Without a doubt, my most ambitious editing to date.
I was in Las Vegas over the weekend for a friend's b-day, and shooting all sorts of things to use for some composite images I wanted to try, including a pumpkin display at the hotel. And I didn't even know about the Halloween theme until Saturday night! Both JulietNN and I were still giddy with all the cool things we'd learned during Brooke Shaden's workshop, and were hoping there'd be an expert challenge where we could use our newfound skills. And waddaya know...? Beware what you wish for Juliet! You've got some mighty powerful mojo!
So I had the pumpkins but I needed more background. I needed some fierce clouds, and if I was REALLY lucky, some lightning. But what are the odds of having severe clouds and lighting - in Vegas??? Well, it must be 'cause I hung out with Juliet too long, because the next morning there were these monster clouds (which I captured) and gobs of lighting (which I didn't).
For the model, I suddenly realized that on Monday I had two back-to-back photo sessions scheduled which could also provide me with a model for an idea that was shaping. The sessions were fabulous and I got exactly what I wanted from the first young girl - the wonderful Sarah de la Isla. Watch out for her: she's going places (and not just in my images).
Now the only thing that was missing was lightning. I knew I could probably get a decent entry without it, but the idea haunted me (much in keeping with the season), and I remembered we have a plasma ball. Voila! Lightning. NOT. After several shots it became quite clear this would never make good lighting and I started to despair. Until I Googled "Photoshop lightning effect", and found a tutorial. It took a lot longer than I had planned, but I think I created some pretty decent bolts. And the final product looks almost exactly as I imagined. I've been tinkering with it obsessively now, and am finally too tired to go on...
I hope you like it!
Editing:
Many, many, MANY things including:
converting from RAW
assembling the witch (using the usual blending/editing tools) then evening out with curves, color balance, etc.
Assembling the clouds (lots of cloning, blurring, smudging)
adding the pumpkin tableau (adjusting levels, color balance, and dodging
creating the bolt graphics
sharpening
NN
save for web.
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[Oct. 22nd, 2010 03:47:11 AM]
Holy Cow - a few hours into voting and if keeps up, it's going to be my new PB:
Votes: 18
Views: 57
Avg Vote: 6.6667
I thought the score was interesting :-)
[post-challenge]
Thank you everyone for your generous comments and voting. And my new PB!!!
Statistics
Place: 7 out of 45 Avg (all users): 6.7581 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 6.6250 Avg (non-participants): 6.7900 Views since voting: 3154 Views during voting: 396 Votes: 124 Comments: 19 Favorites: 3 (view)
Congratulations!!!! I just sooo LOVE this!!! What a great idea and how wonderful you found all that stuff in Vegas.. Clouds Whoa, talk about Luck (did you make some big bucks as well??) Any how wonderful soo happy for you on your PB (ssssh I think it still should've won the blue) :^)
Congratulations for this great work! It was one of my 2 highest votes in this challenge.
The only concern I have about it is technical: the light on the main subject, that doesn't seem totally consistent with the rest of the picture. For example, her left palm (right as we look) is lit by a frontal source that is not impacting the pumpkins, which contributes to this "not integrated" feeling. Also, the light on the red dress is probably a bit too strong.
Other than that, the composition, idea and humor are perfect :-) Oh, and the lightning bolts are awesome. Love it!
Very striking photo. My only tiny critique would be lines around your witch are a little too sharp and it makes it a little hard to believe she is a part of the photo. Even so great idea and great execution, I can't help but give you a great score.
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