Behind The Image #10 – Dark Fairytales

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This image is a little different to most of the other LARP images I’ve shot over the years – let me tell you why.

I edited it in Photoshop.

Normally I don’t edit my LARP images in Photoshop. My entire workflow happens in Adobe Lightroom; a specialist piece of photography software designed for cataloguing and archiving images as well as doing basic editing.

My process is that I import photographs from a LARP event into Lightroom, colour grade every image, rate them either 1* or 3* (ditch or keep, exceptional images get 4*) and re-crop them if they need it during this process, then export them to my website. It’s quite a simple process and takes me about three hours (or less) to process images from a weekend LARP event.

But this image deserved something different. Occasionally they do. So I took it into Photoshop and added a “dust” overlay. It’s supposed to look like particles of dust floating in the air and reflecting the light back at the camera. I think it succeeds in creating a magical-looking environment that befits the scene and the LARP event itself (which was Dumnonni Chronicles).

I’d never give this kind of individual attention to every image I shoot at a LARP. It would take me so long to process photographs from an event that they wouldn’t see the light of day for weeks or even months. Besides, I think I do a pretty good job of generally capturing the ambience of the events with just my camera alone and without additional editing later.