hauksdottir opened this issue on Jul 22, 2007 · 10 posts
hauksdottir posted Sun, 22 July 2007 at 7:31 AM
So I made a duplicate image, with layers, and changed the blur to a zooming radial blur, zooming various amounts on each layer and blending the result. This was much better. It helped pull the focus towards the butterfly. However, even though frozen in a moving field, there was minimal zoom at the center, and certainly not enough to call attention to the golden butterfly lost in that golden haze.
Time for another layer! This one was slipped betwwen the butterfly and the background. I made a gradient from black to transparent, and centered a radial gradient fill behind the butterfly. It worked like an inverse spotlight to direct the eyes. :) Next steps were to change blending mode and lessen the opacity so that it was quietly there, adding depth, increasing tonal richness, focusing the viewer's eyes, but not calling attention to itself.
Finished image in the gallery has a narrow and discreet frame, making the scene appear more vast.
And at some point between tweaks and before upload, there is the realization that this isn't a photograph anymore.