Messing

I have the time..I have the tools...a bit of talent..so on these lovely hot days why not put it all together and have a bit of a faff around and see what I can come up with. Now I know, there are folk out there who see, in a photographic sense, Photoshop as the very spawn of the devil himself, I look on it as I would my dinky 50mm f1.8 as an essential part of my shooting kit. Okay you do have to have a level of personal constraint and not every thing I see warrants a whack around the chops with some complex software but if I go out to capture something specific I will already know what the final image will look like...and that includes some uber faffing in Adobes finest..or not.
But every now and then I'll pull out an image file from the dusty vaults and give it a bit of a smack sometimes making it cry in the process. Now I've intimated that I might be on a collision course with Portraiture, it has always been my 'elephant in the room' and now it sits on my shoulder, a photographic earworm...just nibbling away. this is the part where I get to the point....but how do I want my portraits to look??? well I thought I might jump in the archives and pull out some head shots and get the old Photoshop CC warmed up and head off for a jaunt and here are some of my experiments....now these have nothing to do with any creative lighting or location or make -up or such they are the first shots in looking at how I want the final images to appear

Early days and all the techniques are reproducable, all involve layer work and toys from the Photoshop cupboard. Now the trick is for me to see the final images in my head and when i pursue this and nail this head shooting. I'm looking forward to it and will make sure that procrastination is swept to one side.
Okay I have been trawling the web looking for a portable lighting system that is a bit more sophisticated than a bare flash or tungsten skin melter and I think I have found my ideals.
Ice Light
and
F+V R-300

Yes I do think LED lighting is the future, especially portraiture so all I have to do is rustle up some cash and I'm away.... rustle up some cash...maybe I should have chosen a more finacially rewarding profession looks like a trip to my old mate Mr Ebay and  recycle some gear...TFI Friday btw...lots of dashing about this weekend so catch you next week.