This month Nick Thomas takes a look a digital editing
In the previous issue of ESF I wrote about taking a waterproof camera with you on every fishing trip to capture memorable days. While having a camera with you on the bank will let you capture a snapshot of the day or a special fish, making the most of your photographs means being able to transform the image that the camera records when you press the shutter release into a finished photograph that will become a lasting memory.
Today with digital cameras and camera phones acquiring an image is much easier and cheaper than it used to be in the days of film, but lots of people don't make the most of their images. It's pretty rare that an image is optimum straight out of the camera; sometimes some basic cropping is all that's required, sometimes quite a bit of work is needed to transform the captured image into a good photograph.
In the old days if you were a serious photographer you learnt how to make wet prints, now the same operations are done on a computer or a tablet. Many years ago I built myself a darkroom and taught myself to make prints from black and white film. Over the intervening years I learnt the best techniques for cropping, changing contrast, dodging and burning which bring a negative to life in a large print. Many of these operations also apply to digital images and I still use a lot of the experience I gained in the darkroom to making photographs today.
There are many image editing programs and applications available which will do all the basic operations you need to transform an image and there are quite a few decent ones which are free to download onto your PC, Mac or tablet. A quick search on the Internet will set you up ready to improve your images.
The first operation in processing any image is cropping. At one level this has some basic functions like excluding empty space in the image and levelling the horizon or other elements - lakes are generally level. On a second level cropping is a vital operation to give maximum impact to the image composition and focus attention on the key elements within the image. There are no hard and fast rules on how to do this, but one much used approach to composition is the 'rule of thirds'. Take a look at images in newspapers and magazines and you'll notice that often the key element that the photographer wants to draw your eye is placed one third in from one side of the image or from the top or bottom, or both.
Once you are happy with the layout and composition the next steps are to optimise the exposure, contrast, colour balance and saturation of the image. A decent digital camera will usually make a pretty good job of getting these more or less right for an average image, but if you want a photograph that's a bit better than average you'll need to do a bit of tweaking. Experiment with small changes in brightness and contrast; a slight reduction in brightness and a small increase in contrast will often increase the impact of an image.
After that consider the balance of colours in the image, when an image is recorded the camera will make some corrections for the colour of light hitting the subject. Early morning or evening have always been the favourite times for photographers as the soft warm light gives warm saturated colours. If you take a photograph in the middle of the day in summer the light and colours can be a bit flat and a touch on the blue side. So a slight boost to saturation or vibrancy coupled with a nudge of the colour balance to warmer tones can do wonders for an image.
Finally, all digital images need sharpening as the last stage in processing. When the original image is captured on the camera chip it is slightly soft due to the way the different colours are recorded through filters onto a monochrome sensor. Image editing actions such as resizing the image can also soften the image as pixel information is shifted from pixel to pixel. Apply sharpening with care; the right amount will make the image 'pop' into life, too much will produce artefacts such as haloes around the edge of dark and light areas which make the image look very artificial.
To show the effects of this sequence of image processing operations I've put together a step by step series that show the key stages from starting image to finished photograph. The differences between each image are small, as they should be; if you make large changes you'll introduce visible processing artefacts. Each step in the process should make subtle improvements towards the final look and feel you want to achieve.
The image above is straight from the camera, a quick grab shot before returning the fish to the water so the composition isn't great and the shape of the camera image means there is too much empty space at the top and bottom.
Cropping the four sides of the image tightens up the composition, focussing attention on the carp and retaining enough of the rod and reel to show that the fish was caught on the fly.
This stage in processing has had some selective adjustments to darken the left and lower right corners, and then a slight decrease in brightness and increase in contrast was applied to the whole image.
At this stage the image has been given a slight increase in saturation and warming of the colour balance to compensate for the rather harsh summer afternoon light when the image was taken.
At this stage I've applied some selective blurring to the top and bottom of the image which replicates the selective focus that I'd get with an SLR lens and isn't possible with a compact camera. This further concentrates attention on the carp as the main subject while keeping enough detail in the rod and reel to retain the message that fish was taken on a fly.
The final image after sharpening to bring out the details in the carp's scales and to lift the main subject out from the background.
These are just the basics of processing a digital image and once you've practised them a few times you should find that you quickly get a feel for what's needed to transform an images into more than just a snap. Ultimately processing digital images is a mix of art and science; if you understand the basics of the science bits then you've got a free rein to explore the artistic side and learn further ways to improve your photography.
This is my final interpretation of the carp photograph. I converted the image to monochrome, brushed the colour back just over the carp and then cropped the image slightly at the top and bottom as a final tweak to the composition.
Looking at this photograph I can remember a still hot August day and a beautifully marked fish caught on a small foam beetle cast in front of the fish as it swum through the dappled sunlight shining on the surface of a shallow bay. I can remember the quiet of the afternoon on a small lake tucked away along narrow lanes in the rolling Welsh countryside with swallows dipping to pick insects from the surface of the water. I can remember spotting the cruising carp crossing a patch of sunlight, judging the distance and where to place the fly, making the cast and watching the furled leader turning over to drop the fly perfectly. I can remember waiting with anticipation as the fish slowly moved closer and closer to the fly. I can remember the fish diverting slightly and slurping down the fly, I can recall lifting the rod to tighten into the fish and the scream of my reel as the fly line and backing shot out through the rod rings and I can replay the next ten minutes of trying to keep the fish from heading into weed beds without over stressing my 6lb tippet until I managed to slide it into the landing net.
When I look at the photograph again, maybe many years from now, all of those memories will be recalled - without it that magical fifteen minutes could be lost forever. Best of all when the everyday troubles of life and work are occupying my mind, I can remember why I go fishing.
Nick Thomas lives in South Wales. He started fly fishing on Scottish hill lochs many years ago and continues to design, tie and fish flies for trout, carp, bass and anything else that’s going.