* Post-challenge: Thanks to everyone for the awesome comments! I had a blast shooting it, so I'm glad all of you can enjoy some of my inner-geekdom. :D
At first I was really stumped as far as what to do for this challenge. I decided to do the first thing I almost always do - consult Wikipedia! ;) I scanned through all the events of 1982, but none of them jumped out at me - until... "June 5 - The first Rubik's Cube World Championships is held in Budapest, Hungary." Bing bing bing - we have a winner!
So I borrowed a Rubik's Cube from a co-worker, tracked down the right type of frames for the glasses, taped up the bridge, and threw on the nerdiest 80s shirt I could find. :D I used a black backdrop and draped a piece of black velvet over a small table. I actually had three lights set up for this shot. All three were cheap clamp-on shop lights with daylight bulbs to help the white balance. One close light from left of frame and above, one light from right of frame and almost level, then one light actually clamped to leg of tripod and pointed downwards enough to spill JUST enough light onto my hands and the Rubik's Cube. Shot by myself with timer setting.
I shot this at ISO 1600 not only because my lighting wasn't very intense, but also because I wanted the shot to have a kinda gritty look to it - like a bad 80s game show. :)
Post-processing included:
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* Shadows adjustment in RAW
* Adjustment layer for Levels
* Adjustment layer for Brightness/Contrast
* Adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation to slightly desaturate closer to 80s TV look
* Cropped
* Resized with Bicubic Sharper
* Added color-matching border
* Save for Web
I had a fun time bringing out my full inner-nerd for this challenge. Hopefully a few of you will get a laugh out of it. :)
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 102 Avg (all users): 6.7079 Avg (commenters): 7.5882 Avg (participants): 6.6071 Avg (non-participants): 6.7297 Views since voting: 9330 Views during voting: 528 Votes: 315 Comments: 59 Favorites: 8 (view)
What a hoot! I love the picture - brings back some scary memories. I actually was one of those geeky guys that could do the stupid thing in under 45 seconds. Spent a whole day at a big competition at some mall in suburban Chicago - yikes!
I will have to tell my daughter, also born that year. She'll be thrilled ;-) Like the composition for the subject and the taped glasses are a nice touch.
Fun stuff. The expression, including the tongue and tape, is wonderful. You've really gotten the details down. Technically, I'd like to see a sharper focus throughout, and a less harsh lighting in the face. Very nice. 6
Not only is this a great shot, it is the year I was born! I smell a ribbon on this one. I say 9. ahhh screw it, make that a 10. I don't give out enough of em.
If you'd just held it a little lower, we could see the pocket protector! I like the composition of this one, and the intense look on his face. Very well done.
Nice balance and use of color. I really like the border, ties it up nicely. I don't really like the tape on the glasses and I'm unsure on the head cropping, but it is balanced.......
This is great! I love the geek tape and the expression. This is one of my top 3 for this challenge. Great composition for a difficult challenge topic. It was hard to keep this challenge interesting. You managed to pull it off with flying colors.
1982 - The first Rubik's Cube World Championships
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