Setup is a piece of black felt draped over my entertainment center and natural light from a sunny day through my patio doors and skylight. The pearls are a strand of Christmas tree garland pearls from my Christmas box. I've had this idea for awhile, but only added the queen of diamonds to it today on the spur of the moment.
Processing was a bunch of tinkering with some different blending modes, shadow/highlight, levels, curves, some sharpening, a gothic glow layer, a bunch of dodge/burn and Neat Image. Oh, and a LOT of healing brush on my back, since my skin is awful.
No boobies, no hot model, darkish = prediction: 5.4
I wasn't going to even try to shoot for this. I have no models, so it's me or no one at all. I'm far too chubby, too broad-shouldered, and my skin is too sun-damaged for a nude self-portrait to do well, not to mention that I am determined to keep everything PG since I have a career to consider - and being considerably less than model-perfect, no one really wants to see it anyway. This photo is what I could do, considering my flaws and suitability concerns, and to be honest I'm rather pleased that I could make something relatively beautiful out of my lumpiness and bad skin. Will it stack up against waifish bare-breasted women and men so sculpted they look like Bernini statues come to life? No. Despite all the talk about the beauty of Botticelli, I know better than to hope that a modest fat girl will ever score well here. I think it's a rather sad statement on the state of western society, don't you?
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Slightly better than expected. I do want to mention that the inspiration for pearls down the back was a combination of Audrey Hepburn ala "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and Nicole Kidman's Chanel No. 5 commercial.
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love the idea, but I think there are some things I'd change to make the concept even better.
the model seems very tense in her shoulders. I don't know if that's because of her hand and arm.
might have been better with her hair not in a ponytail (or how do you call it?). like this it seems a bit less glamourous. problem could be the pearls not being visible..
the lighting looks ok, but her back is a bit spotty. lighting from the straight back might have worked better.
all these comments are my personal opinion ofcourse.
The highlights seem borderline blown out. The title is creative, but the statement leaves me somewhat perplexed. Why does the model have pearls on backwards while holding a single Queen of diamonds? The composition is technically good, but the skin seems overly smooth.
I like the strands of pearls - they create an interesting rhythm. I wonder if the hand's pose would have looked better if it was more, um, sensual or seductive. Like having the hand holding onto the shoulder, with just the fingertips delicately holding the card onto her back? Goode tone and lighting.
Not bad. The lighting and composition are quite good. The exposure is a bit off though. I think the blown out shoulder really detracts from the image. Also there seem to be funny lines around the pearls from processing.
great title & use of props! i like the symmetrical nature of this, balanced by it being off-center... but the unusual skin treatment detracts from the overall image. you had a terrific idea with this, and this would be outstanding with a few small corrections!
I think this composition works well in this case. The focus and exposure look fine. The only drawback is that the subject and message don't really speak to me.
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