This image is the consequence of an ‘arty’ shot gone wrong. What I set out to take was a fairly low-key, possibly diffuse shot of my wife using her laptop (a not uncommon occurrence ;-) but none of those shots really worked out – they were either too dark, or lacked detail, or just weren’t worth putting up. I also took this one, and several similar ones, and, other than the image being a bit ‘cold’, I really like it – more for the clarity and detail than any artistic merit, but I do like the way it turned out.

It was taken by bouncing the flash directly off our lounge ceiling and there hasn’t been too much done by way of post-processing. The sofa was lightened and desaturated (more because it needs a wash than anything else), and I spent quite some time getting the sharpening right, but other than that it’s a relatively straight shot.

Incidentally, if, like me, you have a digital compact with a hotshoe for a flash, I heartily recommend getting hold of a separate flash-gun. The built in flash on most cameras is rather poor and you don’t have much control over how it behaves. I recently got hold of a 420EX and have found it excellent, particularly the ability to bounce the light around an otherwise poorly lit room; which is really useful at this rather dull and dark time of year.