Darkening the background behind a subject forces all of the attention on it, and that's one of the keys to dramatic photography. The background doesn't have to be black -- it can just be diminished in brightness. To do that, I usually use the burn tool on about 50% opacity. You can also make a duplicate layer (command/ctrl J) in Photoshop and then apply the burn tool. In that way, you can adjust the opacity of the layer until you like what you see or start over again without affecting the original.
I photographed this wreathed hornbill yesterday in a beautiful bird park in Bali, Indonesia. My photo tour group loved getting close to many exotic and unusual species of birds, and we spent a very productive two hours there. Actually, you could easily spend a lot more time because there are so many photo ops. I took the picture of the hornbill with only a 200mm lens, and you are seeing the entire uncropped composition.
0 Comments