I had zero inspiration this week. I went out and took some decent landscapes of fall foliage, but nothing special. I was planning to shoot an adorable local girl over the weekend, but she was called away at the last minute. Bummer.
With Halloween on Tuesday, my last chance would be to get something Monday night after a birthday party. I gathered my studio lights, a chair and my youngest daughter... and set out to take the best darn portrait I possibly could. No clever concept or quirky twist, just whatever I could muster on pure technicals. Mission accomplished! I'll have to wait to see what others think, but I must have stared at this image 200 times today. Win or lose, I am SOOOO proud of this shot! :-D
With no creativity to lean on, lighting and processing were crucial. I put a brolly box on the left side, a white umbrella monolight on the right side, and held a big gold reflector up to her face with my free hand. The lens was wide open to blur the background wallpaper, so I kept the lights at the lowest power setting.
Processing: First, I ran the Luko Unsharp Mask routine that Librodo favors and boosted the color with channel mixer. I dodged the eyes, burned the background and cloned out stray hairs. A little Noise Ninja to soften the background, but I used a History Brush to remove it from the face and hair. More light dodge & burn, then cropped. Just as a "what if...," I used Channel Mixer to convert to grayscale, then colorized for a slight tone. I had a really tough time choosing between the color version and this one!
Yay! It ribboned! Pity it didn't make my top row though. I do NOT understand the 3 and 4 votes. How the heck would this be considered below average or not meeting the challenge in any way?
Interesting to note that my first 7+ score ever was in a portrait challenge, with the same model, same chair, same room... and virtually the same score! For a laugh, compare this shot to my very first DPC entry. ;-)
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 271 Avg (all users): 7.0683 Avg (commenters): 8.0476 Avg (participants): 6.7711 Avg (non-participants): 7.2169 Views since voting: 9455 Views during voting: 401 Votes: 249 Comments: 78 Favorites: 37 (view)
3 and 4 votes are people who have no damn clue about phtography or try knock other people down to boost themselves up.
Woderfull shot!. I've been having some serious issues with lighting for my protrait shots. Everything turns out to be way to dark opn everyones computer. But on mine it looks fine...I thinkI need to figure out TTL.
Anyways, all this to say: great job and thanks for the detailed description on the lighting. It gives me a chance to improve on my protraits :)
This is one of the best child portraits on this site. Although you had a difficult choice, I think I would have chosen this one over the colour one, too.
Congratulations on yet another ribbon.
I don't understand a 3 or 4 vote on any level......too bad that if you wanted to, you couldn't protest an obviously wrong vote and if the voter cannot qualify his vote, it gets chucked.That'd probably be an administrative nightmare, though.
I like the chair in the back ground as it adds to the pic for me......since it's an antique, it just lends a little character to the frame.
I also have a beautiful young daughter who is a delight to photograph, very photogenic (my wife doesn't want her pic anywhere on the 'Net) and I can appreciate your joy in having your talents and daughter's beauty appreciated.
I have the same dilemma with the last portrai I shot of my daughter.....I cannot decide whether I like the B&W or the color version better!
Wonderful photo. This is going on my list of favorites. The expression on her face is lovely and the eyes adorable. Congratulations on this one and how in the world did you get 3 and 4 (or even 5 for that matter) scores I'll never understand.
Congratulations on a well deserved Ribbon with this wonderful portrait! Beautiful capture and presentation of this sweet face! Fantastic work as always,Shannon!
One thing I love about your shots is that you always give us a detailed description of how you took them. I wish everyone would take the extra seconds to do that.
I'll second that! I always enjoy reading your photographers comments, even on something as simple and as this photo. Your daughter has really grown up over the last 2 years compared to your first 7+ photo... we'll keep an eye out in 2008 for the same chair to see how much more she's grown! Congrats on the ribbon... well deserved! :)
I am so in awe that a guy with no inspiration could turn out a masterpiece work of art like this! This is one of those photos that will be precious even when your daughter is grown with kids of her own. The ribon: just icing on the cake! Congratulations!
Fantastic work. And there will always be cretins, it's the nature of "art appreciation". And too dark, uncalibrated monitors. As long as ya average over 7 across the challenge, what's to worry about?
An absolute winner! I hadn't voted on this during the challenge, but I definitely would have scored it a 10. perfect in every way. You should be proud of this one.
One thing I love about your shots is that you always give us a detailed description of how you took them. I wish everyone would take the extra seconds to do that.
You should be proud indeed, of a beautiful daughter and a superb job on this portrait - both B&W and color, but I think you chose right. Congratulations!! (and I don't get those low scores either).
I think this is a beautiful photo. You did an exceptional job...you have inspired me to try!!! I have two beautiful daughters of my own...can't wait to get started.
Shannon Calvert! I am so impressed and amazed and surprised and omg, I didn't know you were a portrait artist! Crap, now you beat me at everything! lol This is uber-impressive, sir. Great job!
Hey, you did it! Congratulations! I like this one very much. She's so beautiful. In a couple years you're going to have to fight off Larus and others you know.
Super photo, this was one of my handful of favorites on my first 'pass' through. Clean, crisp, sharp, nice tint and the eyes are wonderful. I'll be looking for this in the Top 5 (hope I don't jinx you)
Absolutely stunning! The lighting is fantastic, the details are sharp (haven't NI'd the skin to plastic). You can see the young adult in this young lady coming out. Boy are you going to have your hands full when she grows up with all those young men knocking at the door. :D My top pick. Good luck (doubt you'll need it) in the challenge.
Nice lighting. It almost has a metallic sense to the duotone. I'd have her sitting in something other than the carved chair. The florette of it is a touch distracting. Nicely done overall.
Wow. What a beautiful portrait, and a beautiful girl. Perfect light, crop/framing, expression, duotone, down to the slightly out of focus and beautiful chair back. Deserves a 10.
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