500w Smith-Victor sexylight with sexy wife snapping my picture. tears and nose made with modeling clay and stuck to my face, hoping they wouldn't fall off. from my last self-portrait, I learned to just shine one light on my face. I also learned to underexpose by 1 and 2/3ds stops, so that my darks stay darks and the highlights aren't blown.
I got really lucky and the whole process from shot to pp took about 20 minutes. Crop, b/w with channel mixer, mostly on the blue channel because that brought out the yellow clay, then levels to brighten it up a bit (the blue channel is dark). I guess some people will think the clay is weird, but for some reason I find the clay makeup conveys a sort of poverty, whether of money or spirit. You can almost feel the fingers pushing it into the face. Just a few pinches is all that is left of this clown's spirit.
And yes, this is my kickass timfythetoo imitation. Better than the real thing! ;)
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I meant bathos as falsified emotion, i.e., the tears added to my eyes. To be honest I gave no thought to the shirt. It didn't bother me. I liked the stripes. But I would have changed it if I'd known the reaction it would get!
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I really like the bw and the lighting in this one. To me, though, the striped shirt is very distracting and doesn't seem to "fit" with the mood of the picture.
The tears look like Play-Doh. Interesting idea, but I think it would be stronger if both tears were more 3-dimensional and casting shadows on the face, so my first impression would be the overall sad face instead of Play-Doh. Oh, and I just noticed the nose. That's not really working for me, either. Sorry.
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