Some days, you just fall asleep in the comfy chair during the evening. Other days, you think. ‘I just can’t bare watching whats on TV’ and then go an create a new photo.

This evening was one of the latter days. Years ago, I did a shoot, with Lily Le Mar, where she and her partner were on stilts dressed as the winter king and queen. The shoot was done in October and I had to fake the winter scene (which was moderately successful). One of the things I learnt for that shoot was to create fake snow flakes in Photoshop but I wasn’t happy with the result, so left the effect it out.

Today, I thought, I would play dress up and what better way to keep warm on a cold evening (actually it was rather warm June evening) was to dress up as if I was at the arctic. So that is what I did and the image you see above, is the result.

The outfit, was a simple combination of hat, my winter jacket (with the fur trim added (fake fur of course), a pair of gloves and a scarf, which you can’t really see. Under that I was wearing, tee shirt and shorts.

On thing I did differently to most of the self portraits was the face pose, I have taken is turn to the left, instead of the right, this meant that my broken nose, wouldn’t stick out and look out of place, with the ultra-wide lens I was using (or less so, than it could have (we will get to that later).

The basics' of the image, were created in camera but I always knew the what I wanted the final image to look like and for that I would have to do in post production. Now, I could have over exposed in camera, to give a slightly more washed out bright feel, but that would limit my options, so I exposed normally.

The first part of the edit was done in Capture one Pro, where I did the basic edit.

Part edited photo out of C1P, before my edit in Photoshop

I then exported the image into Photoshop, as there were a few things I really wanted to do. The first was to remove the shadow from my light and expand the canvas slightly to the right. This was relatively easy. I then decided to move the catch lights in the eyes. It isn’t a big issue but the catch lights were slightly too low, so I moved them up, slightly. Unfortunately, this took some time and it is always hard to get the pupil right. At the time, I thought, I had done an ok job but details are important to me and as you will read below, eventually, I would come back to fix the eyes.

Next came the big part, adding snow. I went back to the original Youtube video, that I had watched, to learnt how to create fake snow flakes in Photoshop. it took some time to get right and I think I managed to just about get it right.

finally (little did I know) made a few more changes with the colour. Adding a blue filter, to make image cooler, I also played around, reducing the contrast slightly.

Overall, I am quite happy with the photo, considering, it was a spur of the moment thing.

Edit

Well, I didn’t quite tell the truth, when I said I was happy with the photo. In fact, one part of the photo was really nagging at me. So much so that at 6am the next morning, I was up, trying to fix the image. My issue was the pupils of the eyes, just didn’t look right and no matter, what I did, I couldn’t fix the issue to the point where I was happy, I tried various things and got close but not enough that I could leave the image as was.

So yesterday, evening, I decided to go out to the studio, setup the camera and lighting in a similar position as before (the lighting was slightly higher) and retake the photo but without the costume on. From the new photo, I was able to clone both pupils, as well as the catch lights and replace the pupils, in the original photo, blending them in, so it wouldn’t be noticeable. I also made a couple more cosmetic changes to the image, removing nose hairs and a little bit of skin. Hurrah, I thought I had finished…

Unfortunately, during the night, the thought of the right pupil not being quite right, was still bothering me. So 6am this morning, I was at my computer, slightly moving the right pupil, with the transform tool in Photoshop. This change was very small and no-one but me would really notice it. Hay ho, anything to give me piece of mind.

I then decided to go a little further. Using a 20mm lens, creates a very exaggerated look, with certain features sticking out, in particular with head shots, the nose. Now I never need help with making my nose stick out, it is big and broken enough to do that on its own. So I decided to reduce the size slightly (vanity on my part). It doesn’t harm the photo at all and personally I think improves the image slightly.

Top, finished image with original nose, below edited nose

So, am I now happy? Well mostly, the one thing that sticks out to me is the zip, which is very bright.

Normally, the viewers eye is attracted to bright objects, which stand out, so normally, I would darken down the zip, in fact I tried. The reason the zip is so bright, is because one of the fake snow flakes added in Photoshop, is lighting up the zip and jacket. Now, when I created the effect, it didn’t bother me. In fact, I deliberately put a snow drop there. But now, the zip is the first thing I see and I don’t know if I like it.

As, I said, I did try to darken the zip but it didn’t quite look right and when I tried to eliminate the snow flake, it didn’t work well. I do have the option of going into layers, and deleting one of the snow drop layers (there are 4). Then create a new layer, adding back in the largest snow flakes but like the position of the snow flake and whilst it may have its draw backs, if I removed it, I think I would lose something So I still have to decide, whether I want to change it or not.

So what have I learnt from taking this photo? Well, I am obsessive (but I already knew that), that going away from an image and coming back, changes the way I view a photo (again, something I already knew) and sometimes peace of mind is well worth it.

Shutter speed: 1/125
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 100
focal length: 20mm

3 x Bowens XMT-500
1 x Nikon SB900 (background light)

Today, I went to the arctic