Altering And Improving

The question always asked about photo manipulation is whether the alteration changes the impression made by the photo. In journalism the fear is that photo alterations give the impression of something happening which really didn't. In the case I show below I've altered the contents of my photo to display the #blueangels during their flyover of my neighborhood. I do so with a clear conscience because the scene in the photo is different from reality only because I didn't get a focus lock until I was looking up through the utility lines. If this was journalism I'd be prevented from removing the wires but it isn't and I'm not.

Operationally speaking, it took about 5 min. to remove the lines using Photoshop's clone tool and spot healing brush. Then I replaced nose section of the #1 plane using the clone tool. The details were brought out in normal developing.

Make Your Grays Colorful

Some images look very good in gray scale but don't think your conversion is done just because you clicked on "black & white". I use Adobe software, Lightroom mainly, and when I convert an image to gray scale I go immediately to the color sliders to refine the effect. You can increase or decrease the intensity of the colors in your image by moving the corresponding color slider. It can really change the "look" of your finished product.