The Mountaineer
Often when we have one chance to get our shot the photographer has to live with the background that is there. While sometimes we get so enamored with our subject that we forget to see the background. In either event the background can do a lot of damage to our composition. Today thanks to computer software we can alter the photograph or drop in an entirely new background.
This little fellow does not know if he wants to be here on top of this mountain of a rock. It’s a long way down and he is not quite sure and it looking for assurance or his rescuer. The photographer has used a fill flash to offset the subject form the background. This has worked well in filling in the shadows and taking down the background.
There are two things the photo-artist could do to modify this image. First the background has two primary distracting elements; the phone poles with lines and the white sky. These can be reduced or eliminated with cropping and cloning. The second thing we might consider is that the flash has done a nice job on the boy but the rock was also affected and has become over lit and a little fake looking, almost like a Hollywood rock. By selecting the rock and playing with the levels and contrast this can be altered.
Click on Image 
Modified 
July 17th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I am the photographer for this image. This is a photo of my son taken at a local park right down the road. He is actually looking over at my wife who was trying to get him to smile at the time.