(Sci-fi novel by Scottish author Iain M Banks)

Finn takes his PC games seriously - I was dancing round the house with a beer and crisps, gearing myself up for the bells at midnight, he was completely engrossed in whatever he was playing. But we both stopped long enough to see the new year in together

The off-camera flash was placed face-on but out of shot - this illuminated the face and deepened the shadows. The shot was opened into CS3 and desaturated; a lithograph effect was created by altering the Red and Green channels in Curves. A Diffuse Glow was then added to make the highlights stand out; lastly, a bit of Dodge and Burn was applied to the highlights and dark areas respectively, then I resized for the web

Friday's brand-spanking-new-year's-day debut for the Challenge; click here for other monochromed Pbasers in January