Mr. Crinks' Blog » editing

I Like To Play

Simon — Tue, 04 May 2010 09:13:40 +0000

I am a visual creature.

Despite my professed loathing for ‘too much Photoshop’, I think I would like to refine that statement to ‘too much bad Photoshop’.

Of course, one man’s meat is another man’s poison, so it’s all about taste in the end.

Which I have, and the other man clearly doesn’t.

To Neon, Or Not To Neon?

Simon — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:57:35 +0000

Ria, Plymouth, 2009

Is that the question?

I really love these headshots of Ria and in their natural state they are images that I’m very proud of.

A slip of the stylus later, however, and I was plunged into this neon world — a world that I can’t escape! What’s to become of me? Will I never appreciate the simple, natural portrait again?

Am I doomed to over-photoshop my images to within an inch of their lives?

No, I’m not. But I do love these experiments from time to time.

No Eggs.

Simon — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:26:26 +0000

Twisted Mermaid, Sidmouth, 2008

Happy Easter, if you celebrate that kind of thing. Happy Sunday if you don’t.

Here’s an image taken during the last religious holiday, Christmas (Christmas Eve actually).

My my, how time flies…

Foxglove

Simon — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:55:27 +0000

Twisted Mermaid, Bristol, 2008

Generally speaking, I don’t like to do much to my images in post-production.

I’ll tweak the tones and contrast and white balance of course, but those are things that existed prior to the digital age, and that I used to do in the darkroom. I also perform things like skin-retouching and perhaps minor reshaping here and there.

What I’m uncomfortable with is the fancy-pants stuff that people add to images after that. It’s not that I subscribe to any dogma about keeping the image ‘true’ or somesuch — it’s just that 9 out of 10 times it looks craptastic.

I want to create an impact with the subject of the image, not wow the limited audience of Photoshop users with my technical ability. Doing this can only detract from the subject, so that’s why it’s not my thing.

Above is an image which proves that there’s an exception to every rule (and that I’m allowed to change my mind whenever I want). The post-production here (actually quite a simple white balance shift) gave the image an intensity that I think serves to highlight Ms. Mermaid’s shape and expression, and it’s one of my favourites from our shoots so far.