4 March

Photo Painting: Fate At Rest

by Jon Katz

I had my photo editing masking workshop this morning with Andrew; we wrestled for nearly an hour with one photo I couldn’t figure out how to change.

We moved on to several others that came out well; I’m learning a lot.

This photo that I took of Fate sleeping in front of the woodstove was one I enjoyed working on; I’m happy with the way it came out.

It was a black-and-white taken with my Leica Monochrome. Fate so rarely rests that photos of her are always interesting to me. The sun was shining through a window and falling on her shoulders.

I put the photo into Lightroom and used the masking tool to highlight the “subject matter.” The software is built around AI, and as the system gets to know me, it does an excellent job of focusing on what I might want to highlight.

It chose Fate, and I used the color controls to highlight here and bring out both the detail in her coat and the light shining on her while leaving the rest of the photo alone.

I like this photo; it almost feels like a museum painting, the timeless still life of a sleeping dog.

1 Comments

  1. I love the bits of understanding that I am gaining from your photography study. Thank you, so much, for sharing your discoveries.

    Question: with this Leica picture of Fate, besides modulating the sunshine on her coat, did you also add some color to her coat? It seems a different black and white than the rest of the room. Thanks, again.

    1. I did Robin I added a touch of brown, which is how her fur looks when she’s been outside in the pasture. THe masking software permits me to strengthen her color and make it more realistic, while ignoring the rest of the photo..

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