Photoshopping

The devil makes work for idle hands. At least he did last Friday night when I was home alone with a camera and a tripod. Yes, it was time for Simon to do some experimenting. With Photoshop.

Now, I'm not much of a Photoshopper, I use Lightroom for my image editing which basically consists of some levels adjustments, perhaps some dust removal and occasionally some cropping (although I like to get it right in camera where possible). After returning from Italy I had a couple of photos that were really nice, but had an unsightly pole or something ruining an otherwise great image so I decided to have a go at cloning some of these distractions out.

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But this wasn't how I spent my Firday night. Oh no. All this did was whet my appetite for the power at my fingertips with this revolutionary bit of software (I briefly considered selling my camera and going pro as a Photoshop artiste but decided I was getting a bit carried away, despite my absolutely excellent cloning work). So, Friday. I decided to experiment with layers, which I've never done before, so I came up with an idea that involved taking several photos and cutting and pasting them together to make a new creation. By this stage my flatmate Dave had returned home so I summoned him to the hallway and took a few head shots, then got him to do the same for me, I then got him to make the peace sign with his hand and took a few shots of that. All the shots were taken with a hand-held external flashgun to provide a bit of side light. From here I went to work, this is the result.



Now, after completing my creation I unleashed it to the world on Facebook, but to my horror the following comments were flung in my direction:

- It's a bit creepy
- Vanessa agrees it's creepy
- Dude, that is seriously weird. You should use your Photoshop skills for good instead of evil.
- Dave, do you feel violated

It was clear I had to make another creation. And to be fair, I did think it was a bit gay once I'd finished it but I was so pleased with my layering skills I was temporarily blinded to this fact. Another thing I wasn't really happy with on mark 1 was the inconsistent light between the heads (mine is darker) and the lacklustre background. Here's what I came up with next.



I was much more pleased with this effort. I used the sky from a cactus shot in Cinque Terra as the background and made the heads smaller and less like they were about to make out. I think you'll all agree this new one is far less creepy. So, there you have it, this is what happens when no one invites me out for a drink on a Friday night, I get weird and nerd-like. Be it on your head if I descend any further into the pits of computer nerd hell.