Page 3: Fall into Sunshine & Shade

While many natural objects are close-up in many non-panoramic landscape-orientation views of country sides, and a few photographs have animals as a still-life image, Paul Cezanne’s impressionistic style was the focus on my photos. However, whether objects are close-up or distant in my photographs, much attention is paid to depth and perspective along with the differing positions of sunlight and shadow, and resulting impact on color.

Despite none of the photos being manipulated in Photoshop to have an impressionistic distortion, images 001, 007, 018, and 023 were edited significantly. Color was changed and other modifications were made so the combination of natural light and the natural colors would be reproduced closer to how they appeared when they were photographed.

Aside from cropping image 001, I decreased the brightness by about -30 and increased the contrast by about +20, because the original photograph appeared incredibly bright with sunlight than when I captured the photo. Following Group 2’s “Basic Photo Editing and Sharpening” tutorial, I selected Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels. Through these color manipulations, one can more easily see the contrast of sunlight, shade, and the delicious intensity of bright autumn colors from the sun shining down on the leaves. In addition, one may be surprised by the similar characteristics of my photograph with the perspective and depth of Cezanne’s “Bend in Forest Road” painting, particularly the contrast of shadow and darkness of some leaves with the brightness of the other leaves.

In addition to cropping the image (to remove much of the incomplete tree on the right), the intense sunlight diminished the color intensity of the Neilson Farm-House’s exterior and the canon. To compensate color, I increased the Hue by about +15 and decreased the Saturation by -10. Following the “Basic Photo Editing and Sharpening” tutorial, I selected Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue / Saturation from the menu. Another artistic characteristic to note is how the farm house provides a frame of reference as an architectural element to the entire photograph, despite being in the bottom right corner.

While no Photoshop color manipulations per se were made to image 018, I “flattened” the image so the close-up vegetation appeared to be clearer. Unlike the “Basic Photo Editing and Sharpening” tutorial directions for sharpening, I selected Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen. Also, the image was cropped so that a greater focus of the image would be on the deer and less on the non-panoramic landscape of up-close vegetation.

Aside from cropping image 023 (to focus more of one’s attention on the cows and less on the roadway), the brightness and contrast were significantly manipulated so the colors are much closer to how they appeared when the photograph was taken. The brightness was decreased about -25 and the contrast was increased by about +10, so that the intensity of the ambient light remained within the gradually decreasing intensity of the final photos.

NOTE: All references to Paul Cezanne Landscape artistic characterizes were cited from Cezanne, Paul: Landscapes” at and from my two courses in Art Appreciation with Helen Langa, Ph.D. at American University.