Idea:
I checked the top movies on imdb.com for those that might work for this challenge. I found about a hundred, narrowed them down to 50, then 20, then ten (amongst which were 'Dirty Dancer', 'Flashdance', 'Before Sunset', The Silence of the Lambs'). This is the one where I would least depend on weather conditions and other influences. I also tried 'Eyes Wide Shut' but I couldn't get it the way I wanted it. Thus, my choice fell on 'Clockwork Orange', a movie which I have not seen yet, so I don't know whether my picture might have a link to it other than the title. It doesn't seem so, judging from the plot outline.
Setup:
First, I took an old alarm red clock I got years ago, which I never used and which didn't work that well. It was quite hard to take it apart, it took me half an hour and seven different tools to do so.
The day before I had asked my mother to buy some oranges. I chose an ugly one to test the setup and then chose the best for the actual picture.
I cut off about a quarter of the orange to show it's inside. Then the alarm clock's metallic feet were driven into the orange, it was pierced by the metal stick with the clock's hands and the bells were brutally pushed on the orange to stick more or less to it. Four toothpicks gave it a more stable basis (one of them can still be seen behind the left leg).
I put the orange on a white curved sheet of paper, which was placed on a chair because of the tripod's height.
Then I placed some leftovers (aka gears and screws) around the orange. I used an eyedropper to get water drops everywhere. The whole thing should look like a fresh orange.
My strong desk lamp was on the camera's (tripod's) right side and pointed towards the ceiling. I used another, larger sheet of paper to diffuse the light and get softer shadows (thanks to my sister Denise for holding the sheet :).
Post Processing:
HSL to make the yellow orange and the red alarm clock bells more orange and to push the saturation a little,
slight curves correction to make the background brighter,
resize to 638x571, add 1px black border on each side,
USM (0,50/100/1).
Comments:
This shot was fun, but it took a lot of work as well. The good thing is, it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to. The only thing I'd like to do is to clone away a hair under the left bell.
PS: The pointers glow in the dark =)
Statistics
Place: 15 out of 328 Avg (all users): 6.4191 Avg (commenters): 7.8500 Avg (participants): 6.1507 Avg (non-participants): 6.6150 Views since voting: 4747 Views during voting: 532 Votes: 346 Comments: 32 Favorites: 4 (view)
One of my top three choices for ribbons in this challenge. It is exceptionally well done. Composition, color, lighting and shadow are all excellent. Great job. A nice setup for this shot.
maybe some bloody red liquid dripping from the orange center would have improved the impact and do justice to the movies contents
nevertheless a great idea and nice execution
For me, this was my favorite of the many 'Clockwork Orange' entries. Very nicely arranged, great lighting, and the finishing touch was definately the water droplets. I hope you do well in the challenge
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