Colorising

I have previously reflected on what a shame it is that some of the classic old spanko movies/videos can't be brought up to contemporary production standards - thinking of the classic Debbie ones from NuWest for example.

The same is true for still images - now that computer memory and storage is cheap we can have large high quality colour images whereas in the past we had to make do with a lot of monochrome. Some were clearly never even made in colour - in other cases, it was too expensive to use all colour images in printed magazines. Typical issues of Roué and Janus only had around eight pages of colour out of maybe 64 pages in total, and that included the pretty uninteresting back cover.

However, the technology does now allow us to do something about that - with varying success. There are plenty of packages around to manipulate graphic files, and some that specifically exist solely to allow you to 'colorise' monochrome images. I tend to use Adobe Photoshop and have had some good results and some less good.

I'll start with a couple of examples from Janus. Neither are total disasters but the first example is pretty poor - it certainly doesn't do anything to make the image more attractive or interesting. The second is somewhat better - perhaps unusually so, given that one of the things the Colorize function seems to struggle with is pictures of multiple people with different skin tones - it typically seems to get one right and the other is poor. Clearly in the fourth image shown here, the first girl's bottom is a bit light in colour but that could probably be further adjusted if it really mattered to you.

Moving to an example from Roué...

I think this one has colorised quite effectively although I'm not sure whether I don't still prefer the original B&W - it's a useful reminder that sometimes people select B&W over colour as a matter of preference to create a particular effect.

The remainder, I think, are mostly from NuWest and Shadowlane.

I would say that both of the examples above are quite good - colorising has added something in both cases although, of course, they still look like old pictures.

However, in this case, colorising just hasn't worked at all. If anything it looks like a sepia version of the original. (Not sure of the source for this one - maybe something like Martinet magazine?) 

This one is a bit better although the girl's foot and the spanking hand are rather grey and her face is rather suntanned. It just show the difficulty of a range of skintones.

The two examples above I think have worked rather well although the background in the second example is a bit on the grey side still.

Lastly a personal favourite.

I was thinking for a while that I might use the colorised version as a Favourite of the Month to see if anyone spotted what I'd done. I think this is a really powerful image. You know the situation immediately. The very sombre expression on the faces of the three 'schoolgirls', all clutching their bottoms and the headmistress standing watching them leave her office with her cane still in her hand. I like the image in B&W, a lot. But I do think I prefer the colour version.

What does anyone else think?

Story writing - the process for me

Most people who visit my blog regularly will know that my primary contribution to the CP scene over a number of years has taken the form of short story writing. I started writing CP fiction before I knew there was such a thing - I was writing spanko fiction for my own enjoyment when I was about 9 years old - long before the internet and long before I knew that such things as Janus and Roué existed. My enthusiasm for writing has come in waves and when the internet arrived and I discovered  alt.sex.spanking and then soc.sexuality.spanking I published quite a few stories there. Some of those found their way on to other people's websites a few years later. More recently, I've had a fair few stories up on Library of Spanking Fiction's excellent site and they have put some of them into ebook form. I have had a year or two away from writing for personal reasons but finally finished off a few stories early this year and sent them in, so hopefully they'll appear on LSF fairly soon.

A large proportion of what I write is in a school setting and 95% of the recipients of the punishments are female. Usually the characters are contemporary - they dress and behave like people of that age do today and they have mobile phones, the internet and so on. However, the disciplinary regime they live under belongs more to the 1950s. I like to try to come up with some original storylines - there are a lot of recurring themes out there! Sometimes, I'll follow one of the standard story lines and then put a twist in the tail.

A few weeks ago I had a sudden flurry of ideas for some new stories, made a few quick notes of the synopses and started writing one of them. It was a bit standard perhaps but I really enjoyed the writing process and getting to know my main character as she developed through the events I put her through. Suddenly a very different ending evolved and I would never have expected the story to end the way it did. There was a real euphoria at that point. It is about 7,000 words, so not all that short, and I will need to let it rest for a month or so and then proof read it. However, the surge of enthusiasm for writing has totally gone now. A definite case of 'drop' after the euphoria.

Favourite for May

 

If you're choosing to view this page, then the favourite image for May probably has you thinking much the same way as I do. Great legs and the sort of ridiculously short skirt that opaque black tights have facilitated. I must say that I do not condone non-consensual sexual assault and I never believe that the way someone dresses indicates that "they're asking for it." However, I do know that I would very much like to flip up that skirt and give her bottom a few sharp swats with that usefully provided ping-pong bat.