“Angel” | Nikon D80 + Sigma 105mm | Prints | How-To behind the fold…

This was the very first photo I took with the new macro lens.  The subject matter was chosen for merely one reason: that it was the first thing I saw when I walked out of the back door of our home.  The original, or full size view is not the most interesting of subject matter, one might say.  It is just an old bird fountain that was given to us by my wife’s grandmother.  I actually like it being in the backyard, but it is not something people flock to photograph.

When I get anything new for the camera I am much like a kid in a store who has just purchased an action figure and is walking out of the store with his mom.  I can’t wait to tear apart the packaging and start playing.  When I opened my back door to walk outside, new macro lens freshly mounted on my D80, I moved over to the fountain to take a few shots.

Now, obviously the final version has some Photoshop treatment to it.  What I did only involved a few quick steps that I will outline here.  I brought in the photograph and moved the base layer to a new layer (something I always do and cannot really fully explain logically).  Then, I used the only third-party plugin that I have installed right now, which is Alien Skin Exposure.  Exposure is rather nifty and I have used it to convert several color images to black & white as you can also easily control the grain, giving your work some additional grit, should you so desire.

I used the “Special - Cross Processed Agfa Optima” filter in the Color Film area to convert the photo.  This was done on a copy of the base layer.  I then duplicated the base layer and converted it to black and white.  The Alien Skin layer blending mode was changed to soft light and some minor adjustments to curves were applied.  Then I was done.  I thought about leaving the image as black & white but it didn’t seem to carry the same weight so I opted for some color variation of the original.

For those of you interested in some of the technical aspects of the original, here is a screen shot of the properties: