David Nightingale & creativeLIVE

You may have heard of a web based creative education group called creativeLIVE, they produce and sell some of the most amazing photography, filmmaking and creative classes out there. This weekend they are broadcasting a workshop on Dramatic Post-Production with David Nightingale. His site is filled with compelling images, I'd highly recommend checking it out, and the creativeLIVE workshop too, especially if you have any interest at all in creative post production.David's approach offers discussion of the technical while not losing site of your creative vision, as a matter of fact there's a strong focus on creative vision. Making the ordinary stand out. Pushing yourself to do something more than just snap a photo, to create.The first day of his three day workshop wrapped with a live photoshoot and a homework assignment. The homework assignment is for all those who wish to participate, whether viewing the broadcast or not.I decided to participate.The Homework Assignment:- Pick a location... somewhere with little or no immediate visual interest.- Shoot something on the basis of how it "could" look, or how you would like it to look.- Post process it to get as close to your creative vision as possible.- Post it in the NightingaleLIVE group pool on flickr.I am often drawn to little things, flowers or plants, and I found several things along the way.Below are a couple of diptychs. What I wanted to display is a before and after, the image on the left being the original image, untouched, and then on the right, my final result. With Fall in full swing here in Seattle, and an overcast afternoon, I knew I would convert these images to black and white, as I was capturing them.Another part of the process today was stepping away from Lightroom for my processing and moving back into Photoshop, using layer masks and such. I do love Lightroom, but with David's focus in Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw I opted to process these photos using those tools instead.