In this Tuesday Technique Topic, rather than covering a wider range of technical topic, I’d like to do an analysis of a single image. Please let me know, if this is something that you would like to see done on other images.
This image is rather simple, isn’t it? At first glance, you see a rather colorful ornamental cabbage. As you look closer, you’ll notice that the cabbage is sharp in its bright purple center, but that the edges are blurring, as we go away from center. This is not something that was added in Photoshop, but, rather, a conscious decision at the time that I photographed this lovely Autumn vegetable.
The sharp center and blurred edges have the effect of allowing the eye to leave the center, but always drawing it back in; this makes the image a bit mesmerizing in, I hope, a good way.
The advantage of most DSLRs is that they have a variety of settings that allow the photographer to control the final result of the image. As the depth of field was the critical aspect, I shot this image in aperture priority, so that I set the aperture to f/5.6, which for a focal length of 105mm produces a rather shallow depth of field; at the distance of just under 5 feet, the focal plane is about an inch on either side of the focus point, providing the effect you see here.
What other questions might you have about this image? If I have any insight into what you may be curious about, I will be happy to share it with you.
Post-processing
My post-processing routine is pretty straightforward, as I am by no means a Photoshop expert. On this image, the layers used were (in order):
- Base image
- Unsharp mask
- Overlay at 41% opacity
- Levels to increase the pop of the colors
- A slight bit of contrast increase
- A little extra saturation
Nothing overly dramatic, as you see.
I hope this is of interest to you. I’d love to hear feedback both positive and negative! Thank you, as always, for reading!!
Leave a Reply