la coco noire.

If there is one thing that has been a constant learning curve throughout the entire time I've been interested in photography, it's airbrushing techniques. I've lost count of the amount of YouTube tutorial videos that I've painstakingly sat through to try and improve my knowledge and style. Up until two years ago, I'd only been using Photoshop Elements, mainly because I couldn't afford Photoshop but also because I didn't see the point in splashing out on something so advanced seeing as my actual knowledge on the matter was minimal as shit. But I won't lie, elements was kind to me for a good while. As a beginners tool it's perfect, that is if you don't know any better. I learnt to use curves and adjustment layers and all sort of basic little tools that fitted little naive me perfectly back in the day. But then Mikey downloaded Photoshop CS5 for me, and sweet Jesus, the possibilities were simply endless. At first I absolutely bloody hated it. I didn't know what anything did or what half the buttons even meant, high pass layers..what!? I seriously almost deleted it from my laptop and shied back to my loyal Elements that understood me so well.

Two years down the line and countless, countless countless hours spent googling and fiddling and undoing and crying later, I can't imagine what the bloody hell I would do without Photoshop. There is probably not an online tutorial that I haven't watched at one point or another while trying to understand this huge expanse of untouched land ahead of me. I still don't know what many of the buttons are supposed to do for me, but the list of functions I am conquering is slowly and slowly getting bigger and more in depth. Last week, I even learnt the meaning and main use of a CMYK color mode, regardless of whether it still feels like I'm talking gibberish - I actually know what the damn thing does!

It's so nice that I can finally say, with a tiny bit of pride but also a lot of grief and slog, that Photoshop is starting to become a faithful companion rather than a big-headed bully, although the speed at which I'm making myself learn new techniques is inhumane so I'm sure looking back in a years time I'll laugh at how little I actually know right now. But presently, I'm content.