My right hand with a peace of coal I got from a neighbour. To get my hand dirty, I greased it with salad oil and stuck it into a bag of char coal!
Hat to be careful to keep my left hand clean to not make my camera and the kitchen dirty.
I hope the image turn out good: I have a new laptop and do have problems setting up the monitor right.
Post processing:
hue-correction of the coloured version to get the right B&W,
spot editing some coal pieces on the black background,
level-adjustment,
sharpening,
cropping,
resizing,
smart-sharpening,
blurring of the non-sharpened areas
addition of the border
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 142 Avg (all users): 7.2117 Avg (commenters): 8.3125 Avg (participants): 7.0000 Avg (non-participants): 7.5577 Views since voting: 8305 Votes: 137 Comments: 33 Favorites: 8 (view)
congrats on the ribbon Jorg! I love the details in this image, like the coal dust under the fingernails. Great use of negative space as well. Your work continues to be among my favorites!
I think this is virtually perfectly composed. The negative space on the left is a well balanced ballast for the subject. Want to know why I say that? Beause if that hand opened up it would fit in the frame in a precisely balanced way. If you planned that you are my total hero. It gives this picture a tremendous power ... um, this might not make sense but it's like a making a noun into a _potential_ verb. Congratulations.
Yuhu! Didn't expect the image would do so well that it even gets a blue ribbon. For reasons see below.
Probably the association of coal and black made it for most voters.
I only made a very few images because it was a dirty job, "but someone had to do it!" :)
Keeping the other hand clean was really a major issue and keeping the kitchen clean too.
Another serious issue was my new computer with its much worse screen compared to my old Toshiba notebook: when I reviewed my first version on my old computer, I went "Yiieks! What did I do?"
So I redid the image and went back and forth between the two computers to check the final outcome. While taking only care about the colors, I forgot a little about the cropping.
Then came the biggest disappointment: I asked my loved one how she likes it and she said: "It looks like a piece of sh** in a dirty hand! Totally awful!".
I was really afraid other might have this impression too, but luckily this was not the case.
Framing the coal with the blackened hand makes this image really striking. It was one of the first I saw, and has remained my favorite as I voted on the rest.
Great idea. I'd suggest to either crop it to a square or to let more of the arm into the frame. The space at the left isn't really necessary and a slight move the left might make the composition more interesting as well. 9
I'm not a big fan of neat image but on this one it improved the luminosity(?) so that's a plus, but it left smudgy areas (the right side of the hand and his fingers mostly) so that's a minus. I like the composition and the fact that the hand is covered with the coal dust and it's even under the nails. That makes it more real. I think I would like this more if the noise had been left in or even increased. 7
The detail of the hand, and grains of coal is great. I also like that you used a black background, instead of white. That gives the shot a mood, and atmosphere. Having the hand dark all the way to the bottom right corner would bet better since the white of the hand is a little ditracting.
Nice image, the composition seems a bit awkward to me though, might be nice to see a bit more arm and have the lump of coal more away from the center with less neg space to the left.
Love this one. My top pick for the challenge. I'm assuming this is your own hand. Hope you managed to keep your camera clean. If not, this shot was well worth the trouble. The lighting and texture are fantastic. 10
Coal made once the world go 'round
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