Retouching photos

This is a photo that I chose to fix for our retouching project. The photo has light leaks and dust marks. I used the eraser tool to remove the dust marks and have been using the clone stamp to remove the light streaks.

Original:
Process so far:

"shoot from the hip..."

Shoot from the hip is the motto for lomography. Earlier today I had a conversation with another photography enthusiast and he told me about his Holga camera. I've wanted to purchase one since I was twelve years old. Back then, I was scared of the results considering Holga's are cheap plastic cameras with not much control over aperture, shutter, light, etc. And, the only place I knew that sold them, besides online, was Urban Outfitters--which, of course, inflated the prices. I think I am ready to buy one now. Hearing about the Holga camera and all the fascinating, creative things you can do with it makes me excited about getting one. It'd be a great change from my Canon digital. I am in love with the dreamlike effects of Holga cameras give images. The optical distortion, light leaks, oversaturated colors, and exaggerated vignettes (bent corners of image), and unpredictable outcomes are all results of the Holga cameras.

take only what you need from it

The sequence, or collective in my case, project was a successful one. At first, I couldn't think of what to do. I jot down some ideas and thought about capturing my sunglasses "traveling"...placing them on different surfaces at distinct locations. But I wanted to do something more meaningful and deep. So, I decided to capture what people do to their bodies. I've always had a fascination with tattoos. I think they are beautiful (the colored ones) and love hearing the stories behind them. Of course, I didn't ask my subject to get a tattoo for the sake of a photo project. So, my friend used a blue ink pen and drew a spade with designs on his hand--of which didn't wash off til a couple days later even with arduous scrubbing. In another image, I have my suitemate applying a high-shine and pigmented lipgloss. I wanted it to convey a message of painting a face or masking the real, like applying all cosmetic products. I wanted to bring out the colors of the lips and leave the rest to black and white, making the color stand out and be the focal point of my collage. The other image is of my friend piercing her ear with a needle. Of course, her ear was already pierced...I used my room as the "studio"--turned off all lights and closed the blinds. I used my halogen/fluorescent lamp to focus on her ear and the needle. The 4th image is of another friend shaving his facial hair. I wanted to capture the razor because the connotations of a pressing a razor to skin has so many meanings.

I ended up taking about 50 or so images, chose 38 of them to photoshop. And from that batch, 9 to arrange in a collage. I put in my heart and soul of this project and am extremely proud of the outcome. Not only did I slave over 5 hours in the computer/photo studio editing each picture, but I paid attention to every detail of this entire process. Everything...from editing the pictures, carefully mounting the pics, choosing how to arrange the pictures...was all carefully thought over.