62 PPMAG.COM
REVAMPING
A REJECT
Caparas created the image on the left
during a workshop. At the time, he thought
it made sense to complement the yellow
drape with an orange background and tint
the image with green to match the green
accessories, he says. But it was all wrong.
“I didn’t like it.” He moved to flat lighting
on a white background using a white drape,
with the green rose removed. Later, he
salvaged the original image in Photoshop
using toning, liquify, frequency separation,
and background replacement, an edit that
took just 20 minutes (right).CHANNEL MASKING
SUCCESS
Caparas used two lights for this composi-
tion, one behind and above the subject and
one in front of and above the subject. He
could have done a simple edit but instead
used channel masking to give the image a
wow factor. “Forget dodge and burn,” he
says. “It’s actually harder. With channel
masking you already have the DNA in your
image to produce the drama and the impact
it deserves. And it’s so much easier.”