I really hope this image will be on my profile page. Never had 4 favorites during voting :)
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What an exciting week! After first 2 votes (5.50) the photo constantly improved reaching 7.56. Then it began to follow a different path and touched its lowest point at 7.15 - still great of course. Last 2 days have been super and last time I could check the score, it was at 7.5682 with 22 comments and 5 favorites.
Of course the image is my effort in trying to imitate the very famous Vermeer's painting. I love Dutch/Flemish painters of the past and it's my tribute to them. At first I had another painting in my mind but my model wasn't available. The girl is my niece. Not Alessia, who's in many of my portraits - this is Virginia. She's currently working in the extreme North of Italy, but she sent me a message asking me to take a nice photo of her between 20th and 25th when she had planned to be here. So I thought of this challenge and asked her if she liked my idea. She had worked in the Netherlands and had seen the real Vermeer's painting, so she was very excited.
So I began to study the lighting of the original painting. It didn't seem too hard. Vermeer used a natural light coming from a window. I planned to take the shot with my studio lighting, but when I was setting all the stuff I noticed how the light coming from a window of my attic was wonderful and decided to use it. I set the black background in the right position and all was ready.
But before the shot we had to prepare the model. We didn't have too much time but we tried to do our best to be very close to the original painting. When I took the first shot a sort of smile appeared on my face: my idea was working.
Besides the light coming from the window I used a white surface on the right of the frame. I didn't want that area to be too dark.
I took no more than 7-8 shots. They were all very good and we choose the one with the more convincing expression.
Last but not least I have to thank my Elysium teammates who helped me to choose the right amount of grain needed and to fix an imperfection of the left part of her face.
I'm very happy to see this photo in my profile page - I can say that this portrait changed something inside of me... but this is a personal thing and it's hard to explain it through words.
Thanks everybody!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 133 Avg (all users): 7.6146 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 7.4074 Avg (non-participants): 7.8810 Views since voting: 5520 Views during voting: 245 Votes: 96 Comments: 64 Favorites: 25 (view)
Definitely one of your best, I would say a milestone in your portfolio, and one of the finest images seen on DPC. And she is such a beautiful model.
Congrats on the blue, glad to see my only 10 won this.
Very nice! I knew this would get the blue and I'm happy to see it on your profile page! I still say its my favorite picture that you have done.....just great work!
I think the capture itself is stunning and expect this to be on the front page with a ribbon. I find the grain a little heavy on her skin but the light is delicious. Lovely. 9 Voted earlier, back to comment.
Too many r's in the earing :) (edited: my spelling is really bad!)
A very good attempt to recreate Vermeer, great light and the model although missing a bit of the innocence of the original.
Voted earlier, bumping up, and coming back to comment.
Very nice nod to Vermeer's classic painting. Lighting, expression, and model dress & pose are fantastic! I love the image grain here for it gives it a textural feel to compliment the nod to a painting. Also, the brown dress/cowl now has a feel and look of wool. Well done - hope to see this in the top 10.
I look at this image and am reminded of a classical painting. Unfortunately, for the life of me I cannot remember what it is called. Very nicely done... you have managed to capture an image that could readily pass for a painting.
Very nicely done. Definitely my favorite to date. A 9 for now.
A dream of Vermeer doing photography, with an even more beautiful girl. Happy to witness this in its anonymity, before the many times people will quote it.
Challenge-wise, probably the only image where the grain works.
Girl with a Pearl Earring
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