After one year living here in Singapore, my wife had always wondered how it would feel to be wearing a traditional Malay or Indonesian costume. She would always be delighted to see young girls and ladies parade on the streets with their colorful traditional dresses.
The end of Ramadan approaching, she was looking forward to see local Muslim families celebrate the Hari Raya festival with brand new dresses, among others. On the eve of the end of Ramadan, I decided to take her this Malay village and shopped for this dress. The saleslady initially did not want to sell her the head scarf, for some reasons related to tradition, probably religion, but eventually, we were able to get a complete get up for her.
I do not have a studio and she wasn't comfortable shooting outdoor with her new dress, so I took advantage of the Expert Editing rules. I took this shot knowing in advance that I would be changing the background in photoshop.
The rock/clay wall was a texture downloaded from the Internet, as well as the Abaca frame.
I originally used downloaded graphics from the internet for the wall and frame textures. But i feared a DQ. I sent a note to SC, but they haven't got back to me so I decided to re-edit using photos taken from my android phone. I replaced the abaca frame and clay wall with those I could find and shoot at the office.
The marble wall was the same wall i shot in my office hallway for the Home challenge. The wooden frame is a shot of my office desk. The white matting is a shot of another wall at the office.
The painting in the background is a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. I had a hard time photographing it without the reflection, so I decided to shoot it sideways, and fix the distortion later in pp. A lot of adjustment layers were used, for color matching and blending, as well as fake shadows.
One main flash diffused with a lumiquest mini softbox in front and above her to the left. One canon SB200 with umbrella front right as fill. One sunblitz slave pointed at the wall, for easier separation of bg later.
Im pretty happy with the result, although not so sure about the voter's acceptance.
Here is my initial edit which I pulled out due to fear of DQ:
[Sep. 2nd, 2011 09:03:18 PM]
Hey great score! And a fave! And those comment... Hey i used expert editing... Extensively. If you cant see it, that means i succeeded. Or did i? Coz now it makes me wonder, if you dont think i used expert editing, is that good or bad? Am i losing points because of that?
Post challenge:
Thanks everyone. This is my first ribbon so i will treasure it.
Here is a version without the white zipper on my 500px.
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 49 Avg (all users): 6.9777 Avg (commenters): 8.1429 Avg (participants): 6.0769 Avg (non-participants): 7.1307 Views since voting: 5102 Views during voting: 423 Votes: 179 Comments: 33 Favorites: 5 (view)
This is a great example of taking what you have to work with and really making something of it. The picture has emotional impact. And I like that you used a puzzle for the painting. Very cool.
There you go!, hehe... I still think the same as I commented before. And as I commented to nr.2, is that this image fits better the "Advanced Editing" instead, while the "Expert editing is something more" (at least, as I see it.. though I can be wrong)
"take a look at the Male Portrait competition (Expert Editing aswell), and see those winners!.. in fact I gave 10's to nr.1 and nr.2, while a 9 to nr. 3!", in the female portrait challenge I gave 10's to nr. 8 and nr. 18, as they fitted better the "expert editing")
pd. I like much more the other one you posted on the comments!
Beni thanks again for the comment. I agree with what you are saying. This is expert editing so expert editing must be used. This should be more than advanced edit.
And that's exactly what i did.
You just didn't see it. In fact many didn't see it. And that was my goal. That's what i wanted.
Congratulations on the ribbon for this very lovely portrait. You certainly did an expert job of the expert editing. I would never have guessed that this wasn't a straight shot of what it appears to be. I'm glad you played it safe regarding possible DQ and you didn't lose a thing in the final quality of the image - I actually like this version better.
I don't think the idea of "expert" editing is to see that it IS editing.
+1
While I love the outrageous entries in both challenges, I equally love entries like this competing with them and winning. Congrats and very well done. You put the "expert" in expert editing.
There you go!, hehe... I still think the same as I commented before. And as I commented to nr.2, is that this image fits better the "Advanced Editing" instead, while the "Expert editing is something more" (at least, as I see it.. though I can be wrong)
"take a look at the Male Portrait competition (Expert Editing aswell), and see those winners!.. in fact I gave 10's to nr.1 and nr.2, while a 9 to nr. 3!", in the female portrait challenge I gave 10's to nr. 8 and nr. 18, as they fitted better the "expert editing")
pd. I like much more the other one you posted on the comments!
I don't think the idea of "expert" editing is to see that it IS editing. You have created a masterful effect, and in fact, I prefer this version to the original one by a substantial margin. I love your notes and am grateful that you've shared them. Congrats on your well earned ribbon. I though it might finish at the top.
I think this is the only real portrait in the challenge. Some are good but mostly 'head' shots: like you would do in school. Most are just photos of females. Some have really good 'expert' editing. Most are 'snaphots': but nothing against 'snapshots'! This, this is a portrait and should be the winner...in my opinion.
Nice Portrait, background aswell. But they are things on the picture that I dont like quite that much... one of the beeing the massive stones/decoration on the clothing, bringing my eyes at her lower body instead to at her eyes, where the focus should be at. Then, there is that "Expert Editing", that I cant see anywhere on the pic. Though I see a bit exgerated plasticly effect on her face.
pd. The shot has potential on its own (beside the challenge), but the detail that kills me the most is the white zip line on the chair.. maybe some cloning, could have fixed it?
I cannot take my eyes from the elegance given by the visual intersection of the lines of the frame of the painting in the background with the line of the seat back! This would have been a splendid picture for "In the style of Librodo" and it sure is a splendid picture on its own. 10
Traditional elegance
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
