Today’s Doodle

Getting back into cutouts after taking a year off has been slow. To some extent it’s a bit like riding a bike – they say you never forget, but then I never learned to ride a bike 🙁

Last Thursday required me to show cutting out techniques and cheats at Oldham Photographic Society and I chose an image of the lovely Samantha…one that I wouldn’t normally choose to cut out because some of the hair and background are the same hue and luminosity. So lesson number one then is to take the subject against a contrasting background. This is the photograph I started with, taken at the Lincoln Asylum Steampunk Convivial:

I also wanted to bring out Samantha’s eyes and put a little more emphasis on her face and not on the white blouse. Lesson number two is that white blouses attract attention, so darker ones would allow the face to dominate more easily. Well basically this was just a quick snap of one of my Steampunk friends and not an organised shoot. What I did do right was to take her out of the sun and into an area of soft lighting. I could have carried a flashgun to give some fill flash and light up the eyes, but as I was wearing a crinoline skirt and basque myself, I really didn’t want to carry around more than just the camera.

So here it is…I’m quite pleased with the feel of the picture and I hope that Sam likes it too. Perhaps I am leaving my dark Gothic style behind now…I seem to be developing some gentler images. We’ll see as time goes on. Here is the finished (perhaps finished) image. Maybe all I should ever say is “this is where it’s up to”; it’s a far cry from damsels and dragons and feels like a nice change: