“Why did you have to leave us, Naomi?”

“Oh because they want to send me back to Japan-hor!”

And so, we had a farewell at Bumbu Bali a certain 19th of June 2008. Nice place, nice soup!

Mmm. Shot with my Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4 at F2.4… because the aperture blades are stuck and I cannot stop down.

At the minimum focus distance of 19 cm. Insane!

When you’re Japanese, you gotta deck out your phone yo.

This also doubles as a privacy-ensuring screen.

Yow (also farewelled) and a looming figure in the background.

smashpOp doing his camwhoring thing. Yes did you know he’s my colleague!

Yes, he has a Carl Zeiss Tessar.

So how did I make the first picture out of this picture?

To make this effect in Photoshop, first press Ctrl-1, then Ctrl-2, then Ctrl-3. You’ll see whether the Red, Green or Blue channels are most dramatic. In this case, the blue channel (Ctrl-3) is the most dramatic.

So we press Ctrl-A to select all, then Ctrl-C to copy. Press Ctrl-` (to the left of the 1 key) to return to full RGB view, then Ctrl-V to paste a new layer on top.

In the blending mode, choose Luminosity. Press Ctrl-E to flatten the layers. Press Ctrl-U to adjust saturation, and desaturate accordingly. Finally, adjust the Levels manually as you see fit to bring out shadows.

Thanks also to also-my-colleague-Rames. He didn’t know that I took this when I took it!