And Death Will Come

by Amber Worman
(Illinois)

This is a Halloween photo I took of my best friend at my parents ranch in Wyoming.

It was originally full sized but I cropped it for effect. I turned up the contrast and adjusted the color temp. I'm really proud of the outcome I think it would make a great 8 X 10


I'm certainly not averse to something a little 'off the wall' – and this is certainly one of our more unusual submissions!

Amber has used one of a photographer's most powerful tools to good effect here – the crop tool.

Many photographers are unwilling to get in really close to their subject, leaving far too much unnecessary detail taking up valuable photo real estate.

I recommend one of the first things to do with a photo you think could be improved is to get out the crop tool. Get rid of all the unnecessary stuff, and get in close to the real subject of your photo.

If you struggle on choosing which bits to leave out, have a read of this tutorial on how to crop.

Once you have the knack of what to cut out, have a go at it using software. There's a digital photography tutorial on using the crop tool here.

If I were to make a suggestion on Amber's crop – resize it a little!

Here's what I'm thinking; crop more vertically to keep the whole of the left eye in shot (right side eye as we look at the photo), but cut out most of the hair (and light) on the right of the frame.

I think this would give an even more gory effect as it loses the light – it would give the photo more of a closed-in feel.

By the way, well done to increase the contrast, and play with the colour temperature a little. Changes like this can really bring a picture to life. This downloadable course (free demo) has tons of information of post-processing and is well worth a look.

Thanks for the submission Amber, and I hope there are a few useful tips here for you.

Ed.