When I first entered into photography with a mind to peruse it as a career, I was blown away by Photoshop and it's creative abilities. I had been attempting to paint again for the first time in 15 years, and whilst I was generally pleased with my ability to paint flowers, I still lacked the ability to paint a decent portrait! So I turned to photography to capture my portraits and photoshop to step up the creative aspect. Finally I had found my way of creating my visions, without feeling disappointed in my own abilities, or lack thereof! 😂
Layering several images was something that I learned very early on in my photoshop journey, and it allowed me to mix the different elements of images that appealed to me most, and create a vision without spending those tireless hours and boards of money on creating elaborate set designs and costumes.
As I entered into professional photography though it became more about the basics in editing. Retouching skin, lighting, background tidy ups etc. So it was an interesting challenge for me to see if I still had the old creative techniques I had learned 8-9 years ago, on this photoshoot!
This is my niece Flo. She's all singing, all dancing, theatre loving, but also loves racing Autograss. Her mum wanted a photoshoot for her that combined her two very contrasting passions.
We were however limited to our shoot location, as we had many plans for different types of dance inside the studio as well, with several costume changes. So we had to shoot the race car images, right outside the studio.
As you can see from the before photo, it's not the most beautiful of settings. I wanted to capture some of that sky in my shot, as a starting point for me to work around.
We were lucky with the weather as it had been a very random week of blazing sunshine and torrential rain. There was just the right amount of cloud coverage for me to get the look we wanted.
In post processing, I found a copyright free image of a road with clouds on the horizon. I masked my original image and layered it with this new one. Removing the majority of the skyline and forefront of the road, allowing me to blend the two images together. The blend was perfect! A very lucky selection indeed!
The hard task came with editing the mesh windows of the car to incorporate the new background, but with a little creative licence I got there in the end!
Once the general image was formed, I worked on lighting and colour adjustments to create a more cohesive look throughout the images, and to add a more dramatic and atmospheric effect.
Mum and daughter were both thrilled with the results, as was I.
I would love to get back into some more creative edits in the future. I shall have to make some time to pursue some personal projects!
