To give you an idea of what Photo Clinic will cover, I decided to feature a photo (Image 01) submitted by one of the students in my Basic Photography class at PCCI, and the Photoshop techniques that Deri (as he is known in the industry) and I used to enhance the photo (Image 02).

Compositionwise, we both like how the photographer placed the focal point all the way to the lower third of the frame to accommodate the length of the palm trees. By taking in the height of the palm trees, they dwarfed the statue—making it more obvious to our eyes.

While there is nothing wrong with the overall exposure, the lighting was flat. There was not enough contrast to make the photo more dramatic.

Here are the steps that Deri and I followed to arrive at Image 02.

Deri opted to cut the bottom of the base of the statue using the crop tool, making it occupy entirely the bottom third of the frame (Image 03).

We agreed that the photo did not have enough contrast. I clicked on the Create a new fill or an adjustment layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and I chose Curves from the pop-down menu (Image 04). In the Curves dialog box, I located the lightest part of the statue and made it lighter by moving the diagonal line upward. Then I located its darkest part and made it even darker by moving the diagonal line marked by the pointer downward. (Image 05).

While this improved the overall contrast of the image, it was not enough to set it apart from the background. Deri suggested we darken the photo further by duplicating the Background and setting the Blending Mode of the duplicate layer to Multiply. The overall effect was too dark, so we set the Opacity of the duplicate to 40% (Image 06).

To set the statue apart, I then placed a Layer Mask next to the duplicate layer by clicking on the Add a layer mask button at the bottom of the Layers palette. Using the brush and with the Foreground color set to Black, I painted over the statue to masked it from the effect of the Multiply blending mode (Image 07).

While the result was already an impressive improvement over the original image, Deri wanted to add more drama. He wanted to simulate the rays of sunlight penetrating through the palm leaves, placing the statue under a spotlight.

He created a new layer by clicking on the Create a new layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. He then placed a series of triangular selections using the lasso tool (Image 08). He feathered the selection (Selection > Feather) and chose a Feather radius of 8 pixels in the Feather dialog box (Image 09). Using the Gradient tool, setting the foreground color to white, and choosing the Foreground to Transparent option in the Gradient Editor, he filled the selections with white (Image 10). He lowered the opacity to about 66% to let more of the images see through the rays.

I then added noise to the white fill by using the Add Noise filter under the Noise submenu. In the Add Noise filter dialog box I chose roughly 28% Amount, a Gaussian Distribution and checked Monochromatic (Image 11).

The noise helped create texture that I could use so I can apply Motion Blur (Filter > Blur > Motion Blur). In the Motion Blur dialog box, I chose the angle that simulated the angle of the rays created by Deri. I chose 38 pixels for the Distance.

We then duplicated the layer containing the simulated sunlight several times and changed their opacities. We added a layer mask to each layer and masked some of the leaves to make it look like the sun light was going through the gaps between the leaves (Image 13).

That completed the process. For more ideas on improving your photos, watch out for the maiden issue of iMag Photography.

For those who are interested to study photography and digital imaging, here is the schedule of classes at the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging from August to December 2006: Imaging Fundamentals and Color Management (Jun Miranda), August 7, September 4, October 5, November 6 & December 4; Photoshop CS 2 Basics (Jun Miranda/Mario Ramirez), August 8-10, September 5-7, October 6-8, November 7-9, December 5-7; Advanced Photoshop for Photographers (Jun Miranda), October 23-25; Advanced Photoshop for Print Production (Jun Miranda), August 28-30, November 20-22; Digital Camera Fundamentals (Jun Miranda), October 9 & December 11; Basic Photography (Jun Miranda), August 1-3, October 10-12, December 12-14; Studio Portrait Photography (Ibarra Deri) September 18-19 November 23-24; Glamour Photography (Dominique James), September 2-3, November 25-26; RTW & Haute Couture Fashion Photography (Dominique James), October 28-29; Commercial Product Photography (Ibarra Deri), August 21-22, November 27-28; Fine Art Nude Photography (Dominique James), September 29-30; Wedding Photography (Patrick Uy), August 31-September 1; October 26-27. PCCI also offers courses on digital video editing (Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and Apple Final Cut Pro), video production, scriptwriting and cinematography; digital illustration (Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw), Web design and development (Dreamweaver and Flash), and 3D animation (Maya and 3ds Max). For the complete calendar and for more information, visit its Website at www.pcci.com.ph, or call 759-3087 or 892-5281.