Low Key

For day 118 I wanted to work with a few different things: a single light, shadow and silhouettes. I needed a subject with some interesting and varied texture to pull this off, and I found something around the house that worked:



This key and lock belong to a hundred-and-some-odd years old barrister bookcase that my wife inherited some time ago. The combination of the woodgrain and metal work gave me the texture I wanted and the cloverleaf handle of the key gave a good shape and texture. I wanted a harsher light so this is not shot with an umbrella or diffuser, but there is a Honl 'frost' gel on the flash to soften it ever so slightly.

I've been working with a trial version of Photoshop Elements 8 as opposed to a two-step process of Canon DPP and GIMP, and I think this shot has convinced me that I need to buy the software. The control over the RAW image is just great, and the amount of polish you can great straight from the RAW image is just head and shoulders above the other solution.

Another thing I need to save my pennies and dimes for!