Went with some friends to a cemetary in Reykjavik to act on one of my ideas. This is the outcome. Carefully processed in Lightroom to get the right atmosphere.
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Place: 1 out of 75 Avg (all users): 7.1436 Avg (commenters): 8.7059 Avg (participants): 6.6800 Avg (non-participants): 7.2147 Views since voting: 8855 Views during voting: 747 Votes: 188 Comments: 40 Favorites: 14 (view)
This photo obviously meets the challenge very well :) I don't often grab a first place image through the Critique Club queue, but I got lucky today. Great images are always rather easy to critique, because it's difficult to find anything critical to say about them. Your creative use of lighting and post processing on this image create a lot of visual and emotional impact in the story you are telling with your camera. The theme is obvious, and I particularly like the contrast provided between life and death through the use of the old tombstone and the young girl. On the technical side, the only suggestion I have for you would be to have used a slightly smaller aperture than the chosen f/1.4. The focus on the young girl is strong, but in my humble opinion, I think the cross on the tombstone should get equal attention in the realm of sharpness and focus. The camera angle with these subjects allowed the cross to fall slightly behind the depth of field with this technique.
The great images continue to flow from Iceland :) Great work... Kudos :)
Thanks for this John. I agree with you. The 1.4 narrows the DOF quite a bit and the image is certainly not without errors :-)
This photo obviously meets the challenge very well :) I don't often grab a first place image through the Critique Club queue, but I got lucky today. Great images are always rather easy to critique, because it's difficult to find anything critical to say about them. Your creative use of lighting and post processing on this image create a lot of visual and emotional impact in the story you are telling with your camera. The theme is obvious, and I particularly like the contrast provided between life and death through the use of the old tombstone and the young girl. On the technical side, the only suggestion I have for you would be to have used a slightly smaller aperture than the chosen f/1.4. The focus on the young girl is strong, but in my humble opinion, I think the cross on the tombstone should get equal attention in the realm of sharpness and focus. The camera angle with these subjects allowed the cross to fall slightly behind the depth of field with this technique.
The great images continue to flow from Iceland :) Great work... Kudos :)
This is perfect for this challenge, and you did it so well. Its haunting, yet enchanting at the same time. Congratulations on top honors with this one.
It was so much fun creating this one. I got a little help from user HEIDAHB with the props and she was the on-site manager :-)
The scene is lit from a 430EX with a silver umbrella camera left and a Vivitar flash with silver umbrella, (borrowed from user OFFIOF) camera right, and of course my 580EX that my favorite model Rósa is hiding with her hair.
My only regret here is that the 580 should have ben just a tad lower to avoid the burn in Rósa's hair and on the arms, but hey, it´s a blue so no worries :-)
Thanks again heidahb, offiof, Rósa and her sister Ella which took care of costumes and makeup :-)and of course everybody that gave me a 10!!
You should do very well, with such a sweet shot! Love the balance between the ambiant and fill of the scene.
I would imagine you used a couple of remote flashes. Just great!
I think it's a great picture! I would move the branch/leaves behind the girl, and bring her hands in a bit closer to her body. The light that reflects off of her left hand is a bit bright.
This photo illustrates life and death in a single image to me. Clarity is not as good as I would like to see and I don't really care for the shining light.
This is my top photo of the challenge. The set up is great. Your lighting completely adds the life to the photo. There is such a great contrast here. Lovely photo.
The Light of Life
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