I've been doodling with these old shots - one of my earliest photo shoots with minimum tech and looooots of pickies taken against a mud hut wall. The model was just some chubby girl I met along the way while travelling.
There is so much one can do with a photoshop, but the question is - what is the message and more importantly - what's the style that passes for signature. So far I continue to be completely smitten by Zhang Jingna's clarity and flawlessness of portraits and I've already made myself a 9 ft board with aluminum foil to aid me in taming the light in my next photo shoot...

In the meanwhile, I'm mangling these.. Too tired for anything else..

It's kinda unsportly how a single portrait (and it's half the victory if it's taken in good light and superb quality. easy to go down, bit less easy to go up in that aspect..) can be taken in so many directions... Low saturation provides for a mild, simplistic outcome, while the other direction - fierce contrast can provide for an exotic, kind of tempestuous, 'hot pepper' kind of version... There's always the ever classy Black&White, and my continuous attempt at retro, and something that happens just by pressing the wrong button...

Those are usually the best ones :))