2 years is not a long time.

In April 2009 I was 27 and finishing a BTEC in Photography at Thames Valley University in Reading. I worked full-time for John Lewis, and had enrolled on the BA Photography course at Glamorgan University. I was excited. Really, really excited about what the future had in store.

I had not long bought a Canon 50D, and was really enjoying my photography. I was even flirting with the possibility of making a career out of it, but there was a small problem. Whilst I enjoyed going out with my friends and shooting, I still had no clear direction about where I wanted to take it. I was constantly asking myself and trying to understand what sort of photography I enjoyed the most, and where I should specialise. I knew that I enjoyed shooting people. There was something about capturing a telling moment that really appealed to me, so when I got a message from a friend telling me about a huge protest happening in London, I knew I had to be there. Little did I know of how formative the experience was going to be for my future, and 2 years later, and I can’t believe it’s only been 2 years, I regard that day as the most important day of my photographic life. It was an absolute turning point and afterwards I knew that I wanted to work in documentary, reportage and photojournalism.

Whilst I was really happy with the photographs I took on the day, I had no idea about the documentary standard, and as such I’d taken a few bad habits along with me during post-production, so I felt it was important that with the spruce-up of my website, that I also go back to those images and re-edit those images that fell outside of those standards. I sat down last night and began looking through them for the first time in a couple of years. The difference to now took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see such poor technical knowledge applied to the photographs. The first problem was shooting in jpg. If you’re one of those who haven’t yet discovered the benefits of shooting in RAW, please let me offer a couple of pointers:

[dropcap]1.[/dropcap]Errors made in your original exposure can be limited by using Camera RAW in Photoshop. Because RAW files hold masses more data than the jpg, you can treat several elements without destroying the data.

[dropcap]2.[/dropcap]Higher image quality. Because all the calculations (such as applying gamma correction, demosaicing, white balance, brightness, contrast, etc…) used to generate pixel values (in RGB format for most images) are performed in one step on the base data, the resultant pixel values will be more accurate and exhibit less posterization.

[dropcap]3.[/dropcap]JPEG images are typically saved using a lossy compression format. Raw formats are typically either uncompressed or use lossless compression, so the maximum amount of image detail is always kept within the raw file. JPEG’s lose quality each time you save it, and by about the 9/10th time, you will really notice the difference.

As the years go by, these problems can really show their head – such as last night when I went back to edit my G20 shots. Not only had a shot in JPEG, on many of the images I had saved my edits over the original files, therefore I could not go back and re-edit several of the photographs. 2 years on, I’m gutted about it because my standards have changed and some of my most precious images can no longer run alongside those that are ok.

All this said, casting a fresh and more experienced eye over those images, I found some that fit the style I work to now. And amongst them, I found this little gem! I can’t believe I didn’t see it then. Admittedly, the edit isn’t great, but in terms of composition this is possibly one of my best images and I never even knew about it.

I found a few more images that appealed to me, which I have put below. If you’ve never seen the G20 series, then go straight to the main portfolio. If you’ve seen this stuff before, then take a look at a few new pictures and some re-edits down there. If you have any feedback about the new website or find any bugs then leave me a comment!

2009 anarchism anarchy april ashmore bank camp climate demonstration economic economy england g20 global london meltdown of photography portraits protest protests rbs summit tom underground