photo-i technique

Taking Stock part 2.

©Vincent Oliver - Getty images

Health Warning.

A marketable subject matter is smoking and drug abuse. Here I set out to imply smoking of cannabis, but also wanted the image to be generic for multiple usage and sales. Using a 500mm telephoto lens on my Nikon D1 gave sufficient compression to the image and allowed me enough room to stand back.

Step 01

The image does not have enough impact, I had envisaged a grittier feeling. A simple method is to increase the contrast. You could use the Brightness and Contrast filter, but the best tool for total control is the Curves. Both filters can be found under Colours > Adjust ..

Step 02

I'm still not happy with the overall feeling, so I am going to convert it to a Greyscale image, Colours > Greyscale. The picture is looking better but it still needs a bit more grit. Let's add some noise to the image (formerly known as film grain). I have used an amount of 30 and set it to Gaussian, the amount will vary according to image size.

Step 03

Just to add a splash of colour, I have taken the tip of the cigarette from another image in the series and made a rough selection using the Freehand selection tool. This has been copied and pasted as a new Layer on the Greyscale image. The problem here is that the new layer has also been converted to Greyscale. A small workaround is required, delete the layer and then increase the colour depth to 24 bit (Colours > Increase Colour Depth). Now paste the Layer again and it appears in colour on your Greyscale picture.

Step 04

Use the Deformation tool to scale the Layer so it matches the current cigarette end and press the Enter key. Using the Eraser tool with a soft edge, remove any excess areas.

The two sample pictures are based on images I have with libraries and these sell every month. Using applications such as Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop open up many creative possibilities for photographers. The real key to successful pictures is to keep experimenting and make notes.

Quick Tips:

Take lots of pictures, you can edit out the rejects later or use elements from one picture to make up another.
Leave space around images, this will allow room for any necessary text to be inserted.
To apply a stronger Motion Blur, simply reapply the filter again.
Most picture libraries require 30mb to 50mb images.

Time savers:

Press letter R to quickly access the Crop Tool
You can use the up and down arrow keys to adjust the values in the Levels palette.
Press the letter B to quickly access the Paintbrush
Press Shift + H to quickly access the Hue/Saturation & Lightness palette.
Press Ctrl + X to cut a selection and place on the clipboard
Press Ctrl + L to paste the clipboard as a new Layer
Press Shift + B to quickly access the Brightness/Contrast palette.

Tool tips:

Be careful when you resize an image upwards as detail will appear soft. A camera that offers 12mp would be ideal. The Canon 1ds has 11mp and produces a file size of 31mb, you only need to apply a 125% resize to achieve a 51mb file.
Paint shop Pro 7 does not offer Monochrome noise as an option, but the new version 8 does. Photoshop 7 & CS also has a Monochrome noise option.