This is another shot of Iva Sakarova, taken back in September, at the same time as this one, but I've held off posting it as I can't decide whether I like it or not. Sometimes I've opened it up and thought it was great, while at other times I've looked at it and wondered why I bothered. Part of the problem, I think, is that it's so far from my usual style that I just can't evaluate it alongside my other images, either in terms of content (as a portrait), or in terms of post-production (it was produced in Lab Color Mode). Anyway, it's sat there, haunting me since last September, so rather than keep looking at it and wondering what to do with it ... here it is. Let me know what you think.

In other news, my apologies for the lack of recent updates but I've spent most of this week working on a new online course for PPSOP (the Perfect Picture School of Photography). I already run one Digital Darkroom course – Unleashing the Power of High Dynamic Range (HDR) Images – and from February I'll be running another. Hopefully I'll be able to post more details over the weekend.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

12.06pm on 4/9/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 30mm f/9.0 1/160 manual n/a evaluative 100 580EX II (1/2 power) RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none 1x1