How I made this picture? 2014 - Re-edited
I’ve been wanting to revisit and re-edit this picture for a while now. It represents the essence of our work: a simple circle captured in a single exposure. But it wasn’t until I saved the final JPG that I realized something special—we originally crafted this image exactly 10 years ago, on the day after Christmas. I can’t remember why we chose that timing, but here we are! 😆
Details Behind the Shot
Light Painting Tool: 4x6” blades mounted in DIY connectors (plumbing pipes) paired with 300-lumen flashlights
Camera Settings (EXIF): 1.5 seconds (bulb), f/8, ISO 800, 24mm (In hindsight, I should have used f/4 and ISO 200.)
Camera Used: Canon SL1 with a 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens
Additional Equipment: Antari smoke machine
The creation process:
To create the image, I held the light-painting tool in my right hand and traced a circle while keeping the straight tip aimed at Kim, our subject. The process took place in complete darkness, with the tool serving as the only light source—no flash involved, as usual.
Kim is illuminated solely by the light-painting tool, which also creates the glowing circle in the image. This dual-purpose lighting highlights the subject beautifully while separating them from the background and adding a touch of creativity with the circular shape. The full technique is demonstrated in our .LightSpin documentary.
The post-processing:
My workflow has evolved significantly over the years. Today, I optimize images for various aspect ratios to suit social media, exhibitions, and image collections. Here’s a breakdown of the steps I followed:
Initial Adjustments: Open the CR2 (RAW) file in Adobe Camera RAW and make minor adjustments.
Noise Reduction: Apply AI Denoiser within ACR.
Photoshop Edits: Expand to a 1:1 ratio using the Crop tool.
Fill Techniques: Use a mix of Content-Aware Fill and Generative Fill to handle empty areas, leveraging the strengths of both techniques.
Face Enhancement: Select Kim’s face, create a new layer, and use Topaz Photo AI for face enhancement and upscaling. (This step worked particularly well for this image.)
Blending: Mask out unwanted areas from the Topaz export to ensure a seamless blend.
Save as PSD: Save the edited file for future tweaks.
Ratio Adaptation: Open my free Ratio PSD Template, link the PSD file, and adjust the image’s size and position within the Artboards.
Export: Select all Artboards and export them simultaneously. Pro tip: Rename Artboard layers to create organized, descriptive filenames.
Why Re-Edit This Picture?
Improved Tools: Modern post-processing software is leaps and bounds ahead of what we had in 2014.
Enhanced Displays: Today’s monitors reveal details like noise and banding that were less noticeable back then.
Better Vision: I had my vision corrected in 2021, and I now see colors and details with greater clarity.
Experience: Over the years, my artistic vision and technical skills have evolved, enabling me to achieve what I couldn’t before.
Multi-Ratio Workflow: Back in 2014, creating multiple aspect ratios wasn’t a priority. Now, it’s a core part of my workflow.
Final Thoughts
Revisiting and re-editing this image has been a rewarding experience, allowing me to celebrate how far I’ve come in the past decade. It’s fascinating to see how a single exposure can evolve with time, technique, and technology. I hope this inspires you to revisit your own creative archives and breathe new life into your old masterpieces.
With Kim Henry, of course :)