For this exercise I used a picture that I took as part of a series in January when I was working on a project based on winter in a British seaside resort which I was considering using for my fourth assignment. In the end I didn’t use these picture but this one seemed a good subject for this exercise. I do not particularly like this picture but when I took it I liked the idea of the fluorescent green jacket worn by one of the walkers brightening up what was a cold and dull day.
In the original picture the figures are quite prominent although the sea wall to the right does tend to make a viewer look into the distance away from the walkers.
To try and make the walkers more prominent I have lightened the rocks in the above their heads and the sand to their left. I also used a graduate filter to darken the sea wall so it is less distracting to the viewer. I obviously could have tried cropping the image to make the figures more prominent by removing the distracting sea wall but I felt that would not satisfy the brief for this exercise.
Making the figures less prominent was difficult given the bright jacket the man of the right was wearing. In the picture below I tried to make the people less obvious by adding emphasis to other elements on the frame. I started by adding a graduated filter to darken the sky, increase its contrast and saturation giving a brighter blue sky with the wind farm in the distance becoming more obvious. After this I darkened the rocks so they become a much more dominant feature. I also increased the saturation of the red ice cream banner in the top right and used a brush with a high clarity setting to add some texture to the concrete wall and path in an attempt to add something visually interesting to what was a dull area of the frame.
While the figures are still an important part of this frame I believe that they are much less prominent than in the original frame.
People and Place 