Today's Image: "Shoes and Lamp"

Welcome once again to Impacted Images. This is today's image overview, which features my image, "Shoes and Lamp."


This is the RAW, unprocessed image:

I took this photograph with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens zoomed in to 30mm.  I used 1/200th shutter speed and f-8.0 for depth of field and maximum sharpness. I tried to keep the noise low by using ISO 250. A Canon Speedlite 580EX II, which was triggered wirelessly, is at camera right, subject left firing at 1/16th power.

As you can see, the highlights in the shoes are almost blown out and the second subject, the lamp, is very dark.

In Camera Raw, I cropped the image more tightly and adjusted the Tint, Brightness and Contrast. I then headed inside Photoshop to continue working on the image.

Inside Photoshop, I painted out the flash and the curtains in the back. I then used both the Burn and Dodge tools to darken the highlights and lighten up the shadows.

Next, I applied a Levels adjustment layer and added a mask to keep the rest of the picture untouched but lighting up the lamp and the lamp shade.



I then used Alien Skin Exposure 3's Color Film filter and chose the Bleach Bypass preset to give the image an almost black and white look while still retaining some color.  I modified this preset in Exposure by adjusting the Contrast and the Cooling/Warming sliders.

This is the finished image:

"Shoes and Lamp"

Thank you for visiting Impacted Images. I will continue to post more image everyday.