I'll just post this and see what happens. I'm really excited about the idea just not this first session's exection, but am happy with the overall composition.
Lightbulb carefully hallowed out and the white powder washed out. A live ladybug was placed on the plant leaf and then put inside through opening.
The setup was lit fom behind and from the top. Both lights diffused and the top one placed as close as possible to the bulb. And yes, the ladybug(I know it's a beetle) did move about and I had to wait for it to stop on just the right spot.
I have a few nitpicks with the image, first the forefront glass plate(wish I had a mirror plate) doesn't disappear into background. I would've liked to use less noise reduction to get rid of certain spots and would've used just a tad of a lower angle. Will have fun working on an advanced editing version and perhaps a reshoot, this one is begging for it :)
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Thanks very much, to all of you. I'm very glad that you all like the idea as much as I do and looked past the small imperfections I thought where going to be an issue. I never got so many comments(74) for a photo, even if during and after voting comments where combined. I went to bed with an 8.0 at 15 votes and didn't think the score would be that close when checking in the next afternoon.
I'll also retract the nitpick about the seam, as Strikeslip suggested in a comment below... I agree now :)
Yes the ladybug is most certainly alive and real, I let it go right after. You can see its little legs sticking out. Which they retract if they feel danger(playing dead?) or are just dead.
I have an outtake which uses less noise reduction and doesn't have such a tint on the bulb screw. And is an overall more clean shot to begin with. At the end I thought the composition in this shot was the winner so I chose it. I used a lot of Selective Color tweaking to get the tone as I wanted here.
I didn't use a brand new bulb for the shot. It was one of those older white ones. Suffice to say the first perfect bulb I found broke by accident :P and I had a hard time finding another one which I could wash the top logo off or one which didn't have tinted blue glass. Would've really liked to keep the bottom black portion of the bulb but it kept getting in the way of balance and I honestly didnt have much time to get this shot right. So the slight shadow helps with the illusion, I guess.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 258 Avg (all users): 7.7389 Avg (commenters): 8.9138 Avg (participants): 7.6786 Avg (non-participants): 7.7723 Views since voting: 25946 Views during voting: 723 Votes: 314 Comments: 135 Favorites: 140 (view)
A perfect shot! I don't think that the seam from the glass plate detracts at all (as per your nit-pick). It actually looks quite natural to have it there. This is a fantastically creative idea, and you did a great job of pulling it off.
I have no faith in bugs getting to the right spot for me and I probably would have killed the poor guy and glued him down after a while. ;-)
Congrats, I changed my vote from a 9 to a 10 at the last minute after thinking about this and I thought it was just the collest thing. Not that it mattered anyway because you were so far up there but you deserve every bit of 1st place. Great job on this challenge.
Strange because no-one else has spotted this, maybe it's just me... but the beetle doesn't look real to me, not even part of the photo. Someone commented that it had been run thru NeatImage too much, maybe that's what's done it. Hmmm...! Still, if it is genuine (which I am assuming it is) it is a fantastic idea and brilliantly executed.
Excellent image here, and so desertves the blue" ribbon. I can't believe I actually missed it..... Being a sad and not very healthy week for me, I didn't get to vote 100% this challenge. (I only manages a 60% vote) Congratulations on this achievement.....
gonna comment later on, but I just had to say I love this shot.
10, added to faves :)
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back to give you a decent comment ;) this is what I had in mind for this challenge, but I couldn't manage to get the screw off of the glass (so that means I'm very curious about the "how did you do this" ;-))
also the green hue you've managed to get in your photo looks neat. that's another part I wanna know!
I just love this photo and you should get this in a printed version. it would be great for stock-photography too, I think. Can you imagine your photo on a greeting card? well, I can :D
see you at the frontpage tomorrow, I hope! good luck with the roll-over!
Nicely executed. It does leave me feeling a bit greened-out after a while, though. Maybe just one other colour? Aven a slightly different shade of green would do... :-)
Awesome! One of the few I've seen in this challenge that look like ribbon winners! Fantastic job! Hey.. .how'd you get that leaf and butterfly in there :) Hope you explained. How amazing! 10
Ribbon winner? I hope so! Absolutely fantastic! the only thing that kinda bothers me is that it seems very neat imaged, especially the leaf. But besides that, this should do VERY well. Good luck!
Back to bump up by 2. Very nicely done and interesting composition. I can't wait to see how you did this ...my husband and I are arguing (I'm right though)! :) This will finish well.
I really like this concept and I think it turned out well- The only things troubling me are
A) The leaf-shiny-ness. I find it bizarre and distracting.
B) The reflection at the bottom. I think of there was a sharper reflection at the bottom (exact mirror) or a more clear reflection (or none whatsoever) I would be less distracted by it.
SUPERB ! My fav ! This is wonderful ! Outside the box....major impact for the viewer. Composition is outstanding. PERFECT lighting and can we say...wonderful mix of textures ??? 10 ++++
Excellent work, not a thing I would change about it except for if it were edited in advanced editing, I would have made the yellow metal part of the bulb yellow again and not had it with such a strong green hue but in basic editing, this is perfect. Still "only" gave it an 8, not really a wow image for me but I would not be surprised to see this ribbon, it´s awesome work on all the technicals.
Very original. Should score relly high. I predict a ribbon.
I would have liked more contrast between the green leaf and the background.
The image is just a bit TOO green.
Must have been fun to set up.
Eco
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