 that I could hand hold. This particular image was captured
in Program mode and I used the camera’s shift feature to make a few test
shots, ending up with an aperture of f/3.5.
I turned off the lights inside the room and pressed the lens against the window
to minimize reflections before making three shots. I liked this one best on
the basis of sharpness, composition, and exposure.
The next night I had dinner with friends at a traditional restaurant on the
outskirts of Tokyo. The area behind the restaurant was dark but illuminated
with torches. I used the same EOS Digital Rebel and 18–55mm EF-S lens
set at 18mm to make a series of exposures of the scene. This one was shot at
ISO 1600 with a long shutter speed of .3 seconds at f/3.5, so I steadied the
camera on a wooden post. I made several images and bracketed exposures; this
was the best one but it’s not critically sharp.
STEP 2: Image Enhancement
The first thing I did was to give both images a similar tone. One was cool and
the other one was warm, so I decided to make the sunrise image warmer and cool
off the firelight. One of the easiest methods for accomplishing this kind of
correction is by using a Photoshop compatible plug-in such as PhotoTune’s
(www.phototune.com) 20/20
Color MD. After launching the
plug-in (Filter>PhotoTune>20/20 Color MD) you’re presented with
a series of images and asked to click the one you like best. After nine mouse
clicks, you’re finished color correcting the file.
I liked the traditional image’s density, but wished it were a littler
sharper. Since I planned to use this image horizontally across the bottom of
what would be a vertical photograph, I knew having it reduced in size would
give the impression of greater sharpness. Since I wanted to make it look as
sharp as possible, I turned to PhotoKit Sharpener (www.pixelgenius.com,)
a set of Photoshop compatible plug-ins that sharpen images based on the way
the images are captured—film or digital. The deceptively simple menu lets
you choose how the image was captured and select the kind of sharpening effect
you want;
PhotoKit Sharpener does the rest.
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