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Bruised. Battered. Retired...but Still Sexy After All These Years!
Bruised. Battered. Retired...but Still Sexy After All These Years!
hotpasta


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Portrait of a Camera (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro for Nikon
Location: Melbourne Australia
Date: May 19, 2008
Aperture: F20
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/6 second
Galleries: Portraiture, Advertisement
Date Uploaded: May 18, 2008

 THE IMAGE: I love my Olympus OM1MD and OM2MD Cameras. I haven't shot film in them for over 8 years. I took the straps off for the first time since I put them on as a 15 and 21 year old! My grandparents bought the OM1MD (seen in the background) for me by giving my parents the money for it in 1975 when we went on a family holiday to Italy. I remember the day so well. It was hot and sunny and we looked everywhere in the city of Reggio in southern Italy. We finally found a camera store that had one! 230,000 Lires (about $230 Australian dollars at the time! That was a BIG DEAL).

I took my first image in the park with a soldier walking through the image. It was black and white on Ilford 125ASA film. I loved this camera on that trip. My last roll of film on that trip was memorable as I hadn't taken a great deal of images of people, but as we were leaving and I was taking family pictures, the train rolled away...exposure 36, 37, 38...39...40...oh, oohh. I hadn't loaded the film properly! I was heart broken!

I bought the OM2MD seen here in the foreground duty free at Ted's Camera Store in the city and picked it up, sealed for our honey moon to Fiji. While I loved that camera, it doesn't hold a patch on the OM1MD when it comes to memories.

I would never part with these cameras, and you don't know how upset I was to take the straps off after 33 years for this shoot!

The lighting for this image was super primitive! I used two desk lamps with 5000k flouro lights, and a couple of LED torches to highlight areas. I used one of my wife's blue brandy glasses. Helen's in Sydney on Business, so when the cat's away...

I used a super small f20 and a 1/6 second exposure to maximise depth of field.

THE EDIT: Levels, USM, dodge and burn, clone out some dust and a scratch mark on the front of the camera, some blur, some Noise Ninja, some saturation and colour adjustment layers. I really massaged this to make it look like the image on the brochure at the time.

THE PREDICTION: I am hoping this will go well. High 6's or I will be super disappointed. The thing that will go against me is that it looks like a studio product shot and it may lack the creativity of having a human somewhere in there as I predict many images will...I am going to guess 6.8246

I like the final results.

POST: I honestly thought this would do so much better. I wanted the look for the original brochure and think I ended up with a good quality image...not sure why this scored so low.

Statistics
Place: 27 out of 137
Avg (all users): 6.0516
Avg (commenters): 7.5000
Avg (participants): 5.8033
Avg (non-participants): 6.2128
Views since voting: 1840
Views during voting: 312
Votes: 155
Comments: 12
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
Nikon D7500
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
 05/29/2008 04:09:43 PM
Greetings from the Critique club!

Nice colors and nice setup and composition. Lighting is interesting and well executed. It certainly meets the challenge.

As to why it didn't score higher? I'm not sure either. I gave this a 6 but could just as easily have given it a 7. There are a few artifacts/jaggies from resizing. One of the comments I heard or received was that a lot of the shots looked like a product shot. This is a step beyond that but I think people were looking for a bit more. (like you mention - perhaps a human element)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark IV
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 USM
 05/26/2008 10:55:55 AM
This is beautiful. That touch of ethereal blue light is brilliant! There is no figuring on what strikes the voters on any given week is there. I'm noticing tho that they are leaning much more for a touch of gimmick lately.

This is very well done! Olympus should buy it from you!

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
 05/24/2008 03:39:25 PM
the blue light is a bit strange. i really like the front camera's lens, the orangy light makes it looks very cool-7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
 05/24/2008 08:37:19 AM
interesting concept, I like the twins
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Sony DSC-W55
 05/22/2008 03:48:54 PM
yes they do still look good, nice shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/22/2008 11:35:45 AM
Coloring is stunning. Nice crisp shot. Simple, elegant, well designed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Apple iPhone 7
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM
 05/20/2008 09:16:52 PM
I really like the lighting in this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS
 05/20/2008 04:03:24 PM
Good job with the light and its colors.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon Df
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
 05/20/2008 07:42:52 AM
Returning to comment
I had a OM10 at the time and would have given anything to get the OM2, what a great camera. To bad they didn't transition in to digital more gracefully.
Overall a very nice photo but I find the reflection of the room in the lens a bit distracting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D300
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
 05/20/2008 06:53:31 AM
Interesting composition, good DOF control as most of the printing is clear.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D40X
Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED
 05/19/2008 12:41:17 PM
I think you're right. There is something sexy about these as compared to the new models. Very nice lighting here, and gutsy move to have the reflection in the lenses...but I like it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Olympus E-5
Olympus 7-14mm f/4.0 Zuiko Digital Zoom
 05/19/2008 01:58:06 AM
Finally! This is the first oly camera I see so far and I'm at image #109 of 137. I should have submitted one of my oly cameras too. I have 2 OM2's as well.

Good setup and lighting. Looks like a pic from the late 70's or early 80's.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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