I had envisioned this shot for a week or two before the challenge came around so i finally did it. I lit it with a single small 12"x12" softbox from above and slightly behind.
This shoot was pretty hard because I almost passed out a couple times while making my veins pop out and also my make me look angry and strong. The editing used was i converted to b&w and then i added a red tone to it from curves and then lots of usm to bring up the contrast and texture, that wasnt there.
Im actually an atheist and dont belive in the devil
Statistics
Place: 143 out of 227 Avg (all users): 4.9375 Avg (commenters): 5.5789 Avg (participants): 4.6163 Avg (non-participants): 5.1639 Views since voting: 1206 Views during voting: 400 Votes: 208 Comments: 22 Favorites: 0
I think you did get dinged for the lack of understanding of what seppuku is, but your biggest hit actually comes from the photo's reliance on the title to meet the challenge. That makes it a shoehorn in many eyes. It's also a very dark photo, so an uncalibrated monitor could make it very very very dark (like the monitor I'm on now at work, which sucks a whole lot). Dark photos very rarely do well on DPC for this reason. I gave this a 5, because it's a really nice photo, but even knowing what seppuku is without looking it up I really don't see how the title is connected to the photo. The pose doesn't suggest seppuku to me at all. It might have if there was a samurai sword involved, or a more upright, dignified pose suggesting the honor of the ritual. On my scale, an outstanding photo that I find DNMC doesn't usually score higher than a 4. I gave this an extra point because it's technically solid and might have had a stronger connection to death with a different title, perhaps something more connected to the grief over the death of a loved one, which I can see as a decent interpretation for this picture.
Nothing. I had another picture that i was going to enter and i changed this close to last minute. I geuss i accidently left the part about the devil in there because that had somethhing to do with the other photo and i was in a hurry.
Interesting, I had to lookup the word because I figured it had something to do with this shot and how it related to the challenge. Now that I understand, I like this shot a lot more.
Gutsy (so to speak) and completely successful. The straining muscles seem to be doing just what you say, except I can't imagine that anything could pierce that rocky flesh. 9
I'm coming back to this one again and again. I think I can see why you choose this photo for the challenge, but I bet a lot of voters don't. great lighting and use of colors.
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