I wasn´t really enthused by either of the open challenges this week, I really hate clowns, always want to kick them in the nuts when I meet one, wich fortunately for them is maybe only once a decade or so. I then woke up monday morning with this idea to do my version of the Joker, I mean just the night before I shot another photo for the Superhero series ( see my flickr account if you want to know more) "Well duh", I thought "The Joker photos of Heath Ledger that have leaked out on the internet are REALLY cool, I can´t wait to see that movie" so I called up Birkir and asked him if he was up for it, you should recognize him by now, he´s been in at least 3-4 DPC entries, one of them a blue ribbon winner.
Here is the shot that inspired me for this photograph. Really went out of my way to do something I don´t normally do and even toned down the lighting, just used one monolight for this one with a 140x40cm striplight softbox put horizontal to maximize the light cutoff and get a slight wrap around lighting look on his face. I am willing to wager that someone will bring up the fact that he blends into the backround and also the eyes are not illuminated, trust me, that was intentional and I am more than capable of using backlighting to fix that but I want it this way. I mean how could lighting up the eyes improve this shot? It would kill all the mood in it.
The post processing was totally unlike what I normally do, I raw converted with C1 but this time I actually turned DOWN the contrast as I wanted just a tiny bit of detail left in the shirt he was wearing. Then I used levels to completely blacken the backround, shadow highlights a couple of times to bring back just a tiny bit of detail in the darkest areas in the shot and also to slightly darken the white painted face. The green bodypaint we put in his hair came out cyan in the photo so I used selective color twice to make all the cyan in this shot more green like. I then used selective color to desaturate all the areas with a similar tonal range as the face, just leaving a hint of skincolor. Then of course resized and sharpened. I am happy with the post processing with the exception that I would have wanted to remove a couple of hairs by his left ear (right on the photo) and also a couple of dust specs on his shirt and one by the top of his left ear.
I REALLY like this shot so don´t care at all how it does, as long as it scares at least one person :) Oh and for this entry only, I really wish the dpc backround was black and not gray, this shot is so much cooler with a black surrounding.
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Very wicked shot m8! (meant in a good way). Was my pick for the top3. My favorite of the moody or creepy clown shots. A real excellent twist on those. I like that the eyes are not illuminated. On my screen the shirt does not blend in with the background and looks fine. The bottom part with the shirt looks a little off balanced, one side being a lot darker, pitch black, compared to the other side but you did what you could in basic but it's a mysterious effect. Congrats on the top10!
Thanks for the behind the scenes info. For what concerns making him blend into the background, I think it would be cool to make the right side of the shirt match the left side, where the head floats in black nothingness before the shirt gradually reappears a few centimeters further away. But that would probably have required selective editing.
This was my favorite image in this challenge and I gave it a 9. I like most all of your portraits, but the "Superheros" shots are great. Here's hoping that this is the beginning of a "Supervillans" group too. :-)
I'm staggered that you didn't blue with this image. Cutesy wins every time around here apparently but I for one absolutely appreciate the 'darkness' of this shot. Oh, and with eyes and expression like that no-one is looking at those hairs above your ear, trust me on this one :)
great photo. I know this nit picn' but the lint on his right shoulder. is that aloud to be PS'd out in basic? Not that I'm looking for flaws but my eye's always seem to find things that that.
Brilliant in both interpretation and simplicity. The expression (great snarl!) and makeup are brilliant and the lighting gives the eyes such depth. My favourite of the lot and a solid 10.
So, not the funny kind of joker, right (j/k)? Dark and broody, no catchlights to humanize the eyes and the mouth looks particularly unpleasant. Good job.
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