Selective processing and prominence

This exercise is concerned with the use of post processing to make a figure less prominent in an image already used for an earlier project.

I have written in the learning log that I view post processing very much as part of one's photography. It does not assist with choice of subject and only to limited degree with some technical issues, notably depth of field and focussing, but post processing can do much to alter the balance of light, colour and contrast within an image, all of which alter the balance.

I selected an image used for the exercise Making figures anonymous. Rather than simply altering the exposure or contrast, I used the quick selection tool within CS5 to select the woman's coat and scarf, and then used the hue and saturation tool to alter the colour of each to a duller shade:

The woman is slightly less prominent in the second image (in fact this conversion would have worked better in the context of the earlier exercise) as a result of using a colours that blend more with the background for her coat and scarf. Interestingly, the hue of the sky has changed slightly too.This seems to be a result of the upload as is not evident in the original images.

As an alternative, or in addition, the woman could be made smaller within the image using the free transform tool. This technique works in some circumstances where the background that is then left white can satisfactorily filled. This was not one of those circumstances.

The techniques to alter the balance of a photograph using post processing are familiar to me. This is a useful exercise to demonstrate one of the techniques for the particular circumstances here.