Close

This was an experiment in processing. There's been lots of noise on the net about the image processing that went into the movie "300" and trying to reproduce that look. So I was messing around with some ideas and then went a bit of a different direction. So there's a fair bit of Photoshop going on here.

The crop really emphasizes the title, "Close". It feels claustrophobic and forces you to deal with the intense stare. It also has an incompleteness that adds interest for me (the crop above the chin, for example).

As an aside, Photoshop CS3 really rocks.

Snow Patrol

Not a whole lot to say here except that I wanted this shot and waited for it (and took lots of attempts). People move rapidly at concerts, turns out. I really wanted the streaming blue light with one distinctive pair of hands raised with the lead singer out of focus.

Concert photography may push me over the edge for an 85mm f/1.2. My 70-200 f/2.8 is a fabulous lens but another 2 stops would be huge. This was ISO 800... my 10D (yes, due for replacement) is significantly better at 800 than 1600.

Iain

This was shot with a white foam board background and one beauty dish. 1/250 @ f/16 probably. The beauty dish is just above his face and the camera is right under the dish, maybe 2 ft. away. I like the tones in his hair and his expression.

I'm going back and forth on the highlight in the upper left. At this small size, it bugs me a little, but full screen (in a better color profile) I really like it. I have a second version where I Photoshopped that out with a gradient. For the moment, I'll go with this because it's how I shot it.

EDIT: OK, I like it this way. On the dark background it works for me. On Flickr's white page it was bugging me.