I went bicycle touring for 9 weeks once, on my own... except I was not alone. Everywhere I went, my bike went with me. It was no longer a tool or vehicle but a living thing. It was my baby. It had moods, feelings, good days, and bad days. If I took care of it, it would take care of me. Every day before starting my ride, I'd go over it, looking for problems. And during the day, while riding, it would speak to me. It would tell me what it needed and how it felt. It was and is a wonderful friendship.
Technicals:
So I can't take credit for the idea. I saw this once in a portraiture book I got from the library. However, I thought that the author did a horrible job on that photo and I've always had it in the back of my mind to try to do a better version. So, here's my take.
This wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to do (thank God for advanced editing). The entire scene is lit with a single 200 watt incandescent bulb. The bike is suspended on a bike repair stand. I placed a jacket over the handlebars so the empty wall over my right should be be a uniform color and not have funny handlebars sticking out of my shoulder. I'm holding a reflector in my right hand to help light that side of my face.
Editing wise didn't produce huge changes but just many many small changes that slowly make the photo that much better. I selectively desaturated the wall behind me (it's actually an off-white wall). I brightened the wall over my right shoulder so it looks like unshadowed wall (remember it was in shadow from the jacket). I darkened the shadow of the bike using curves and a layer mask to prevent the wall itself from getting too dark. I also did some Noise Ninja, sharpening, and a bunch of contrast/brightness edits on different regions to even out the lighting.
I'm fairly happy with this shot, especially since it's a self portrait with tight cropping. I didn't crop the original image so I just had to stand in EXACTLY the right spot - which is fairly hard to do. If I could have convinced someone else to pose, I probably would have realized I was shooting 1/15th of a second in F1.8 which gave me a narrow focus range and required complete stability while shooting. A re-shoot (if I were to do one) would include changing the F/stop to 4 and increasing the ISO to keep the speed fast enough to not show any motion.
I predict this will break into my top 4 photos, scoring around 6.4.
Statistics
Place: 12 out of 128 Avg (all users): 6.4636 Avg (commenters): 6.8462 Avg (participants): 5.9796 Avg (non-participants): 6.6961 Views since voting: 1333 Views during voting: 286 Votes: 151 Comments: 16 Favorites: 0
This is really appealing, amazing considering it's a self-portrait. Congrats on making the top 20. Thanks for all the technical detail in your comments, too -- that's a generous way of helping your fellow photographers.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
