This was a last-minute idea that I thought might be a little different from the horde of silverware macro shots I expect (it had BETTER be).
A pitchfork and shovel form the core of the illusion along with a "plate" I made from tileboard and blue masking tape. Shot with a monolight on either side. My son wouldn't wear the wings at first (they're for girls), so I had to resort to bribery. That's an "I'm getting chocolate" smile. ;-)
Shot in RAW. Levels, cloning out wrinkles and blemishes, shifted the pitchfork "neck" from red to gray, shifted the blue masking tape to a more muted color, assorted dodging and burning.
Note- as several comments pointed out, the overall image is pretty flat, and that probably held the score back. If I hadn't entered two minutes before the deadline, I might have fixed it.
Statistics
Place: 6 out of 163 Avg (all users): 6.7850 Avg (commenters): 8.5357 Avg (participants): 6.4938 Avg (non-participants): 6.9832 Views since voting: 3671 Views during voting: 472 Votes: 200 Comments: 54 Favorites: 3 (view)
Congratulations! I figured this was you - you're good! I'm going to have to study your pictures. I like the soft colours in this one, it suits this picture well. Your little boy has a very endearing smile.
You were robbed! I personally think this is much better than the yellow and red, and possibly even the blue. I'm amazed it didn't ribbon- it's brilliant! And it reminds me of the old 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids' movies... :)
With every image that you post I am more and more amazed at your endless creativity.
In a way, the muted blue makes your kid stand out a bit too much, as if it was pasted into the photo, but honestly? I don't care.
I don't care about the "flatness" either. A photo has to have a bit more then technicalities in it.
And not that the 6th place is bad, but I would prefer seeing this one ribbons.
Such a wonderful job!
By the way, it is perfectly legal to bribe little kids into this sort of things ;-)
Your son looks like he really had fun with this shot. What a great idea! I was very surprised it did not ribbon. Congratulations on this wonderful piece of art and a top 6 finish.
wings aren't for girls, they are for fairys. Fairies have to be girls and boys, or how would they make baby faries!!
If only you had gotten him to wear stripey stockings...
Haha, very good trick, took me a second to realize that the "spoon and fork" were a hayfork and a shovel. Just means that the "plate" looks realistic and so does the cloth under the shovel/hayfork. Gave this an 8, brought a smile to my face.
Cute. It wouldn't surprise me if this got a ribbon especially since this type of photography usually does well here. Personally, I don't really care too much for it but it is well done thus I gave it a 7.
You shouldn't call children "bugs" you know, it's bad for their self-esteem. Although this little fellow doesn't look like his self-esteem is hurting :) Nice!
7 - Good effort and idea and well done if this is original. Criticism; of course the classic 'a fly in my soup', but much harder to execute especially given your 'utensils'. Seems you have gone to a lot of trouble to set this up. Right down to (I presume) the choice of shirt on the 'bug'. Perhaps some type of 'toning down', or 'softening' of the 'bug', so that it was a little more subtle, coupled with a slightly different crop/framing, especially to gain more 'context' (difficult I am sure as you likely were on a ladder to do this, who knows), may have made this even better in my opinion.
This looks like a scalvert setup - if not, take it as a very high compliment and consider my prediction of a ribbon for such a creative, technically excellent, superbly executed shot - AND a definite standout in a mundane challenge.
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