very little processing - no crop and only slight level and brightness/contrast adjstment
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POST CHALLENGE COMMENTS:
Thank you to all for your great comments and support. It has been a wild couple of weeks with two ribbons and a DQ because of my own laziness.
Briefly, the day I shot this I had attended a funeral for a father of one of our soccer players. It was all very sad and my good friend suggested that I go and spend some time alone with my camera. The “Woody” challenge was going on and I figured something like this might not go very well with all of the funny stuff I was hoping to see. Anyway, I was really trying to get the Woody in a position that would depict “grief” as that is what the day was all about, but the dumb thing would bend like I wanted it to for that kind of depiction. Thus this position of “despair” was all I could get out of him. Regardless, this photo will always be special to me as was born out of genuine emotion.
For the lighting, I recently purchased a 30 watt spiral fluorescent lamp to go in one of my continuous studio lights (because I keep burning myself and melting things with those tungsten lamps) – this probably explains the “blue” cast some folks saw as I didn’t use the RAW file or adjust the white balance like I should have. I made a snoot out of aluminum foil and kept shaping the snoot until I got the right light on the figure and the backdrop.
Thanks again to everyone.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 106 Avg (all users): 7.2159 Avg (commenters): 8.5294 Avg (participants): 6.9180 Avg (non-participants): 7.2917 Views since voting: 13151 Views during voting: 595 Votes: 301 Comments: 65 Favorites: 13 (view)
I just realized I never told you how great this was. I love the back drop - where did you get it? Excellent lighting - perfect to set the mood. Congrats on your blue!!
It is truly amazing how an object like Woody can portray such a strong emotion. It was powerful to me even before I read your description. Great job on this photo, deserving of a ribbon. I was sorry to read of your loss.
This picture is really great, I love the way it captures the emotion, even though it's a simple wooden man. I like it even more because it's capturing my current emotions, so thank you.
I never expected a seriously good photo to come out of something as silly as a Woody Challenge... but here it is. I liked it as soon as I saw it: beautiful lighting, pose, etc. Then I read your photographer's comments and now I like it even more! Congrats on a very well deserved blue ribbon.
congrats on the blue - fine image. as far as despair goes, the week before this challenge was announced, my poor woody was devoured by a 90 pound dog named Grimm... ;}
i suppose i could have entered 'the pieces' anyway...
Wow, just when I think most of the voting population on this site is "off their rockers", the winner truly deserves it. I had this one as a 10 (along with the other 25 people) and it was a much deserved Blue Ribbon.
I was hoping this would take the blue. It really stood out to me as the obvious winner during voting. My favorite in the challenge and now that I read your story I'm even more pleased that you did so well. Very well done and congratualtions!
To evoke so much sentiment and emotion from a woody is just like drawing blood from a stone and this you have accomplished with very artful craft and artistic rendition! Congratulations on your Blue.
wonderful shot and you DEFINETLY should have won the blue! as I said in comments earlier, I really liked the way the "object" takes on a personality in this shot. Congrats and very well done.
I like the balance of low horizontal figure and a large 3/4 background. Just something about the light on Woody makes him just too grey, and although it's a shot of "despair" maybe his highlights could have been picked up more. I can imagine that with some tweeks, this could make a great enlargement poster!
I didn't think you could create emotion from a woody, but you did a fine job in this image. The lighting adds to the emotion of despair. Composition is really the best I've seen so far on the woody's.
perfect lighting, composition etc. It raised an interesting question for me, that it just didn't 'rock my boat' as much as a couple of others photos have. 7
Nice use of directional light and posing. For such a warm background, the light looks a little blue to me (maybe by choice). Composition is well done as well.
It looks so "real"! Amazing how an inanimate human-formed object can express "emotion". Great job of posing Woody and kudos also for a perfect background and lighting setup to go with it. Well done!
My guess is that you are in for a ribbon. I hope anyway - I like the emotion of this shot. Perfect positioning, crop and background. Lovely light. Bumping up to 8. Good luck.
despair
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