About the Image(s)

I enjoy street photography but it’s always difficult to get all the elements in the right place at the right time. With compositing, you can make a story, which is what I did with this series of images all taken in the same Gothic district of Barcelona last year. I really liked the Story cafe backdrop but needed something interesting to put in front of the entrance. Down the block, this man was eating gelato on the sidewalk and next door was another restaurant with these floating lights that helped fill in the blank space of the entryway.

I cut out the man eating ice cream, matched the exposure with a Curves adjustment and placed him in front of the Story Cafe background. Similarly, I placed the floating lights in the cafe using a Lighten adjustment to isolate the lights themselves. I used Selective Color to emphasize some of the elements and then classic radial gradients to add shading and light in various places, including a vignette.