Behind the Lens

The early crisp February sun screams through the packed houses on Oxford Street in Rochester. What lies before me but a toy car, frosted from the frigid night. No visible owner, it sits lonely, desolate, and questionable in the median for the morning commuters to ignore. I take the moment to capture. These things I find intriguing, and I ask questions, or create scenarios as to how this car ended up here, who left it, why it was left, etc.... You can see things out of place all the time along side a road, most people ignore them as white noise and a eye sore, but I see curiosity and imagination.

To process I decided to make a "Bleach Bypass". This is done by making a copy of your background and making the blending mode "overlay" (makes it super contrasty) and turning the opacity down to about 30%. Then you make a channel mixer adjustment layer, click monochrome and play with the three sliders to get desired tone, then turning that opacity down to 30% as well. It might take some fooling around but you can make your own changes as needed.