Cutter to Content: Case Study

Powwow at The Fort in Morrison, Colorado during Tesoro Cultural Center’s annual Indian Market and Powwow offers spectacular photographic opportunity because the dancers in competition are up close and personal in the small arena. You don’t need a 500MM lens and the concomitant difficulties of size, monopod, access, and cost.

However, visitors are also up close behind the dancers, and they cannot easily be thrown out of focus to highlight the main subject and eliminate distractions. Inevitably there is always someone in the background in a garish shirt or at an unattractive angle.

Original image capture with cluttered background of expert young hoop dancer at Tesoro Indian Market and Powwow

Case study of an expert, young hoops dancer. In spite of the speed of the action, the facial expression is meaningful and the composition highlighting the face inside a hoop is a treat. A videographer and spectator spoil the impact. I tried several techniques to create an art-worthy project.

Image of expert young hoop dancer at Tesoro Indian Market and Powwow with background darkened for impact and focus

Image 1: I simply darkened and blurred the background elements on a layer, doing this three times.

Image of expert young hoop dancer at Tesoro Indian Market and Powwow with selective background in watercolor style

Image 2: Going back to the original, I used about 100 patch tool selections to paint a watercolor look.

Final composite utilizing multiple techniques to create artistic image of Image of expert young hoop dancer at Tesoro Indian Market and Powwow

Image 3: Because neither of the manipulations seemed correct and believable, I combined the original (with only one burning and blurring layer) and the watercolor version on top. The watercolor layer opacity was reduced to 50%. The really distracting details (such as the videographers watch face and the tent poles) were removed on the original underneath. The background people now seem believable while adding both depth and meaning.