Caged Stairs

[evacguy]

These are a set of stairs up to a pedestrian bridge over the Thames at Victoria Dock in London Docklands. I was at height almost opposite the stairs on the upper balcony of the EXCEL exhibition centre. I like the way the light comes through. Any suggestions on how I can edit this to make the person stand out more?

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/22
• 1/200 sec
• ISO 800

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/22
• 1/200 sec
• ISO 800

 

[evacguy]

You may try clarity, although I doubt doing any global adjustments would help. Try using a mask on the person to either get them to pop or tone down the cage.

Global changes don't work, at least I can't get them to work on this. I also tried masking the person, but the person and the mesh are adjusted so does not look right.

 

[evacguy]

Having a play at work, so just MS Photo. I boosted clarity and added a vignette to focus attention more in the middle. It makes her stand out more through the screening but does the same to the stairs. I'd need to mess with it at home on a real program to do something with it. The key is going to be a mask for her, and then boost only the blacks to try and keep the grey where it's at. At least that's where I'd start. Someone else may have a different idea.

View attachment 39610

I remasked the person, then duplicated and inverted the mask. Instead of working on the mask of the person I worked on the mask fo everything else. I decreased the dehaze and clarity and worked on the point curve, increasing the drk area sligthly and decreasing the light area slightly. I think its bettere, with the person standing out more. The result is much better than what I achieved when I was working on the person mask. What do you think?

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II
• 200.0 mm
• ƒ/22
• 1/200 sec
• ISO 800

 

[Gaz]

Perforated metal screen is doing its job. As the person is already showing as shadow through the perforations, have you thought of masking her and increasing her exposure?

 

[evacguy]

Perforated metal screen is doing its job. As the person is already showing as shadow through the perforations, have you thought of masking her and increasing her exposure?

Hi Gary, thanks for the comments. I have masked her and created an inverse mask. When trying to make her stand out it didn’t really work, I think because possibly the mesh is also changing. It seems to me more effective to adjust the inverse mask to make her stand out more.