Today's Image: "Reading Statue"

Good morning and welcome back to Impacted Images. This is the image for today, "Reading Statue."


The image is actually a combination of these two pictures:

The main image above was taken with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens zoomed in to 91mm. I used 1/100th shutter speed and f-11 for maximum depth of field and sharpness. I chose ISO 125 for less noise. A Canon Speedlite 580EX II is at camera left, subject right, firing at 1/16th power.

This image was also taken with ISO 125, but for this shot I used 1/160th shutter speed and f-14.0.  The flash was behind the subject at camera right illuminating the side of the statue.



In Photoshop, I set one image atop the other and masked the second image out, leaving only the side lighting.  Next, I used a Brightness/Contrast layer on only the left side of the picture since I did not want to touch the right side at all.

I then used the Dodge tool on the face and hands of the statue and the Burn tool slightly on the right side to soften down the backlighting.

Finally, I used Alien Skin Exposure 3's Color Film filter and chose the Fuji Velvia 50 preset. This preset added contrast, brightness and some warmth to the photograph.

Here is the final image:

"Reading Statue"

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