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5th day of christmas
2nd Place5th day of christmas
LalliSig


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: 12 Days Of Christmas (Advanced Editing V)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D
Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro
Location: At home, Reykjavik
Date: Dec 31, 2006
Aperture: 16
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/200
Galleries: Macro, Studio
Date Uploaded: Dec 31, 2006

 Well sure as heck wasn´t going to enter this one but when I went online earlier today to submit my free study entry I noticed there were only about 50 entries on this one. I figured why not at least try if I had the time since there were so few entries, I mean you never know, right? Of course since it was newyears eve the only thing I could shoot was the easiest one, the five rings.

That means for only the second time since I entered DPC, I am entering a shot for the sole purpouse to hunt for a ribbon (the other time was Superstition where I wasn´t going to enter either but saw that there were few submissions). I do NOT expect this to ribbon though, the shot is about as unoriginal as you can get but hopefully other people were busy between christmas and newyears and I´ll be enough. Have always wanted to take the "dirty hand cliche photo anyway" and this was as good a time as any.

Anyway, this is actually shot at about 3 am on January 1st 2007 local time here in Iceland or about 2 hours before deadline since we are EST +5 hours. Henny is holding the rings, we used the same technique as we did in my recent "Dirt" shot to get her hands dirty, she put on a black t-shirt as the backround and we snapped a handful of pictures. We had to scramble to find five gold rings and we just barely scraped them together by using our wedding rings, mine is the one second from the left and her´s is the one in the middle. This was the one I liked best of those and then I spent about 5-10 minutes editing.

Lit with a single bowens monolight with a 60x60cm softbox from above, left.

Editing is just raw conversion where I increased contrast and decreased saturation. Cropped it, increased contrast and decreased saturation even more in PS and finally dodge/burned it a little bit to even out the lighting and finally sharpened after resizing.

Yeehaw! First "sub 7" ribbon I have ever gotten here at DPC, did not expect to wake up getting one for this score :), was sure I would get another 6th place for it!

Oh and I do agree about the angle of the hands, the black backround is just her t-shirt and she had to hold the hands so close to her to get the black backround, if I had to reshoot this today I would agree and put a black backround on her and have her hold the hands out more naturally...

Statistics
Place: 2 out of 58
Avg (all users): 6.6484
Avg (commenters): 7.5000
Avg (participants): 5.8750
Avg (non-participants): 6.8212
Views since voting: 10346
Views during voting: 489
Votes: 219
Comments: 52
Favorites: 7 (view)

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AuthorThread
 01/13/2007 07:23:02 PM
Wonderful image, congrats on your ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/09/2007 11:13:59 PM
Well done Larus! Congrats on the ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/09/2007 08:14:10 AM
Congratulations on your Ribbon, Larus!! Your versitility astounds me! I actually find the "dirty hands" gift carries great meaning, a gift seems more heartfelt from the poor than from the wealthy.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/09/2007 06:49:16 AM
congrats again!!! This was possibly the worst challenge in DPC history
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 07:12:33 PM
Great shot - Congrats!
Guess I'm in the minority, but the dirty hands doesn't do it for me. I can't put the gold rings and dirty hands together in the same mindset. But nonetheless, it's a winner so rejoice! : )
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 07:07:00 PM
Hey bud, I bet your glad that you had some left over dirt eh? Awesome idea and shot. Love the dirt with the rings, it really brings out the detail of the hands so much more with the dirt. Nice work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 04:44:45 PM
I love the wrist angle; great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 04:44:03 PM
this site is becoming a your personal hunting field! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:45:50 PM
yup. I was positive this would be the blue. great shot and great score. congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 10:31:04 AM
weird... i saw this picture and though it would win :) well... it did almost! and i was also quite sure it was your work... congrats :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 09:19:35 AM
Congratulations on winning the red ribbon, very nicely done!

