Quick Fix: A New Crop Brings New Life To a Photo
Crop and tweak color to emphasize a subject
![March 13 FIX IT FAST AFTER.jpg](https://www.popphoto.com/uploads/2019/01/17/MDN4W3EEA55WBQEJIEITVQ3JBA.jpg?auto=webp)
When we saw Vincent Constan-tino’s photo of a Chinese farmer along the Li River, we were reminded of Jean-François Millet’s paintings. We thought it would be strengthened with a tighter crop to emphasize the solitary figure.
The photographer’s JPEG file had enough resolution for the crop, which also allowed us to put the subject more off-center, moving into the frame’s space.
In Adobe Photoshop CS6, we took out some blue and green with Curves to produce a warmer color balance. We found the sharp background detail too “crunchy” and distracting; we used the Field Blur filter from the Blur Gallery to soften it. Using a gradient mask on the blurred layer let us apply blur progressively more toward the top of the image.
Total time fixing: 15 minutes.
![httpswww.popphoto.comsitespopphoto.comfilesimportembeddedfilesimce_uploadsmarch_13_fix_it_fast_before.jpg](https://www.popphoto.com/uploads/2019/01/17/DFQ7T3ELDRK7H45RQPZEPEDGZI.jpg?auto=webp&optimize=high&width=100)