I really enjoyed entering this challenge, although it was a bit of a Marathon.
My entry has been done in 2 big days:
- Saturday morning: I woke up at 8.30am, then started to brainstorm in order to find an idea. Around 12.00, everything was set in my head, and I wrote a list of all the shots I was going to need: flowers, leaves, man in a suit (all of these in different positions), lake, horizon of trees, clouds, fog, birds... and of course, the moon! Bad news, the sky was really crowded, only clouds everywhere :-(
- Saturday afternoon: weather forecasts were optimistic, so I tried my luck and started the project. Traveled to the lake near my house, took some shots of it, as well as the cloudy sky and the horizon of trees. Back home, I set my home studio to simulate light coming from the behind, and took many photos of me in a suit, of leaves from my garden, and flowers. When all of this was finished, it was 8.00pm.
- Saturday evening: the moon! I took my tripod, my 600mm + 1.4x extender, went to a good viewpoint, and crossed fingers... This is where I got lucky, I got a clear shot around 10pm. One hour later, the whole area was submerged in fog! This was a short window, but sufficient. Back home again... now, processing! I worked until 4.00am. At this stage, the lake, trees, moon, 2 'flowermen' and all their reflections were done.
- Sunday morning: more processing! I worked from 8.00am to 3.00pm, at which point most of the picture was finalized. I was still lacking some birds, so I went out again, and shot some during 2 hours. Then I spent the evening trying many color adjustments, tones, and polishing the whole. The final entry was uploaded 2 hours before the deadline (i.e. 3.00am french time).
This is the most ambitious montage I worked on so far. Some technical considerations:
- 36 individual photos are used in the entry
- The final file is quite big: 2.22Gb
- It contains 140 layers
I realize my processing skills are very far from real wizards' ones, but I am happy about my progression.
Moreover, as I write this, the votes and comments have been absolutely fantastic: I am so delighted! Thank you all!
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Post challenge edit:
I am not going to lie, I was expecting the blue on this one. However, this is still a new PB, and with a very personal piece of work, so I am quite happy and proud nonetheless ;-)
Thank you all!
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 85 Avg (all users): 7.8389 Avg (commenters): 9.0541 Avg (participants): 7.5714 Avg (non-participants): 7.9389 Views since voting: 10242 Views during voting: 777 Votes: 180 Comments: 68 Favorites: 42 (view)
You have 140 layers in this image, and you do not think you are a wizard?!!! Holy jumping pinto beans! I can't imagine the amount of work that went into this, even when I read about it. Wow!!!! Congratulations on a very well deserved red...
You got 50 votes of 10. That's quite phenomenal (and more than the blue ribbon winner got!). I was one of those... I also thought you would get the blue. Once again I am in awe of your creativity.
Very well done and congrats on the placement. I am not really a fan of the more 'graphic artist' approach to photography, but of those in the challenge, yours is clearly the most creative and engaging.
I have to commend you on your imagination firstly, your photography skills secondly, thirdly on your passion to photography and finally on your editing skills. A wonderful shot(s) and an end result that truly makes an observer look deeply at the picture and think of many (strange) things! Congrats on the PB - after all the work you deserve it!
A fantastic job and I gave you a 10 I dont know how you have the patience or the time to sit and do all that
You deserve a medal and a wonderful result
Huge congrats on another brilliant work and new PB Christophe!!
Hard to believe those six 2- votes. Your image says Gyaban all over the place, and you are a ribbon hog, maybe that affected a bit.
I have calculated what your score would have been w/o any 2- vote (as in the blue ribbon winner histogram) and the result is 8.0517, that's closer to what this fantastic work deserves.
When I see "Expert Editing" as an option, this is the kind of work I expect to have to compete against. This is beautifully composed, very well executed and worthy of the ribbon page. Flawless.
At first glance of this photo, I was stunned silent. But I had to come back and say this is absolutely incredible. My first favorite on this site. Great job!
I am going to call it in the first hour: Blue Ribbon for gyaban (I recognize the trees)
This is absolutely fantastic in concept and execution. A 10 and a fav, and I would give you an even higher score if only the scale went higher. You have really outdone yourself this time.
The postures, the lake setting (I've seen that before in another image that won blue), the creativity, the high quality of this work has be Gyaban. I like everything except the fog that should be seen in front of the figures, in other words the mist should have been painted out of the figures. Maybe it was by design? Either way, there are so many awesome elements I have to give it my 10.
Utterly surreal and splendid. This level of detail and exceptional execution and imagination reminds me of gyaban's work. I'm predicting top 5, if not a ribbon. (Not voting)
The Mysterious Cult
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