“OMG i love the close up of the girl in the mask.
lemme know if i can buy a print!”

That’s an actual verbatim quote from the host who allowed me to shoot at their place for my May Shooting window.

Just this week I started putting together a Dropbox folder containing a few previews from the shoots I’ve done at various locations. Mostly to show hosts what I’ve been up to on their property and also as a way to show potential host what I’m looking to do.

20150520 Wingless F  Set 15 Image 06 – Girl in the mask.

The images I have out on Dropbox are just previews all that has been done is auto levels and resized to 1000 pixels on the largest side. Certainly not 100% finished even my best images get a little nudge here and there.

I was looking at way to finish “Girl in the Mask” so I asked for some advice from my wife (a most excellent photographer). She offered that it needs a little more red.

I could see her point the braiding around Wingless F’s top was a red floral design (roses i think).  Unfortunately it was the only red in the composition and it looked slightly out of place.

I thought about adding red to the room but the color scheme in the room was awesome and I felt I couldn’t add red to the background without it looking garish. Then I thought, how about I do it backwards and take elements from the room and change the way Wingless F looks instead.

Using the sideboard on the back wall and the throw pillow in the chair as inspiration I changed the floral design from red and white to a more marmalade tabby cat design. I also felt I need to nudge the eye color to help with tying the colors and cat theme together.

I like it. I’ll see what size my May Shooting window host would like and I’ll get it printed and give it to them. After all flattery goes a long way in my book ;0)

Near the end of the shoot we decided to try out a posing with a hat that we found at the location. It was a nice color and matched the cardigan that Wingless F wore when she arrived at the shoot.

We managed to do a couple of sets using the hat. We got a number of great images with the hat posing in front of the windows.

20150520 Wingless F  Set 18 Image 09

I like the image and the pose but I don’t like the view through the window. I also feel Wingless F’s face is a little too much in shadow.   When I was looking at ways to improve the image I decided to try making it Black and white. I chose the channel mixer method using adjustment levels I mixed the various Red, Green and Blue channels together. While I was working on it I noticed if boosted the Blue channel I could overly brighten the view out the window. As you can see I intentionally clip the highlights to the point when I would loose the details outside the window.

20150520 Wingless F  Set 18 Image 09 – Black & White

It also meant that I would be clipping details from other already bright areas like the curtain on the left (which I didn’t mind) and Wingless F’s left leg which I did mind. So using the brush tool I removed part of the adjustment layer over the details that where being clipped. I included a saturation layer (-100) to make sure everything stayed without color.

You probably don’t notice but the corner of the room on the left is a little grainy. It was brightened a little too much. I was thinking of fixing it but I think I like it. It gives me the impression that it’s film grain and that the image was “printed” from a negative.