On the occasions when somebody compliments me on one of my images, one of the ways that I try to deflect some of that attention and praise is simply to tell them, "Yeah, I spend WAY too much time in Photoshop!". Although I say that in jest, there's actually quite a bit of truth to it.
You see, I'm a hopeless perfectionist at heart. Sit me in front of a computer with an image to edit, and I'll work myself into an absolute frenzy of layers, tweaks, and adjustments-- I just don't know when to quit sometimes. However, this ability to get "in the zone" and tune everything else out until the job is done has proven to be a very valuable skill at times (unless I also happen to be tuning out my wife in the process, which ALWAYS leads to gnashing of teeth....but I digress).
As far as the image for this episode, I had a clear vision in my mind's eye before I even sat down to begin the editing process. I knew I wanted a composite of 3 different poses, which when viewed together would show some sort of a progression-- a story, if you will. Seemed a simple enough idea at first, since I had captured all three poses all against the same beige wall. However, it soon became painfully obvious that there would be MUCH more work involved than I had originally anticipated (does it ever go the OTHER way, really?).
The first problem was that none of the three shots had enough negative space for me to drop the other 2 poses in. So I had to "clone" the wall so that it extended out far enough to give me sufficient room to work. This process literally took me about an hour and a half, because I had to make sure that it looked believable-- that the wall and sidewalk really did extend out that far in real life. I painstakingly worked on the spaces between each brick to make sure that everything lined up and had the right proportions (did I mention that I'm a perfectionist?).
Once that was all done, it took me another hour to drop in the other 2 poses, and then about 30 more minutes to change the color of the wall to something more interesting (the fact that John's shirt was so close to the original wall color made this process even more fun). The final step was to add a thin, artistic black border around the image.
I am happy to report that when all was said and done, I achieved pretty much exactly the effect that I wanted to (which happens rarely, unfortunately). So it was time well-spent, as far as I'm concerned. What do YOU think of the final result? Do you think that changing the wall color was a good choice? Do you see a "progression" from left to right (reservation, reconciliation, realization)? Please share your comments below....I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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