This image below represented a number of goals back when this was taken in 2010 and during my first term and year at Plymouth College of Art. Not only was it the beginning of what I now consider to have been a long yet fruitful journey into the technicalities of editing, it was also my very first sale through Norman Holmes at Kaya, a gallery quaintly situated on the Barbican in Plymouth.
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| Sunset Love |
Sunset Love was created during a module to introduce myself and other first year students to the formal elements of photography, with one lecture in particular devoted to the idea of colour. This photo was also purposely shot over-exposed as a post production test to show what can be achieved when using Adobe Bridge.
Prior to my time at Plymouth College of Art, I had only ever shot in JPEG format, simply due to a lack of knowledge and awareness of NEF. Instantly my mind was blown away during my first session using Bridge; honestly I could not believe the amount of control I now had at my disposal, along with the ability to essentially rescue an image, whether under or over exposed. In such a short space of time, it was if I had been granted some special magical power (Bridgify!) and a whole new world of creativity was opened.
A year later I moved from Adobe Bridge to Lightroom 3 and I never looked back. Ever since I was young I had always wished to have some ability to draw or paint, yet my skills to this day are still pretty shocking, unless you consider stickmen to be the pinnacle of artistic prowess. Photography has allowed me to express myself in a way I never knew possible; the tools of this trade quickly become my canvas and paint brush and I am able to place my creative stamp on the many wonderful and daily visions that surround me. Editing in my eyes goes hand in hand with photography and I will happily challenge anyone that says otherwise, though of course it does and should come down to a intelligent level of control. Moving sliders this way and that just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean that you should, and perhaps this is why I generally stay clear of the HDR brigade and other overly saturated works of art. Each to their own I guess.
My only regret regarding this photo is that I no longer have the original NEF file, only the edited TIF remaining on multiple hard drives. For the life of me I have no idea why this is the case, particularly since I still have the other images from the same shoot from all those years ago. Like Pegasus, it is a photo that means a lot to me; my first sale with Norman, a giant step forward into the world of photography and post production, comprised and composed in a picturesque view of what I simply call home.
A year later I moved from Adobe Bridge to Lightroom 3 and I never looked back. Ever since I was young I had always wished to have some ability to draw or paint, yet my skills to this day are still pretty shocking, unless you consider stickmen to be the pinnacle of artistic prowess. Photography has allowed me to express myself in a way I never knew possible; the tools of this trade quickly become my canvas and paint brush and I am able to place my creative stamp on the many wonderful and daily visions that surround me. Editing in my eyes goes hand in hand with photography and I will happily challenge anyone that says otherwise, though of course it does and should come down to a intelligent level of control. Moving sliders this way and that just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean that you should, and perhaps this is why I generally stay clear of the HDR brigade and other overly saturated works of art. Each to their own I guess.
My only regret regarding this photo is that I no longer have the original NEF file, only the edited TIF remaining on multiple hard drives. For the life of me I have no idea why this is the case, particularly since I still have the other images from the same shoot from all those years ago. Like Pegasus, it is a photo that means a lot to me; my first sale with Norman, a giant step forward into the world of photography and post production, comprised and composed in a picturesque view of what I simply call home.
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