This version of ‘The Escape’ was created for inclusion in my successful panel for a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.
The version is based on the original exhibition image of The Escape but it has been reworked to remove the layers which misaligned parts of the image to create a feeling of an earthquake, and new layers have been added to adjust and re-tone the image to fit in with the other images in the Fellowship Panel.
It was taken in Havana in 2011.
I really liked the way the boy had a slight amount of motion blur and I wanted to create a feeling of his escaping from the frame (see the original image below)
After cropping the image so that it was square, I used Photoshop Transform to correct the horizontals and verticals, followed by Nik Glamour Glow to give a slightly dreamy feel. The latter was removed from the stairs and the boy himself using a layer mask. I then used Nik Viveza filters to change the lighting to move the emphasis to the top left-hand corner of the image to create a feeling that he was escaping from the darkness into the light.
Further adjustments were carried out using a combination of Cloning, Viveza, Nik Darken/Lighten Centre, Glamour Glow, Hue/Saturation, Levels, Curves, Selective Colour, and a Bleach Bypass layer to give the image an ‘edginess’, removing the effect in places using a layer mask. Finally, it was sharpened using the High Pass Filter.
This image has been accepted for 157th Edinburgh International Exhibition of Photography 2019, the 7th Cheltenham International Salon of Photography 2019 and 76th Bristol International Salon of Photography 2022.
Nikon D700, 28-300mm lens at 28mm, ISO 3200, f/11, 1/60sec
You can see the original exhibition image of The Escape at http://bit.ly/theescape1 and my successful FRPS Panel at http://bit.ly/DFCFRPS
