While browsing through my archives I came across a photo I’d shot several years ago but never really been able to do anything with. The image has elements I enjoy, but overall felt quite flat. A major contributor to my reluctance to keep working on the photo was my lack of knowledge when it came to certain methods of image manipulation. No matter what I did, I just couldn’t achieve the overal look and feel I felt necessary to make the image a success.
The original photo has some promising compositional elements but the whiteout sky seemingly ruins the image.
(click photos for larger)
The first step here was to fix that boring sky. With a quick Graduated Filter application I darkened the sky with the Exposure slider, pumped detail into the clouds with the Clarity slider, and used the Color selector to shift the white/grey sky to blue.
Now that I had a base image to work with, I proceeded to my usual start point for processing photos in LR3. The original image was a little flat, so I’ve pulled up the Contrast and Vibrance to return some life to the image. After darkening various elements at the edge of the frame, I’ve also brought the Exposure up slightly to keep the center of the frame nice and bright. You can also see that the Recovery slider has been jammed way up in order to bring even more detail back into the sky.
Under different circumstances I would likely have set up my beloved Elinchrom Quadras to throw a little light on the rider while keeping the ambient exposure on the darker side. Since I didn’t own my Quadras at the time, or even really have all that much experience mixing off-camera lighting with action sports, I’ve used the Local Adjustments Brush to increase the light on the rider.
You can see that the rider now pops out of the image a little more, and with a Tone Curve adjustment I’ve increased contrast by bringing up the Highlights and Lights sliders. To manage the bright yellow of the rider’s jacket, I’ve also used the HSL Luminance panel to lower the luminance in the yellow range to keep the jacket from blowing out.
The final image gets a Crop and Vignette to bring focus to the center of the frame, and to clean up some of the boring edges of the bike park terrain.
While the image may still not be the banger shot I’ll be sending off to the mags, it has still come a long way from the original image that seemed destined for the trash.
