When Smell is Better Focus

"Stop!'  Rosco said, "Take a picture!"  Of what? I asked.  "Well, of the horse," he said as if it were obvious.   "I don't see any horse," I replied.  Rosco was incredulous.  "You don't?? It's smellable right over there!" and he indicated with his nose. I looked and, sure enough, through the brittle winter bramble there was a horse staring back at us.  "Oh yeah...." I said. "Take a picture!  Take a picture!" Rosco said impatiently.

But back home, Rosco was disappointed.  "You can't hardly see anything," he said in a hang-doggie bark.  "It's all that bramble stuff."  "Well,  I center-focused on the horse," I replied, "but  I think the two moss-covered trees got in the way."  "You could smell it clear as day," Rosco argued.  "I'm sure," I said, "but vision isn't always as clear as smell."

Rosco wanted me to "do something" to make the horse more visible through the occluding brush.  I thought maybe the horse would stand out more if I converted the picture to black-and-white.  After switching to greyscale, I used our new Lightroom gadget to tone down the white highlights on the right of the barn so that they looked less blown out.  I then upped the "black" values of the trees and increased the overall contrast.  But still the horse was too hidden from view.  

So, as a last resort, I used Photoshop to spotlight the center of the picture, with the idea of using that to lead the eyes to the intended focus of the picture   After modulating the percentage this resulted in a "vignetting" or darkening of the outer edges of the picture, an equalizing of the blown out portions of the barn wall and a spot-lighting of the center.  This worked ... sorta... but only if one knew the horse was there in the first place.

"Sorry, Roski,"  I said, "not everything works out always.  But here, chew on this bone.  Today will be good one way or the other.