The original:
Le Violon d’Ingres is Man Ray’s tribute to the paintings of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, most notably The Valpinçon Bather (1808). The model, Alice Prin (aka Kiki de Montparnasse), was Man Ray’s companion through most of the 1920s, in addition to being his model for hundreds of portraits.
I shot an almost identical composition, and one with the model leaning forward on her knees. I've been submitting one then the other because the hunched over one is more interesting, but the other is a better likeness to the original. I'm a typical mass of indecision...
Preparing for this shot was fun, and completely different from my usual photo sessions, as I had to recreate an already existing photograph. And it is a studio shot, something I have very limited knowledge about. It involved a lot of art direction, including finding the right head wrap, the throw, earrings, and creating the f-holes. This last item was the most troublesome. I couldn't "paint" them on after the shot or shoot them separately and overlay because that would violate editing rules. I also considered painting them on the model (the f-holes in the original were etched onto the developed photo plate, then reshot). I chose to make them out of paper, but the original f-holes I created were too big, so they had to be redone at the last minute on the set. Then they wouldn't stick. In the end, they still required a lot of fixing in pp’ing since they tended to buckle and thus cause shadows. It is also the thing I'm least happy with in this image, as they are also still not quite the right shape.
The lighting set-up included three lights - one on the right for the body, and two on the left (one for the background and the other isolated on the face).
Processing was quite straightforward, as I shot in b/w.
-converted from RAW
-cloned out some skin imperfections
-selective sharpening
-layer of gaussian blur to smooth the skin
-slight levels adjustment
-slight contrast adjustment
-added sepia photo filter
-added border
-saved for web
My profoundest gratitude to my dear friend Caryn for her gorgeous curves (and the use of her studio), and to my buddy photog Jim Hundhausen, whose guidance, lighting knowledge, plus all the lighting equipment made this shot possible. I even took some shots with his gorgeous Fujifilm FinePix S5Pro.
[Jun. 16th, 2010 02:19:51 AM]
[6/15]
Halfway through voting and I just have to put it down for posterity - in the event that this is just a fabulous fluke - that it's at 6.6000.
I'll have to be hospitalized for exhaustion from Excessive Update-itis.
[update]
A new PB!!!! Thank for all the amazing comments.
Statistics
Place: 11 out of 92 Avg (all users): 6.6797 Avg (commenters): 7.7692 Avg (participants): 6.2955 Avg (non-participants): 6.8349 Views since voting: 6008 Views during voting: 501 Votes: 153 Comments: 21 Favorites: 1 (view)
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
