The intention is to create very much stylised images. My aim is not recreate reality but convey emotion, mood and atmosphere in the images. For me photography is not about replicating reality, its about evoking emotion. Its about creating drama and evoking a reaction in the viewer. This is not a representation of the Madra Mor Gym. There is no window with cobwebs lit by the light of the moon. It's a clean and functional gym lit with natural light and fluorescent lighting but is that type of lighting going to evoke emotion?
<b>Background To This Image</b>
This was a shot I took at the Madra Mor Boxing Academy (<a href="http://www.madramor.co.uk/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.madramor.co.uk/</a>) of boxer and trainer Gavin Conway. I used four studio lights. The Lencarta super fast flash units: 2 x 300 & 2 x 600 Super Fast studio lights. I have been very pleased with the Lencarta lights both in the studio and on location. I also have the 1000 LED studio light for continuous lighting (not used on this shoot).
For this shot I used two of the 30 X 140cm strip box diffusers and for the main light their large 150cm Octagon umbrella softbox. Using their flash synch I can control all the heads from the transmitter on my camera.
Processed in Photoshop CC using 45 different layers as I experimented to get the look and feel I was after. Not all layers have been used in the final image and I clone stamped the image a few times. In the final image I left some layers invisible. I took my time to decide if I wanted the different effects I had created. In the end I decided on this image a less saturated version. The pure B&W seems to work as well.
I left the image 24 hours and then went back to it with fresh eyes to make the finishing touches. Total processing time probably 5 hours give or take.
