Control An Overpowering Midground in Photoshop
Balance is something that we strive for in photography. If there is a strong imbalance the image can lose its purpose and focus. A good photo consists of three major elements, a foreground, a midground, and a background. To compose a really good image we need to try to fill as many of these areas with interesting subjects. If we only have an interesting subject in one area we need to ensure that is where the focus is. One of the most common ways to focus viewers attention is by using vignettes, we have several tutorials on vignettes. This tutorial will show you a different method to control an overpowering midground in photoshop.
Controlling An Overpowering Midground
In this example photo by Christine Mendoza on Unsplash, there is only one thing of interest, and that’s the Troop of Horses in the foreground. The problem is the green in the midground is so bright and strong in the image that it is impossible to hold focus on the horses without being drawn to the midground. By controlling the midground we will shift the focus to the foreground where the horses are grazing, this will also make it much easier for the viewer to maintain interest in the foreground. Because the main issue with the midground resides in colour, that will be the element that we’ll target in this tutorial.
How To Control An Overpowering Midground in Photoshop
1. Click on the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon.
2. Select Channel Mixer.
3. Change the Layer Blend Mode.
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4. Select Multiply as the new Blend Mode.
5. In the Channel Mixed Properties panel select the Monochrome tick box.
6. Starts playing with the sliders. Because Green is the main focus for this edit, we moved the green slider left.
This will reduce the influence that the Green Channel has on the overall RGB Channel and dull down its presence.
7. Adjust all of the sliders to manipulate the channels and control the midground.
8. Keep checking the overall effect of the adjustment. It’s very easy to overdo it so make sure you don’t lose control.
Try to avoid blowing out any colours and details such as this where the bushes look unnatural.
9. Just to help force focus on the foreground we used the gradient tool to add a very small vignette.
After applying this really simple fix to the image, you can see how we controlled the foreground in a photo. The horses really stand out against a muted foreground, but more importantly, it’s now a lot easier to stay focused on the foreground
Photo by Christine Mendoza on Unsplash
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