I'm fascinated with underwater photos and would love to try a real one sometime but for now this is as close as I can get. I'm hoping I did a good enough job that you will at least have to look twice to make sure it's real or fake. I know with close examination it is obviously not real.
Here is how I accomplished this photo:
1. Took a photo of my daughter laying on the ground on her side in the position I wanted so I could fit the bird cage in later. I arranged her hair and her skirt so that they would look like they are floating. Lit her from the top.
2. Went on a field trip to an aquarium got shots of a large tropical reef and then took more individual shots of fish to fill in later.
3. Took photos of birdcage and bubbles. The bubbles were the most challenging part of the whole photo. I discovered it wasn't enough to take photos of just some bubbles, I had to take photos of bubbles with different colored backgrounds. Since bubbles are transparent I had to take bubbles with black, blue and even flesh colored backgrounds. Then when I placed them in the photo I had to try many different shot to get the right look. I'm still not completely satisfied with the bubbles but after a whole day of editing bubbles I decided it was good enough.
Thanks for all the great comments, obviously I didn't fool too many people but I didn't expect I would so that is alright. I'm really excited to complete my goal of all 7's on my profile page. This will be a fun one to have on there. Only bad part of winning an H.M. is now I have to submit 19 photos for validation.
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Place: 4 out of 65 Avg (all users): 7.1418 Avg (commenters): 7.3200 Avg (participants): 6.7188 Avg (non-participants): 7.2661 Views since voting: 3789 Views during voting: 549 Votes: 141 Comments: 41 Favorites: 2 (view)
Shots like this do such a great service to the era of photo-shop and post processing. After reading how much work you put into it, it really paid off, not in a fantastical fantasy sort of way- but an easy- perfectly believable and well done way. This and all your shots are works to aspire to. (gushing flattery session over.)
Wonderful result out of all that effort. Congratulations on yet another 7+, your profile's looking awesome now. And you were here barely a year!! 8 can't be that far away...
Thought this wonderful, cant believe those low scorers (probably why they are called low). See what you mean by the bubble troubles, but they still fit with the fantasy-like scene.
Well, she doesn't seem to be wet, so she's not in the water. The next question is could she be behind an aquarium or reflected in the front of the aquarium. I'd say neither is the case, so I'm guessing you manufactured this image.
Nicely done. I think you might see the front page with this one. Now, I definitely think it's composited, mainly because of the way her hair and skirt are falling; they seem to be pressed to the ground (gravity) as opposed to floating. Also, as my wife pointed out, where are the bubbles from her feet coming from? Also, I think the color matching is very well done, she really seems to be lit from inside the tank. It is a bit revealing to me, however, that she seems to be lit *as well* from her head to her feet; as in, the natural fall off of light in water (which is more than in air) does not seem to be affecting her.
Plus I know you wouldn't want to risk damaging all that coral! :) Still, extremely nice photoshop work. Like I said, I think we'll see this on the front page.
P.shopped. This is a beautiful, striking image. A few tweaks around the lighting of the legs- fish and bubble placement and I would have been sold! On second thought, now that I seem so certain- I could be totally wrong.... :D I wouldn't be surprised to see this ribbon!
funky fun image, I don't think it's real from a fool the viewer standpoint but the colors for her underwater are pretty good and the bubbles are a nice touch.
Too obviously Expert editing in my opinion. I highly doubt you (or aquarium officials) would let your daughter jump into an aquarium like that sjhuls ;-). That being said, you did a great job imitating the effect with the ruffled skirt and flowing hair. Great editing job
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