Short Demo Video of Grasslands in the Late Afternoon

I did a zoom demo today, and I wanted to share it here with folks. The whole thing took about 1 hour, start to finish.

The first thing for a subject like this is to crop things. I’ve tried this photo before, with a big sky, but it was too flat for me. There’s not enough there. I’m also painting square, so the format has to change anyways. I chose to zoom in on the trees in the mid ground, and went from there.

These photos are a little too dark for my tastes, so I lightened up the values as well. Truthfully, it probably really was more like my painting anyways. Photos tend to have a habit of crushing and combining the values of things. So, the darks become much darker than they do normally, and likewise for the lights. Regardless, I made the decision that I thought was right for the subject- more like in the shadows means more color play with, create compliments for, etc.

Here’s the video-