Conclusion of a masterpiece

Yeah that's right, I said masterpiece!

Modesty aside, I really do think this is my finest photograph to date. I've posted it before (here) but that version was, with hindsight, badly processed. This is the full-on 20+ hour processing job ready for printing at A2. Seeing it small on a computer screen can't do it justice. I printed it at 13" x 19" yesterday and it was jaw-droppingly beautiful. I can only imagine how good the A2 print will be.

The goal throughout the processing was subtlety, quite the opposite of how I originally envisioned the picture, and this final version is silky smooth and understated. When I first processed it I wanted to emphasise the dramatic lighting. But I realised that the best way to present this picture is to keep everything subdued and allow its strongest aspect, the composition, to shine through. On screen it doesn't hit you over the head in the same way that the original version did, but on paper it's… dare I say awesome?

And for good measure, here's the final version of the other portrait from the same session. I have to say that I think this picture looks quite poor on screen, and even the A5 test prints looked cheap. But it was processed to look good when viewed as a large print and at 13" x 19" it looks amazing. You don't even want to know how long this one took to process. Heck I don't even want to think about it. Way too long.