P#12: An Awe-Inspiring Ice Climbing Photograph

A Photographer's Best Friend

Charlie Borland: In this ice climbing picture, you have this massive glacier (also taken in Alaska) with this small, little ice climber climbing a wall that looks really fabulous against the scale.

One thing about this photograph is that it was an overcast day in Alaska. You had white snow and a white sky. It was very, very bland and boring. I think all the elements were there for a great photograph but the lighting was horrible.

One of the phrases I've been using in the last few years is, "Photoshop - my new best friend."

I actually took this image into Photoshop and I added the contrast. I selected the sky separately and I really made those clouds ominous and dark and stormy. Same thing with the snow and the glacier and the climber, I added a lot of contrast. (click the image for a larger version)

Then I ended up tinting the overall photograph to be blue. Blue gives a feeling of cool or cold and that sort of thing.

I took an image I think that was really not going to go anywhere and added a lot of impact just simply by taking it into Photoshop and playing around with it.

Audri Lanford: It's hard to imagine that this image originally was bland.

Charlie Borland: Yes, but if you saw the before and after, you would clearly see the amazing difference. In fact, I have photographer friends who won't even pull the camera out if they are skiing up on a mountain and it's overcast because there's no texture to anything. It's so flat, no contrast.

Here, thanks to Photoshop, I was able to go in and really create a completely different photograph than the shot I captured.

To Sum Up

Just because a shot doesn't come out the way you want it to doesn't mean you should give up on it. As Charlie Borland's ice climbing picture proves, Photoshop can indeed be a photographer's best friend.