Vernazza and Monterosso at Night captured by Vince Cordi
Category Archives: Tuscan Photo Workshop 2013
San Gimignano, processed using Topaz Clarity
San Gimignano, Topaz Clarity finished with Topaz Lens Effects, Vignette
Topaz software
I captured this image of San Gimignano, Italy at sunset in late October in 2012 while teaching a workshop. The sky that evening had some clouds but not where I needed them and so we waited. The clients had taken some nice images of San Gimignano with the vineyards in the foreground and a clear blue sky. We had starting the days shooting before sunrise and everyone was getting a little antsy and were ready for dinner. A few had already pack up and were waiting by the van to head home for the night.
I knew that the best chance for everyone to get a great image we needed to wait for the light. I had been on location once when the sky was uninteresting and decided to pack up and leave only to see a spectacular sunset in my rear view mirror. There is never any guaranties on what type of light we will have when we are out shooting but I can guarantee that we will be at great locations capturing the changing light and waiting for the the magic to happen.
San Gimignano, unprocessed image
This unprocessed image was captured as the clouds rolled in after sunset with an aperture of F/11 at .5sec. After the sun set I was able to eliminate clipping in both the highlight and shadow areas.
Topaz Clarity Color and Contrast Boost II
I decided to process this image using Topazes new clarity software. Often I will stack an image in layers and this worked well for this image. The 1st layer I applied Color and Contrast Boost II and liked the effect but like Oliver Twist I always want a little more. The next layer I applied CityScape II and which I liked even more but kept looking at other affects and liked Macro II. All these effects were processed in progressive layers with Topaz’s Clarity software. But always wanting a little more I decided to vignette this image using the Lenses Effects software by Topaz and was excited with the finished image.
Topaz Clarity CityScape II
Topaz Clarity, Macro II
Exposure adjustments using Blend Modes
To make Exposure adjustments using Blend Modes you first make a layer. When you make a duplicate or copy layer it opens in Normal Mode and has an Opacity of 100% in the layers pallet. Normal Mode does not change the appearance of the image. In the Layers Pallet Layer 1 automatically becomes an active layer and the Blend Modes become active and you are able to change the Blend Mode and Opacity of this layer.
Duplicate Layer-Normal Blend mode
I find blend modes the most effective way to make exposure adjustments. In the Layers Pallet to the right of the word normal lick on the arrows and a menu pops up, scroll through each Blend Mode in the menu to see how they affect the image. The two I use to affect exposure are Screen and Multiply.
Make a selection in Blend Mode
I selected Screen mode to lighten the image, this will usually make the image to light but by clicking on the arrow next to 100% and moving the slider to 25% for this images, I lighten the image to the exposure I want.
Blend Mode – Screen 25%
I selected Multiply mode to darken the image, this will usually make the image to dark but by clicking on the arrow next to 100% and moving the slider to 25% for this images I darken the image to the exposure I wanted.
Blend mode – Multiply 25%
Exposure Adjustments in Camera Raw using the Exposure slider
If your exposure is over or under exposed you can make adjustments with the exposure slider in Camera Raw. I had already worked with this image and saved it as a tif. In Photoshop if you go to File – Open As the image can be opened in Camera Raw like the original raw image.
File-Open As
To select a tif or jpg file by left clicking on it.
Select the tif or jpg file to open in Camera Raw
In the Open As dialog box to the right of Open As at the bottom of the dialog box click on the arrow and select Camera Raw for the file to open in Camera Raw.
Select-Open As-Camera Raw
I had already processed this image. In order to demonstrate how to make an exposure composition I have moved the exposure slider the left to -0.50 which under exposes the image and makes the image darker. If I had moved the exposure slider to the right to +0.50 it would make the image lighter and over exposed the image.
-0.50 exposure Slider
I moved the exposure to the left +0.50 stop to 0 to lighten the image to the exposure I liked best. This is also the exposure that I captured in the Camera. I try to expose and crop the image in the Camera to create the best possible file. My goal as a photographer is to use Photoshop to make a good image better not make a poor image usable. In Photoshop Elements 11 and CS6 you can make adjustments up to 5 stops plus or minus but I find that if you have over of under exposed the image by more than 2 stops your recovery efforts will brings poor results.
xposure slider adjustment to 0.00
