It consists of about six exposures that were taken using a tripod and a boom arm with a remote release. I layered them in PS and masked and revealed at different densities to get the features over and under the pages and shifting the left and right faces into areas that got enough separation. Flattened and de-saturated, then copies and sent layers to Topaz. One got a glow treatment, and another was tightened up to get hard details, then I masked and revealed to get a shifting level of detail.
There are several things I am dissatisfied with, but on the whole I like it, though it has a much less textural feel than I intended and it seemed to slip into the realm of allegory, which is just fine too.
I did a version in color too but I decided to stick with this one. B&W makes for better allegories.
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First, congratulations on your ribbon. Seeing your outtake got me thinking about your edits and choices. I agree the b/w is better than the color. I also like what you did with the contrast. However, the smoothness and hyper sharpening in your b/w shot take's it in a completely different direction than Uelsmann's work. In one regard that's a good thing, but I'm not sure I'm liking the direction. Uelsmann's work has soft edges with texture left in the surfaces, which is very effective when combined with the model's expression as a whole. In your photo the edges are hyper sharp. Some of that is probably do to the resizing but the end result is the papers looks like razor blades that could easily tear into her skin if she moves. When you include that effect with the heavy smoothing and the girl's expression it's hard to make the connection your title offers unless you meant it's the becoming of the next SAW movie poster. No offense intended. Just my honest reaction.
Now I know why programs like Portrait Professional will by default erase all signs of freckles.
It seems they are seen as a skin disease. It's OK, the model is fine, it is a genetic deformity common to people of celtic ancestry, merely a mal-distribution of skin melin, treatable with lasers, skin bleaching creams or agressive photo editing.
Congrats on 4th, Brennan. This was one of my top two picks (the other one won). It was the first one to come up in voting for me, and I was amazed to see such quality straight up. (That's not a very logical observation, is it?)
Oh, very ambitious! Very, very well done! Most excellent. Well felt.
One tiny comment ... the girl in the aware position is fantastic, the one asleep makes me think that she'll become a little princess, the nasty one, with a nasty sense of entitlement .... what a pity ... but that's another story.
10
and one more thing, perhaps I don't see well on my screen; what's on the girl's arm? Looks between hair and a skin disease
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