You would think that with as many self-portraits as I take on a regular basis that this challenge would be a snap. Hah, right! What's good enough for a few virtual catcalls in Blog Land isn't going to pass muster over here, not by a long shot! I had a few ideas. First I decided to play with a really fuzzy scarf my sister knitted for me a few years ago, never got a result I liked. Next I drove up to one of my favorite spots for shooting aspens and tried to look like a sort of relaxed hippie girl, but the lighting and shadows were all completely wrong. Finally, I curled up the hair, grabbed the one remaining gerbera daisy from the Dr. Pepper still life, and did a series with the daisy. In all, it went something like this:
3 locations
184 photos
2 laptop crashes due to overheating
2 relocations - one to the balcony where said laptop was better ventilated, one back inside when it started sprinkling
3 hours in PhotoShop, picking through 184 photos and experimenting with various Advanced Editing ideas before settling on a final product.
The hair was a two hour ordeal, as it is normally stick straight and so ultra-fine that it doesn't take curl well at all, but it turned out perfectly for the photo I wanted to take. The daisies were wired to keep them upright, so I cut the wire quite a bit longer than the stem and looped it so I had something to bite that didn't taste so damn nasty.
I'm wondering if I'll get points for looking nekkid, even though I'm actually dressed just out of frame. And yes, my eyes really are green, though the shade is a little more earthy than it shows here. ;-)
Crop
Contrast
Saturation
Selective Color Balance, Saturation and Contrast on iris
Unsharp mask
Blur tool on stray hair
Neat Image
Blur tool under eye to catch what NI did not
Clone out stray hair, flower pollen, light reflection in eye
Add border
Save for Web
EDIT: 2/25/07
Re-edited this shot, since I hate several things about the first version.
Statistics
Place: 55 out of 236 Avg (all users): 6.3505 Avg (commenters): 7.2353 Avg (participants): 6.2180 Avg (non-participants): 6.4620 Views since voting: 3269 Views during voting: 550 Votes: 291 Comments: 28 Favorites: 9 (view)
Hi Rebecca, I had this in my top 3 and gave it a 10...I cannot believe the voting... this shot was the most robbed shot in this challenge...if not top 3 at least top 10, but 55th...it makes me so mad that voters vote the way they do. This shot was perfection for me...I don't know you, but your face oozes personality...stunning!
CTCP2 Gunnsi First impression: Beautiful picture, lovely colours, perfect focus, crisp and clear.
What can you do better?
Stand a bit further from the wall to skip the shadow, the wall could be whiter in the left (your right).
I gave highest 8 in this challenge. Three pictures and this was one of them. IMO this picture should have scored better.
There is that gerbera again!! I really like this one! The red and your eyes complement eachother beautifully! The hair looks very pretty! It is a good pic (I think it could be a good movie poster as well)
hey there from ctp2:
Love this shot! I love how you worked a flower into it! Love the curly hair. Are your eyes really that green?
Congrats on the PB! Way to go, and nice to see you!
Great personality and the composition works perfectly. The only real problem I have is with the background. It's just not clean enough. There's coloration blotches (lower left corner) and hot spots (along the edges of your hair) that hurts the image somewhat. Overall, I liked it. Good luck!
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