So I have this picture, and I have no clue as to what I can do to make it look interesting in any way. Can anyone give me some advice on what kind of processing I can do to help this picture out?
Do you still have this book to photograph? One thing I really like to do when I take photos of books or written words is to focus on one specific word or phrase. That is really hard to do when you're shooting straight on. If you could change the perspective a bit, you wouldn't need to "do" anything to make it more interesting.
Think about why you took this picture, and why you chose this page specifically...
I just took a quick browse through some photos tagged with "words" or "book" and there are a lot of cool perspectives you could find just by looking through other photographs. :)
@sdpace Unfortunately I don't still have access to the book. I'm stuck with this picture. I'll definitely look into ways to photograph books for next time though, so thank you :)
The main reason I wanted to take a picture of this book was for the art. Maybe I can try cropping out some of the other details and see where I can go from there...
I think it is about thinking why you are taking it, what inspired you to focus on this book, page and picture? I like the suggestions Space has made, but also, if you feel nostalgia for when you read this as a kid, how can you add that feeling to the picture, if you thought it scary, then similarly, what can you add through lighting, processing, blur etc, to bring that emotion to it and so on. don't think that's been any help at all....
@miranda haha, it did help :) I just re-did the picture and focused on the drawing that's in it. I'm still not happy with it, but I think it's a little better than before at least. Thanks!
what I would do is convert the whole picture to sepia, duplicate the layer and add a mask layer blur the duplicate image with a light gaussian blur then using the mask layer sharpen just the picture in the book leaving the rest of the image blurred, then I would adjust the brightness and contrast down to give a tobacco brown colour to the photo,
If you edit the original photo, you might try changing the background color (neutral? contrasting? matching? to the foreground). Sepia is a good suggestion. My photoshop has a vintage type choice too which might look good.
it's not the processing that's the problem, it's the picture. Try and take it from a different and interesting angle, perhaps one that a regular reader wouldn't view a book from, if that make any sense.
The most important aspect of any picture is good composition, and that's important when you take the picture, not after.
@asrai Ooh, I think I may have to try that out just for fun. Thank you so much for the detailed answer!
@daisy I originially tried taking the color out of the background, but it still looked kind of bleh. Maybe I should try again with something more contrasting. Thanks :)
@vikdaddy@barrymikhal I totally understand this. Unfortunately, I was just trying to get a quick picture in before going to sleep. The result was a boring shot that lacked creativity. :/ Thanks though.
@clarissajohal Haha, thanks anyway! I really like that idea.
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Think about why you took this picture, and why you chose this page specifically...
I just took a quick browse through some photos tagged with "words" or "book" and there are a lot of cool perspectives you could find just by looking through other photographs. :)
The main reason I wanted to take a picture of this book was for the art. Maybe I can try cropping out some of the other details and see where I can go from there...
I think it is about thinking why you are taking it, what inspired you to focus on this book, page and picture? I like the suggestions Space has made, but also, if you feel nostalgia for when you read this as a kid, how can you add that feeling to the picture, if you thought it scary, then similarly, what can you add through lighting, processing, blur etc, to bring that emotion to it and so on. don't think that's been any help at all....
Still not good, but oh well. Maybe next time!
The most important aspect of any picture is good composition, and that's important when you take the picture, not after.
@asrai Ooh, I think I may have to try that out just for fun. Thank you so much for the detailed answer!
@daisy I originially tried taking the color out of the background, but it still looked kind of bleh. Maybe I should try again with something more contrasting. Thanks :)
@vikdaddy @barrymikhal I totally understand this. Unfortunately, I was just trying to get a quick picture in before going to sleep. The result was a boring shot that lacked creativity. :/ Thanks though.
@clarissajohal Haha, thanks anyway! I really like that idea.