Red Channel

in

This was a (very quick) portrait of a dancer at East London Dance, where I was covering Collabo. I photographed her during the interval, although I took the photo really for myself: they tend to use the shots from the performers in action. I loved the dark red wall with her makeup:

I knew the makeup was uneven at the time, but I also knew this could be tidied up quickly in photoshop, and extending it across the bridge of her nose using the same technique would be simple enough.

I was wrong. 

Playing around with blending modes, brushes and hues (for a lot longer than I'm prepared to admit), it still didn't look right. And no matter what I did, it was ever so very slightly asymmetrical.

I was beaten. So - as I always do when I have a PS problem - I phoned my friend James for The Answer. He told me that yes, it could be done - but it wasn't as anywhere near as straightforward as I'd thought, and I'd been approaching it wrongly anyway.

What do do... I liked the picture, but didn't have the patience to start again. Well, I'd been approaching it with the belief that was all about the makeup, that it depended on it.

But what if it didn't? 

Selecting the red channel (less than three seconds' work) pretty much took care of the issue in a couple of clicks, producing a rather different picture. I might yet hire James to take care of it as I'd envisaged it, but in the meantime I'm happy with the result:

Breaks and burns

in

These two sets, shot for the British Red Cross, were for a series of pamphlets giving First Aid advice. Alas, the other sets are less blog-friendly: someone who'd had far too much to drink; a stroke; a heart attack; and a drug overdose.

Mixed bag

in

I had a week off... in the spirit of regular blogging, I've browsed my archives. The first image caught my eye, so I decided to search for other unseen portraits of ladies from the last couple of years.

Bees

in

I covered a series of pubic events at Victoria for Land Securities. The most interesting of which was a beekeeping session. Actually, even 'fascinating' doesn't do the lives of bees justice - they are incredible little creatures. Anyway, there's a happy colony at St. Ermin's Hotel‎, living on a balcony space, making honey and generally having a good time.

From the archives

in

I'm going through a bit of a phase where I'm reassessing my portfolio - there are a large number of images I like, yet which remain on my hard drives because they're not as strong - or didn't feel so at the time. Or perhaps it's just that I already have something similar in my portfolio. Here's one such picture. Usually I prefer a naturalistic look to my work, but going a little bit further and away from my usual ways of processing, this gets a new lease of life. And all of a sudden, I like it.