Friday, 16 March 2012

Portraits of Bob Whitaker speaking

Robert Whitaker created the amazing Mad in America internet site. I saw
him speak last year and he's great.

These are photos from last year's Hearing Voices Network event. It was a
tough shoot as always with my Canon 50D and Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens.
The lens only works at f2.8 and at the focusing distances I was shooting
at this meant a depth of field of around 6cm. Perhaps a little more. The
lighting conditions were also poor and these were shot at ISO6400 -
above the natural range of the Canon 50D. I had to rely on a monopod to
help get sharper shots with the lower shutter speeds like 1/90sec at 320mm.

The shots were processed from RAW using Canon Digital Photo
Profressional then edited using Gimp, the opensource alternative to
Photoshop. The converted-from-RAW images are a so different to the final
edited version. The first step is Unsharp Mask. I used settings of
around Pixel Size 1; Amount 250-350%; Threshold 1 or 2. This boost the
sharpness but it also creates bobbling and grain because of the high ISO
which is why I went for black and white for most of the shots. The
colour shots have been colour adjusted using Hue/Saturation to bring out
the colours and correct for any colour casts. The key element is the
editing of curves. I usually deepen the blacks a lot and create a lot of
contrast while sightly boosting highlights to get the look I like.

These 5 are my favourite from 18 different edits made from a variety of
shots. I'll email the ones across which didn't make it.

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We It comes in part from an appreciation that no one can truly sign their own work. Everything is many influences coming together to the one moment where a work exists. The other is a begrudging acceptance that my work was never my own. There is another consciousness or non-corporeal entity that helps and harms me in everything I do. I am not I because of this force or entity. I am "we"