This is Katrin again who modeled for us in the rule of thirds II challenge. As usual, Henny came along and took care of the makeup and helped me come up with this pose or rather finalize it.
I was originally going to take a picture of a friend of mine who is big and strong out in the nature, holding a tree over his shoulder, like he was out walking around with his favorite tree or something like that. Well something came up and the weather sucked the weekend so we threw this photoshoot together last minute, fortunately Katrin was available. Thanx to Blomaval for lending us the bonzai tree for this photoshoot.
The thinking behind this photo is that she is mother earth or some kind of godess who is giving the gift of life or something to that effect to the world. I think this shot will firmly bomb cause anal DNMC voters will argue that the bonzai tree is not the main subject but I don´t care, didn´t want to do like the masses and go out and photograph a tree in a landscape and I really like this photo.
Lighting was with 3 monolights with softboxes and 1 reflector.
Post processing was very minimal, basically just standard raw conversion stuff, curves, a little bit of dodging/burning and sharpening after resizing. Oh as a matter of fact I did a lot of healing brush adjustments as a lot of dirt from the soil around the bonzai tree had fallen down on the backround and on Katrin but that´s it.
Statistics
Place: 106 out of 251 Avg (all users): 5.6279 Avg (commenters): 5.8889 Avg (participants): 5.3299 Avg (non-participants): 5.8729 Views since voting: 7211 Views during voting: 860 Votes: 215 Comments: 43 Favorites: 14 (view)
The pose and composition is perfect, as is the lighting(as usual). Didn't get a chance to vote and haven't seen all the photos yet but a 5.6! bleh :P surely deserved more. Voted down much too harshly for the tree not being the main object. I get the concept and I like it but it would've been more natural if the belly button stud wasn't there.
Okay first of WOW! What an awesome picture, idea and model! I can't believe all the low scores this got...have people lost their minds?!?!?!?
Second, I guess people can't see the beauty in the human form. I didn't vote on this challenge Larus, but if I had, this would have gotten high marks from me for perfect lighting (as usual) and a creative take on this challenge. This is in NO way tastless IMHO. Congrats to you and the beautiful model for this stunning work.
Sorry about all the 1's, 2's and 3's there my friend. Seems that a few figure skating judges signed onto DPC recently. Regardless, a beautiful image with a whole lot of style. Well done!
I figured people would be way too literal to give this the high marks it deserved. And I was right. Grrrrrr - keep up the good work. I found this interesting but most of all DIFFERENT!!!! All of us "different drummers" must stick together. ;~D
I can't believe this ended up in 107th place??????? 6 2's and 9 1's??? What's wrong with you people???? Puritanism gone awry...Larus you should be damn proud of this shot!
Well as they say around here, the voters are kings. But as we do here in France, a good revolution to change kings from time to time is good too ;). This score is a shame! Like the excellent shot by tuborg ranked very low, it is really disapointing to see so low a reward is given to more original interpretations of the subject.
Keep up the good work and original approach. This was a great shot!
Hmmmm what is the subject here... itty bitty tree, or BIG NUDE WOMAN???? (Not that the woman is big, just in comparison to the little tree she is holding.) Sorry, but I just don't find the MAIN subject of this image to be the cute little tree. Other than that, great image! And a stunning model, too!
Very nice! The colors are great making the green tree really pop out. The lighting is obviously excellent too. And also definitely a sense of message. Why do I get the feeling I recognize the author (if not the model?)
Further proof that a hot, naked girl can be an asset to any subject matter! :) I would not be surprised to see this get a ribbon. Excellent sharpness and skin -- er bark -- tones. I wouldn't mind getting involved in an act of photosynthesis with this subject!
The model is beautiful, the lighting is perfect. But let's face it, the subject here is NOT the tree, is it? Gratuitous nudity (nudity for the sake of it) is not my thing I'm afraid.
Somebody always finds a way to work a naked lady into the challenge somehow. :( Certainly the TREE isn't the main subject here. Should be interesting to see how the voting curve works out for this one, with the DNMC being applied.
edit to add, this comment sparked a lively PM debate. ;^)
I like the pose - body and arms/hands, with the tree. The only thing I dont' like is the background. In the upper half(especially left arm/shoulder and face/hair) of her body, which is lighter than lower half the white background isn't pleasing to my eye. 7 - for comp/tecnique/orginality.
Interesting idea but to accept her as goddess I think the image needs to be more perfect...Detail and sharpness in the tree are lacking. The hair at the top of her head merges with the background and thus has lost it's detail as well. The position of her lower right leg is awkward and looks uncomfortable...as if she's about to be unbalanced. A bit more polished in its presentation and it would have been a ten.
I like the expression on the model's face, as well as the pose. Unfortunately it seems like she is the main subject, rather than the tree. It might have been better to place her in an outside environment rather than having the white background.
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