I quit smoking a few months back and had my first cigar since. It was almost as enjoyable as my first, coughing, spitting, watering eyes. I found and old shot of a skull, blurred it and sharpened it to get it looking a bit more etherial. I taped it to a black backround and set up the tripod and chair. I lit the skull image with a flashlight. In hand I am holding a flash unit to trigger another on the floor to try to get the same "from below" feel light as in the skull photo.
Converted from RAW, cropped from landscape to portrait, moved to Photoshop where I did the quick and dirty Black and white conversion, brought up blue and down red, to strengthen the smoke and brought up the contrast about 10%. Converted for web and USM at 150% .5 pixels 0 thershold.
I wish the hand wasn't so blownout but it was the best I could do given the fact that I was shooting myself with the camera on bulb setting, holding a flash in one hand and the cigar in the other and coughing between puffs. I think I am now officially and ex smoker.
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Place: 19 out of 256 Avg (all users): 5.8724 Avg (commenters): 7.3500 Avg (participants): 5.4951 Avg (non-participants): 6.1500 Views since voting: 1596 Votes: 243 Comments: 24 Favorites: 0
This is such a good shot for this challenge. The light off the hand is a bit dominant for my taste. It helps to balance the shot, but it pulls my eye away from the subject. Still a very strong image! 10
Composition: Subject Placement, Cropping, Background (20% Weight): 7
Technical: Focus, Exposure, Lighting, Processing (20% Weight): 7
Appeal: Is it Interesting, Motivating, Etc. (30% Weight): 6
How well does it meet the challenge (30% Weight): 8
Total Rating (Rounded) 7
I don't know about you, but I can see three faces in this image. Pretty freaky. I really like the image though. I wish it had just a little more light in some of the dark areas for just a little more detail. But I still like it.
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