This is María Ólafsdóttir. We took this shot a week before she is competing in Model Fitness, or on the 11th of April so obviously she is in great shape, she has been training for months for the competition.
First time in aaaaaaaages I shoot specifically for a DPC challenge, I must be getting rusty cause I didn´t notice the "Stock photography" part of the challenge title so I am not really sure how it will do in the challenge, I honestly doubt I would really categorize this as a stock shot if I myself were voting. I rather shot an fitness image that could possibly be on the cover of a magazine, or something like that. Also, first time in ages I submit a people shot for a basic editing challenge, I usually want to retouch a whole lot but María is in such great shape that wasn´t neccesary at all.
Lit with 4 lights. Two bowens lights with striplight softboxes slightly behind her on both sides of her. One semi large softbox behind me for fill lighting and since I just bought a Profoto light the day before, I hung it up in a boom, behind her as you can see. Gotta love Profoto, great for outdoor use :)
Oh an the title is a reference to one of my all time favorite movies, Zoolander :)
Yay, first ribbon in almost exactly one year, only one day apart actually. Apparently the beginning of April works well for me! María unfortunately did not win but she wound up in 6th place, wich is very good considering it was her first time competing.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 80 Avg (all users): 7.8653 Avg (commenters): 9.0333 Avg (participants): 7.4333 Avg (non-participants): 7.9256 Views since voting: 15761 Views during voting: 700 Votes: 245 Comments: 76 Favorites: 28 (view)
You need to tell us what challenges you're entering so we know not to bother (-:
Seriously though - the new lights are working well... and you just can't go past that 85mm - I think that one is super-glued to the front of your camera!
Magnificent, I couldn't have done any better myself, I can at least try something similar. Thanks for the details on lighting techniques, that's the spirit of this website.
Yes, I also still think of you as Larus alias lallisig.
Looks great! No retouching needed. Perfect. Congratulations on the blue, with Blue Steel 8)
p.s.
Had a big hunch this was yours. A nice after challenge surprise to finally find out.
Congrats on the blue! It's great to see you back, as always, with the most beautiful of models.....you definately have a unique talent with portraits, and getting the beautiful models is only a small part of it. Hope she did well in her competition, she's obviously worked very hard. ...did I say, body to die for!...oh! and there was a photographer involved too. Well done Larus!! ...(I'm trying really hard to go LalliSig, but you're probably always going to be Larus to me)! Great image!
Couldn´t be anybody else when saw it first. It was my highest vote for this challenge and a clear winner. Congrats with an excellent image and an impressive score (and your highest non-Aurora score)
Blue steel = Blue ribbon in my eyes. Definitely the best of the bunch. Moody, smouldering and gorgeous model. I'd kill to have a body like that lol... except I like cheese and dislike weights. Ho hum.
Fantastic shot, nothing more to say except I would love to know the lighting used and the processing that went into this image. To be honest I almost feel I'm not giving this image all it deserves by giving it a 9
yup, that's a stock shot. nice raking light, easy to look at model with a hint of sexy. Might be a tough dark on the brow and shadow side of the nose, oh and i love the title. Blue steel, blue ribbon.
Powerful photo. Very fit model definitely exemplifies fitness. Love how you incorporated the smoke and lighting into this. Looks better than the normal white background.
Whilst this is a great image - it wouldnt be suitable for stock - graphic designers would want this on a plain black background or a white background. So I know I am going to be shot down in flames but this misses the challenge a little bit - although one cannot deny it is an outstanding image.
Very interesting shot. I think this model has too much personality for it to feel like a stock photo. Lighting is moody and great, though I do think I'd like it better without the bright light in the upper right. Smoke is a cool effect.
Although this is a very good image, and the lighting works perfectly I think if you would have used a white background without the smoke it would look more like a stock photo. As a photo in general I would give this a 7 or an 8 but as a stock photo for fitness I would give this a 6. BTW I am not voting but I think other DPC members will vote this into the top 3.
Blue Steel
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