When I am shooting, I like to try new things, especially after I nail the old things. If I am focused correctly, often times, I will think in "photoshop mode" and consider how I might tweak the image later. Sometimes, I can't see it. When I shoot something and "yono" my LCD and think maybe it didn't work, sometimes I move on instead of working it out better. More times than not, those images do not make it in to the "raw selects" folder to get further editing and retouching. But, sometimes I sift through the forgotten and see things differently. Twiddling around in Photoshop and suddenly, the forgotten is brought back to life. Then I wish I had worked with a setting more, instead of moving on. I'm not afraid to beat a dead horse, especially if I think I can Photoshop it and make it appear to be alive.

Here is a shot from a recent shoot. It didn't do much for me. I liked the doors but didn't really want to spend too much time there because there were so many more cool things to shoot in this old building. This shot did not make the initial cut.

Yeah, it's a girl standing in front of some big doors. There was plenty of detail in her face and on the door, but it wasn't going to start the process for world peace or anything. I think I did a few more shots with a tighter crop, then we moved on.

But I ran through the discarded images and this one struck me differently. There is a glow across the center of the door, though not much shadow to really emphasize it. Slapping some more dramatic lighting might spruce things up a bit.

The first thing I did was stretch the bottom half of the image with a transform selections to make her taller. Normally, there might be a line at the top of the transform selection but there wasn't anything discernible. I did some light noise removal and smoothed her skin texture a hair (literally). I did a high pass sharpen on the door and wall set to 'soft light' and lowered the opacity. I masked some curves adjustments to darken specific large areas. I colorized with the door with a red layer on 'soft light' and lowered the opacity. Then I used my dodge/burn actions to add highlights and shadows to the door. I did a masked curves adjust to darken the floor as it moved away from her feet. I did a liquify on her legs just a tad.

Then I liked this shot a lot more.

I was happy with the above image. It could use a little cropping, maybe. Really, in 15 minutes, I went from not liking this image to pulling it out of the trash and liking it. Consider it recycled.


I threw a mixed curves adjustment on it to get a different look. I think I like the one above better.