The other day I did a shoot with Tiffany and she shouted "We have to do a shoot in the pond!" I thought she meant on/around the pond, but she definitely meant IN the pond. I thought that would be awesome but it was so cold that I didn't really give it a second thought. Then the Asia challenge came up and I thought that asian girl in a Koi pond might make a good concept for that, so I called her over. This was one of very few shots that really worked with the relationship between her and the fish. The blackness of the water around her is natural, as the water was dark and there wasn't anything in it. I got another shot that I just love, but I thought this one might meet the challenge better.
Outtake:
No koi were hurt and after Tiffany was in the water for a bit they weren't even that scared. We got lucky with the weather because it was in the 70s, but the water was still pretty cold and Tiffany had to take a hot shower and I fed her hot chocolate and then hot tea as she snuggled in a blanket while we looked through the photos. Despite freezing her it was really fun.
In response to one of the comments, I did not post process the darkness in the background. The pond was black and did not reach the bottom to create any detail. I processed the photo making the fish much brighter and it actually looked really awkward because the fish looked like it should have been at the same level as her face, when it was really deeper in the water.
Statistics
Place: 8 out of 106 Avg (all users): 6.5904 Avg (commenters): 8.2000 Avg (participants): 6.5556 Avg (non-participants): 6.6033 Views since voting: 3789 Views during voting: 395 Votes: 166 Comments: 28 Favorites: 8 (view)
This is Kari Ann, greetings from the Critique Club:
composition: Tiffany is placed very well in the frame, her face falls on the Rule of thirds line wonderfully. The fish is also helping to decrease the awkwardness of the negative space on the left side. The negative space accents the white of her face, in the photo, almost appearing as if she's floating in space.
color: Always a b/w lover, Its simply stunning in Black and white.
contrast: the contrast of her face is beautiful, it accents all her major features, and makes them pop off her porcelain skin. very well controlled too, its not overpowering.
focus: dead on. her eyes are so sharp and deep
depth of field: perfect so that her and the fish appear to be on the same level.
lighting: just the right amount of light, making the bottom seem to run on forever, and her face to light up like an angel. Also enough to reflect off the fish. perfect lighting
other: I thought this would have went a little higher, but the placing is awesome non-the-less. I hope you and Tiffany are both as happy with this shot as I was, i love it. I also enjoyed your transparency shot too, very well done. Keep up the awesome work, and I'll be looking for these Koi fish more often now!
-Kari Ann
I think this is my favourite of the "faces" entry; love the concept but I also think I agree with posthumous about the lighting: would love to see more of a blend of face with koi. Kudos to Tiffany.
PostLuminous Award WINNER!
Luminous, lovely, intriguing, great composition, wonderful deep black negative space, original and creative, just superb. This image stands on its own outside of any challenge theme.
miraculous shot. I'm wondering if it was really necessary to darken it so much with the processing. The fish is so dim that the photo seems off-balance to me. I could easily be wrong because I can't see the original, but I think with the right processing this could have been Best In Show. It still gets an 8 from me.
I'm struggling to score this. Great portrait. The hair rather cuts off the hand which makes it and the fish look a little out of place. But then I like the composition because it's more than just the portrait and the negative space works for me. 9.
After my image, of course (LOL) this might be the only interesting shot in the entire Challenge. I wonder how it will do, not being a food shot and all. Cheers!
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