Message edited by author 2007-01-08 09:20:12.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 07:43:12 AM
This is awesome! I thought it might be Philup's. It's so dramatic and beautiful! congratulations again! they are going to have to make your profile page 2 pages to fit all your ribbons in :)

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 07:30:29 AM
sheesh those are durty hands :p
fine selection of rings,
congrats again.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 06:12:22 AM
Wow! I was sure those were YOUR hands! : ) Congratulations on the red!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 02:53:07 AM
Oh, Larus, please look for another playground!
No, really, really good image, congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 02:50:16 AM
Originally posted by yanko:
You mean all the other times you were shooting for the brown? :P Congrats.


Haha, hardly, but I never submit for the sole purpouse of hoping to get a ribbon either :P
 01/08/2007 01:38:36 AM
As I mentioned before, many of us found this very poignant. Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 01:17:23 AM
Lucky you had some dirt left over.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 01:07:20 AM
So it was you! i should have known! well enjoy your ribbon while it lasts!... im not sure what i mean by that........... congrats :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:52:01 AM
You mean all the other times you were shooting for the brown? :P Congrats.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:51:58 AM
Congratulations on your red, Larus.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:42:53 AM
Nobody likes a show off! ;-P

Congrats, Larus! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:12:16 AM
hey man, congratulations, and i hate you :D

just joking
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:09:37 AM
Congrat on Ribbon
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2007 12:06:57 AM
I loved this. Glad you did well. CONGRATS!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/07/2007 11:49:49 PM
Interesting shot, but the dirty hands seem to be there just because you wanted to shoot some dirty hands. By themselves, the hands are full of interesting texture and geometry, but it just feels forced here.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2007 05:21:14 PM
Thoughtful rendition, and very well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2007 01:33:10 PM
Amazing, very moving.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2007 12:23:41 PM
... my precious...?

:D
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2007 01:22:10 PM
love the textures
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2007 10:06:56 PM
Very emotive shot. The contrast between the rings and the hands has a lot of feeling and meaning to it, and it really comes across. On top of which, the technicals are very good as well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2007 06:26:00 PM
Not sure what the dirty hands are supposed to symbolize, but I'll admit they make the rings stand out better. Good lighting and color temp. 7.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2007 05:34:47 PM
Ah, the ol' dirty hands holding something shot. I like it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2007 02:13:55 PM
Very original take and some pretty amazing tones. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2007 02:35:07 AM
Poignant offering... Lovely.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2007 01:14:47 AM
I love the grungy hands!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/03/2007 11:50:38 PM
ah, i love it! very well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/03/2007 06:02:08 PM
Interesting contrast between the rings and the hands; the angle of the wrist is extreme (and looks painful!).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/02/2007 03:56:50 PM
Your true love needs a bath! heh
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/02/2007 03:54:00 PM
A simple but effective composition. Soiled hands offering the rings, as a supplicant would offer something found or created in the course of their labours, but of which they are not worthy.

Love the use of (I think) tritone.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/02/2007 10:48:02 AM
I'm sure ther's a message here - filthy hands, golden rings - bah humbug, perhaps.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/02/2007 05:58:58 AM
I quite like this shot but don't see the relevance of the dirty hands. - 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/02/2007 04:35:13 AM
I like the idea - the dirty hands indicating to me hard work to pay for gold, r that gold is of the earth, the heart-shape of the hands indicating love, the presentation of the rings as a gift.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 11:10:42 PM
I like the saturation and the contrast between the dirty hands with the precious rings. I'd like to see their colour more gold/yellow though, but that's fine. The odd thing here is the angle between the arm(s) and the hand(s) as it seems the wrists were broken...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 08:40:10 PM
I really love this. This dirty hand thing has been done alot lately, but this works perfectly and is a different take on that (lame) challenge. LOL 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 08:22:20 PM
Beautiful shot. The dirty hands really add to this shot. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 06:53:26 AM
Wow...now this is good.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 05:32:21 AM
Boy, you see this kind of photo work so many times but I have to say this isn't one of them. The rings get lost in the hands. 5 for effort though and at least having the right number of items unlike most others.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 01:39:04 AM
Beautiful shot. The grimy hands contrast effectively against the shiny rings. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 12:32:20 AM
why are his hands dirty? were those rings burried in dirt? lol
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 12:32:03 AM
Happy New Year - 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/01/2007 12:13:27 AM
I don't get the significance of the dirt...nice image though
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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