A very Amazing Thing

Today I was very, very (ISO) tired. Crazy shifts yesterday and today, plus pesky back pain and a baby who is still waking several times a night = zzzzzz.

But then I started to process my shots from the weekend and you know what? It always makes me feel a little bit better. I’m still knackered beyond belief, but it’s good for the soul to do a bit of what you love, especially right before your next shift.

So. At the weekend I was DJing at a night I’ve been part of for the past few years. I’d been on a break unsurprisingly – and this was my first time back on the decks since Baby E came along. It went very well, and I was buzzing from all the compliments and comments I got. I was also asked to be the official photographer, and I was quite happy to oblige. This night is always busy and full of house and hijinx, and the people who attend are not camera shy, so it’s a lot of fun to shoot.

Initially I wanted to just upload my images and post a couple after a quick mess about in Camera RAW, but I decided not to rush things. So I did what I could before work, and then tonight (after a deeeelish lamb steak dinner with a glass of red) I cracked open my Photoshop CS4 book to teach myself something new. (More on my book in another post – it’s fab.)

I settled on the High Contrast Portrait Effect, which is a great technique. My shots weren’t traditional portrait shots, but they were close enough for this technique to work. You play around with three layers, desaturate the middle one, then switch the blend mode of the top layer to one of your choice. (In this case: Overlay with a play around with the opacity.) In the first photo, I also added a layer mask on my friend’s pink bracelet to really make it pop. And finally, I added a Noise filter set to add interest, making sure it was set to Gaussian and Monochromatic so it wasn’t in colour.

So here are two of my favourite shots from the night, both with this technique applied. Enjoy!

My lovely friend C - ain't she pretty?

Glamming up any ladies loo near you!

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