And yet another image of my kids. The last two gave me ribbons so why stop now. Actually the reason we are using our kids now more than ever is that we are looking to get into portrait photography as a side business and the recent challenges and our entries are giving us more and more practice with our new lens and light setup.
My thoughts about this image prior to it going up for vote were these - I really like the image, sharp detail, the duotone color works well with it and it has a good general composition overall. My biggest fear though is that the high key aspect will get it voted low. High key hasnt been good to Aimee and I in the past.
Setup was Rowan in our basement with a flower. Shot with the Tamron 28-75, 420 speedlite on a stand with silver umbrella to the left and the 580ex on camera to fire it. The 580 also had the bounce card up to add a bit more birghtness to that one side as I knew I was going high key. You can see both catchlights in her eye.
Took a handful of images of her sniffing it and holding it but she wasnt really interacting with it well. She and the flower felt very separate from each other and she wasn't really showing any emotion towards it. Just as we were finishing up I thought of sticking it in her mouth. This worked well. Her oblivious stare added to the surrealism of the general pose. Post processing finished out the feel to it all.
PP - RAW conversion in DPP, levels to bring exposure up to high key status, double hue/sat adjustment layers to convert to b&w, color variation to add back color, hue/sat adjustment to tweak color, dodging and burning to pimp out eyes and flower, desat on background, whites of eyes and slight desat on pupils (they were looking a bit freakish), decent amount of NI, dodging highlights to clean up background and her skin tones, crop, resize, USM and border.
ETA - Only 34 votes in and I must say that I am ecstatic with my score.
Votes: 34
Views: 73
Avg Vote: 7.3824
Comments: 8
Favorites: 0
Odds are it won't hold there all week long, but even if it does I can only hope for a top 10 as there are some seriously impressive images in this challenge. If I can hold my own with a portrait against the likes of Larus and Librodo then that is success enough for me.
Statistics
Place: 10 out of 295 Avg (all users): 6.8377 Avg (commenters): 8.3750 Avg (participants): 6.9200 Avg (non-participants): 6.6852 Views since voting: 3799 Views during voting: 373 Votes: 154 Comments: 46 Favorites: 4 (view)
Tim - One of my favorites in the challenge. I think pictures of your kids should now result in an immediate DQ. They are too photogenic for this place.
Great image Tim...I love the focus on the eyes...you certainly have a great kid portrait portfolio that should kick start your business...God Bless mate
Well done Tim, and lately you can't go wrong, and you deserve all the results that are coming you way. This is stunning, and so beautiful.....
You must be so pround of those two beautiful children.....
What color are her eyes anyway? I thought they were blue! Ah, yes, duotone. A very stylized, commercially viable portrait. I think it's time to open that studio. I like how you got the high key thing and kept all the detail where you needed it. And how did Rowan like eating the flower? :-) And I take it this was done with flash (large pupils means it was dark before the shot). The lights are serving you very well.
The flower adds a somewhat surreal element to this that really plays well with the bright, sharp eyes. The repeating shape adds the third point to a triangle that really keeps the shot moving. Like the somewhat unusual orange duotoning, too.
This is great, it made me laugh, if you stand back a bit it looks as if its a mouth with a beard all around. LOL... just great. I really love this shot for many reasons. The composition is right on. The eyes fit great with the tone and flower. I really like the overexposed look. A very well put together shot. 9
nice idea, good focus, good choice of color. child's left shoulder looks strange because of the missing color. empty space at left does nothing for the picture
WOAH you nailed it with this one. So awesome. The flower really makes the shot. Perfect peachy sepia tones. Excellent eyes. MAN oh MAN!!! DAMN - looking at this again. It has so many appealing elements. I usually hate that color in a duo but with a child, and the eyes and the hair. Perfect background with a hint of texture. NICE NICE
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