As part of my Fine Art processing in mono, I usually try to beef up the drama of the sky.  We all like to see the brilliant whites of clouds , against the near balck skies.  So how is it best done ?

Well here is a quick & easy 2 step process in Photoshop to help you get that dramatic sky.  The results can be seen below

Before & After

Read on by clicking below

2 Step Process

1. Add a gradient layer.  Ensuring you are using the default black foreground & white background in your pallet, click on the “create gradient layer” at the bottom of your layer pallete, as below

You should see a black gradient added to your shot.  Click “reverse” to ensure the gradient starts black from top of shot.

2: Now highlight your gradient layer, in the layers pallet & then change the “blend mode” (at top left) to “Overlay”.

You will now find all the white areas of the sky remain unchanged from original shot, yet the greys of skies become much darker.  Remember you can change the opacity of the gradient layer to get the effect you want & if need be use a layer mask to bring back some detail from original shot.

Anyway, have a play & let me know how you get on    Here’s saying ciao until the next Friday Freebie

(Read more Photography Tutorials here )

Capturing a strong diagonal in a shot, can add strong structure to the end image. Add in to the equation shallow Depth of Field & you can further control where the viewers eye will fall in the shot.

In the example above the guitar strings & neck provide the strong diagonal. Your eye is automatically drawn to it & follows the line. Now to ensure the viewers eye stops where you want it, then use a shallow DOF to ensure that specific point is in focus & nothing else. So here I wanted the viewer to focus on the left hand of the guitar player. By using f/1.8 , prefocusing on the hand & then recomposing the shot, I was able to capture the strong diagonal & focus the viewers eye to where I want on the shot

Anyway, have a go & let me know how you get on

(Read more Photography Tutorials here )

In the example below I have used a 50mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.8.  Pre focus on the eyes to ensure they are pin sharp, by moving your focus point accordingly.   The shallow depth of field will now soften all the other features not in the focus range , giving even more impact to the eyes.

To get a better view of how effective this is, here is a 100% crop of same shot

Hope this has been of some use. Have a go & let me know how you get on

(Read more Photography Tutorials here )