Vanity
Spontaneity still demonstrates the remarkable value photographs can hold at telling the truth. I think no matter how perfect the pose, a perfectly timed shot, no matter how random, can never be surpassed or faked.
Vanity, a portrait of Michael Gabrielsen, was just that, a random joke. Neither of us intended it to turn into anything spectacular. For that matter, it was absolutely surprising when it turned out the way it did. Especially considering the original photo, as there was a lot going against it.
A quick look at the original photo shows severe under-exposure. Given that it was nearing sunset and we were shooting very close to the sun, a low exposure was necessary so as to not completely wash-out the sky and background.
Also, I believe this shot was auto-corrected by the camera, and not set manually. So really no steps were made to prepare the camera for this environment, and it does show.
Thankfully, Photoshop's "Shadow & Highlights" feature let me substantially improve the exposure of the image. Usually this isn't always suitable, but considering the other steps we were about to do, it worked very well in this instance.
At this time the NoiseNinja plug-in was also used to filter out as much of the camera noise as possible and provide some simple sharpening.
A "Photo Filter" adjustment layer was used to add a orange-tinge that would be helpful for later.
The sunlight at this time was still quite white, but the orange did set rather strongly once we left the hill.
A "Brightness\Contrast" adjustment layer was used to increase both the brightness and contrast of the image.
"Shadow & Highlights" has an obvious tendency to produce an excess of grey, so the increased contrast created a balance between the different tones.
Finally, a "Hue\Saturation" adjustment layer was used to increase the saturation of the green and yellow hues. Increasing the orange-tinge of the clouds and the green of the hills.
Even now there are a few things I am unhappy about with the post-production work. For one, I think hills are a little too green.
That came as a surprise as earlier in the day the hills really where a strong and vibrant green. I think, had we taken the shot earlier in the afternoon, the hills would have been that colour regardless of any post-production work.
The other nit-pick is the shadow over the face. Obviously it is easily fixed, but still distracting nevertheless.