Task: Enhance the Chroma and Translucency of the Glass Beads

A Found Still Life
I’ve always been drawn to and fascinated by the play of light on glass. So when I saw this bottle casually displayed in a friend’s home, I reached for my camera. 

Post-Production: The Edits
The bottle was placed on the top edge of the bottom sash of a window, right up against the window screen. So even with a wide aperture, it was not possible to throw the background out of focus. Adding to the background clutter, the dark specks and vertical lines are from a picket fence right outside the window. They definitely needed to go.

Color of the Sea and Sky
The varying degrees of translucency in the cobalt blue beads is what provoked me to do take the photo. But the vivacity and brilliance of the color were lost in translation. Fortunately, a problem easily remedied in Photoshop.  An overall saturation move and selectively lightening and darkening specific areas of the beads to add shape and depth, I was able to recreate the color and translucency as I remembered it. It once again looked like the color of the sea and sky on a cloudless summer day.

Compositional Accent to Delight the Eye
The last area that needed editing was the foreground of the image. The bottle was perched on the edge of the window sash. The dark horizontal bar is the front edge of the sash. It needed to go. It pulls the viewer’s eye away from the center of interest.  

With the foreground white, do you now notice the refracted light and geometrically-shaped cast shadow? Visual elements easily overlooked before retouching. But now, a compositional accent to delight the eye.

Applying This Example to Your Next Photography Project
This simple still life offers guidance on how to evaluate what should be retouched in a given image. Ask yourself these questions.

• Are there elements in the photo that are distracting that should be minimized or removed?
• Should the lighting be enhanced or changed?
• Are there colors that should be made vibrant? Or, colors that should be muted?

Asking these three questions will get you started in the right direction. Follow this guidance and the project is sure to be a success.

Photography & Retouching:  ©Martha DiMeo 2018

Interested in licensing this photo for an upcoming project? Contact me with the details.