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Local Adjustments in Street Photography

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Street photography can be seen in many different styles. Close up, in a person’s face, from a distance, of a crowd or from a crowd. Street photos are also found in color or monochrome.

One way to make sure your street photography stands out is to think outside the box when it comes to post processing.

And one way to do that is to utilize local adjustments.

Local Adjustments in Street Photography

Lightroom and ON1 Photo RAW contain non-destructive local adjustments. These are commonly in the form of brushes, gradient, and radiant filters.

The photograph you see here is a street photo made in Chinatown in New York City. I purposefully framed the man on the right side of the frame although his legs are pointing right. Normally I would compose someone like this on the left, so his legs are directing to the other side of the frame.

However, I enjoyed the scene to his left more than what was to the right. I loved the light and shadows near the top of the frame.

To enhance the look of the composition I used local gradient adjustments to blur and darken the left side of the frame. Doing so brought out more details on the right side of the frame and called more attention to the man sitting on the chair.

 Don’t be afraid to use local adjustments, no matter the style of street photography you make. The local adjustments you implement do not have to do anything drastic, like blurring areas. They could be simple dodge and burn effects, like what you would do in a darkroom.

Think about it.

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