While this is obviously a direct interpretation of the challenge, not very creative nor extremely inspired, I like the overall mood and esthetic of it.
Of course, as usual, everything was shot and processed by me. Technically, here is how it was done:
- The ruins come from the Jumieges Abbey, France. The left part (from the left tower to the central arch) comes from a first panorama, while the right part comes from another one (the overall image weights 75Mp). The right tower is a single shot, added in the background. In order to blend the shapes, I adjusted the panoramas perspectives, to obtain this "pseudo-wide angle" effect that I like. Also, since these were shot under different light angles, I had to "relight" everything in post-production, by adding brightness to the buildings faces oriented towards the light, and darkening the other parts. Shadows were also adjusted accordingly.
- The tomb comes from the graveyard of the same town. No idea whom it is (didn't look), probably some important (or rich) person.
- The moon was shot (at 600mm) during the 'supermoon' night. The weather was really cloudy, so I had to wait until 4.00am to get a clear shot of it.
- For the flying bats, I simply cut one in a sheet of paper, and shot it against a black background, flipping the wings to obtain different positions. Then I inverted the colors, and created several custom brushes from the photos.
- My wife kindly posed for the main ghost. The dress is custom, made out of long piece of fabric that we initially bought for the "abstract with people" challenge (I finally didn't enter it as I wasn't pleased with the result). She was standing on a chair, while the fabric was maintained on the floor using a piece of wood: this let me adjust the folds precisely.
- The "ghost circle" was simply made out of a white sheet, roughly folded and put in a ring shape. I added some (subtle) ghost faces to the sheet, by deforming some photos of my own face.
- Some other details have been added for good measure, such as trees and fog.
Beautifully rendered shot. You have an amazing gift a) to be able to envision such imaginative scenes, and b) to have the photographic and processing skills to bring them to life. Simply amazing. Congrats on the image and ribbon.
I wish someone could explain to me how some people can even consider giving this a 2,3,4 or even a 5. I would just love to hear the explanations by those individuals as to how they justified their scores.
Thanks a lot Paul. Frankly, it's hard! There was much time involved on this one, and I really need some rest so my next entries will be probably less ambitious. Just so that my wife actually remembers I can also talk, not just shoot and edit ;-)
the circle of ghosts reminds me of that scene at the end of raiders of the lost ark.
Man, you're hitting scary consistency of late! Congrats on the bleu!
Sort of sad to see your advanced challenge 8.0 score go from your profile though.
Interesting background - hopefully this isn't a rules violation and all images were taken by you. Impressive if so, i'm interested to hear how you did this one :)
definitely a top contender, i'm seeing a blue in your future monsieur. I have the feeling that this is christophe, and if i'm wrong that's still a compliment. I'm generally pleased by everything this photo has to offer and wuldt have really changed anything. I enjoy the fountain of glowing ghost juice as well. very nice.
haha brilliant work christoph so much to see and study, nice thought and planning, i love the crypt the trees and the bats not to mention your beautiful banishee. lovely set of ruins and clouds. great work and blue, dont think this will be a new pb though but its getting a 10 from me.
I know who did this but it doesn't matter because I am stopped immediately on this creation. Emotional, captivating and so extremely well done. What more can I say, it is amazing, the detail, the light, the mood, it is jaw dropping. Keep putting it out here, it is a real treat to view your work. 10 and a fav.
Adieu
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