PERFECT YOUR COMPOSITION IN POST-PRODUCTION
Take your compositions to the top of their game by spending the time to edit them back at your computer
Pressing the shutter button on your camera is rarely ever the end of the creative process when it comes to digital photography, as we have so much choice when it comes to editing programs and the tools that enable us to polish our pics. Even with film photography you have large amounts of creative control when developing your images in the darkroom, and it’s no different for the digital medium now. Image editing has always been part of the creative process.
You may be surprised to find that there’s a whole host of tweaks you can make to your shots to get the composition spoton. Of course, it’s great to get this as close to perfect in-camera where possible, but we’re going to show you some adjustments that can make an already great photo even better. These include correcting perspective distortion where vertical structures appear to lean in towards the middle of the frame, fixing a wonky horizon, or removing a distracting piece of litter from the foreground. Here’s how you can do it…
1
STRAIGHTEN UP A wonky horizon is the first thing we’ll spot in a landscape and will need correcting, unless you’ve intentionally shot at a jaunty angle for creative purposes. To do this, bring it into Photoshop CC and click on the Crop tool from the Toolbox to make it active. Then, in the Toolbar, grab the Straighten tool. Now you can draw over the horizon to make it perfectly level.
2
USE CONTENT-AWARE Usually when you rotate your picture to correct a wonky horizon you’ll have to crop inwards to make this change. You don’t have to lose these pixels, though, as you can tick the ContentAware option beforehand. You’ll lose less of your image when you crop it, as Photoshop will automatically predict and fill in the corners that you’d otherwise usually lose.
3
CROP OVERLAY With the Crop tool active head up to the Tool Options and click on the Overlay Options icon to change which overlay you want to see, if any. Here you can choose framing devices such as rule of thirds, golden spiral and golden ratio, which can help you frame up if you got it slightly wrong incamera. You can also cycle through the Crop Overlay options by pressing the O key.
4
RECOMPOSE WITH A CROP Drag in the corners of your crop box to change the composition of the image – what you include or leave out can have a huge impact on the final photo. Hold the Shift key as you drag the corner handles of the crop box in to keep the same aspect ratio, such as 2:3, or click on the drop-down menu to choose a set ratio. Alternatively, enter your own custom aspect ratio in the Tool Options.
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CORRECT PERSPECTIVE DISTORTION Hit Ctrl/Cmd+J to duplicate your image layer in Photoshop and then hit Ctrl/Cmd+T to put the picture into Free Transform mode. Now you can hold the Ctrl/Cmd key on the keyboard and drag the top corners of the bounding box outwards to prevent vertical structures like buildings appearing to lean in towards the middle of the shot. Hit Return when you’re done to set it in place.
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REMOVE DISTRACTIONS Sometimes you’ll have taken a great picture only to see a distraction in the scene that you didn’t notice at the time, like a piece of litter, which pulls the eye away from your focal point. In this shot the water reflection would look cleaner and less cluttered without some of the small stones in the water, so these distractions can be removed by painting over them with the Spot Healing Brush tool.