Photography "Plugged" into Photoshop

I love this image I shot on Saturday. It tells a beautiful story. Look at the elements in the image. A proud uncle giving his speech; his hand, adjusting his red tie in a splendid satisfaction. Master of Ceremony, an aura of enthutiastic charm surrounds him. The bride-to-be, touched, on the verge of tears. Her fiancé, next to her, a pensive smile. In the foreground, Uncle Richard, listening attentively, taking it all in, a beam of supportive approval.

It's a moment captured in time. Deliberative human emotions splashed with colorful personalities and characters. Yet, something is wrong. This photograph will probably pass us by as just a shot, not taking another look from us after the quick 1 second look....only because the essence is lost in technicality!

A complex scene as this, invites the viewer to explore the deep details of the image. To make the experience meaningful, detract the viewers from distractions and focus on the subjects that are important. To achieve that, remember the key rules.

1. Bright and colorful regions attract interests
2. Dark regions remove interest
3. Contrasty regions cause the viewers to pause.

Notice now that we have a few issues. Most of the technically interesting part of this image are found in the areas that we don't want the viewers to see. The bright and tall white vase in the foreground, Uncle Richard's white shirt, those utensils and glasses on the table, saturated colors creating major distractions. We really don't have any point of interest.

What we can do is to first convert the image to black and white so that we can fix the main issues in the photograph. We then tone down the uninteresting areas and increase the brightness and contrast on the faces. That by itself is half the battle. We then go into the details of retrieving the texture back into the faces that are overblown in highlights.

Then, finally, throw the colors back into the photograph by toning it down low to pull the viewers in since the bride is wearing such a beautiful red dress, red tie of the speaker, etc. We don't want to lose those. The image would have done well in B&W but a splash of color will make it look more exciting. It's a Chinese engagement after all and the color red is good luck! Note: Got a request to remove the vase completely. I suppose it's warranted. Cloning tool took me 2 minutes.