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Smoke Break For The Working Man
Smoke Break For The Working Man
WonderDude


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: HDR in B/W (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II M. Zuiko Digital ED
Location: Cowboy Church of Limestone County
Date: Feb 2, 2016
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 125
Shutter: 1/6400 - 1/400
Date Uploaded: Feb 2, 2016

 Focal Length 9mm w/2.7 crop factor

WOW! This turned into allot of work! I may not win and I may even get disqualified. But I am quite proud of this piece. And I learned a hell of allot creating this image! I worked on this much longer than any other I've submitted thus far.

So here's how I did it. I asked my buddy Stuart to pose for me and remain very still as I used my camera's bracketing mode to take seven shots with varying exposures.

Unfortunately, he did not remain as still as I would have hoped. So, once I invoked Photo Shop Elements HDR method, everything was nice and sharp except my man Stu! So, I decided to remove Stu from the HDR image and pull him from one of the other images.

Once I pulled him out of the image with the best exposure and sharpness for him, I played with the highlights, shadows and mid tones to simulate as best I could an HDR version of him. I then pasted him onto the HDR image only to discover that he was slightly smaller than the blurrier version of him that I had removed. So, I went back to the HDR image that I had removed him from and cloned in the areas that were missing. Then I was able to past him in successfully except for one thing. His beard!

Oh my gosh is it a pain in the butt to select hair! I did all sorts of Youtube searches, learning about feathering and edge refinement. But none of that seemed to help. Finally after a day of research, I discovered that my NCH PhotoPad software was able to more easily select just the hair from the blown out background that I pulled the best copy of him that I could find.

Once I discovered this, I then had to go back and fill in the background area around his beard. I was then able to past his newly selected beard onto his face. WHEW!!! What a task!

Anyway, I hope some of you like it. It sure pushed my abilities!

Statistics
Place: 31 out of 93
Avg (all users): 5.8800
Avg (commenters): 7.5000
Avg (participants): 5.6889
Avg (non-participants): 6.1667
Views since voting: 513
Views during voting: 172
Votes: 75
Comments: 3
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
Nikon D7100
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
 02/11/2016 07:53:18 PM
Greetings from the Critique Club!

I quite liked this image and gave it a 7 in voting so thought it would finish higher than it did. I think you beat me :-) Stuart and his pose here reminds me of Nathaniel Rateliffe, of whom I am a fan. You have a lot of grey tones in there, but I don't see true black, though pretty sure there is pure white in there. The lighting and comp are great. I can't see the extensive pp work, so kudos for making it invisible!!

Honestly I don't know why portraits seem to have been soundly panned in this challenge. Seems like the voters were expecting nothing less than towering peaks and cool urban shots, and anything more earthy and/or human just wasn't in the cards.

Hope this helps!

Susan
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-5D Mark IV
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L II
 02/09/2016 10:55:33 PM
Awesome portrait, great composition, apocalyptic sky!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon Z5
Viltrox 20mm f/2.8 AF
 02/09/2016 07:53:21 PM
Interesting
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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