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Softly Anya
Softly Anya
banmorn


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2007-08 (Expert Editing)
Camera: Nikon D70s
Lens: Sigma 50mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro for Nikon
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Date: Aug 26, 2007
Aperture: f/ 2.8
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/30 sec.
Galleries: Portraiture, Digital Art
Date Uploaded: Aug 31, 2007

 Anya and her little sister Mya are my two photographic God-daughters. I have standing orders from there mother to shoot at will. Anya loves having her picture taken, well most of the time. Anyway, I caught her at the reception after church on Sunday for our departing interim rector.

Post: Convert from raw in PSElements 3.0 with a +0.67 exposure compensation. Layer adjustments for levels, brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. Merge visible. NeatImage. Dodge face, very blotchy. Clone out dark patch
on wall mid right center above seat. Sharpen. Duplicate background twice. Middle Layer Photocopy filter. White brush to eradicate dark blotches on face, neck, arm and background. Top layer used Buzz simplifier No. 1. Change Blending mode to Multiply and opacity to 75%. Back to middle layer to clean up more smaller blotches and to thin the accent lines on her face neck. Spot healing some more blotches. Messed with the blending modes and opacity of all layers and went with aforementioned. More thinning of accent lines on face. Merged layers down. The mouth did not look quite right as I think it moved during the shooting. Spot editing with clone, Smudge tool and pencil tool to get a bit more natural looking. The lips were very bright red so I used the Sponge tool to desat them a bit. Some burning under the lower lip and more cloning on the mouth. Finally got the mouth in a manner that I liked. Sharpened. Resize. Sharpen.

Statistics
Place: 494 out of 503
Avg (all users): 4.1517
Avg (commenters): 4.0000
Avg (participants): 4.0485
Avg (non-participants): 4.4048
Views since voting: 830
Views during voting: 215
Votes: 145
Comments: 13
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 09/10/2007 08:51:31 AM
Your comment, below, leads me to believe that you do not understand why this submission did not fair better in the challenge. Here is my take:

First off, what is immediately noticed is that the harshness of the black lines really contrasts with the softness of the subject - which on its own is an interesting effect for the sake of noting different effects.

The effect on this photo, however, strongly pulls the viewer away from the concept of photography and into the realm of digital art (similar to - but to a much greater degree - than the two photos you have posted in your response, below) due to the fact that the subject is a portrait of a child. The fact that the chosen subject is emblematic of purity and innocence causes the contrast set up in the post-processing effect to be amplified to the point where the mind has difficulty merging the ideas of "child" with this unusual and stark technique. Metaphorically, you are asking the viewer to swallow sugar with equal amounts of salt.

I think this post processing technique would be more easily accepted on architecture or still life.

I hope you find this helpful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/08/2007 11:54:39 AM


Hmmmm.....Not sure I get your point. Care to elaborate?
 09/08/2007 11:34:18 AM
Hi Robert. Well, I guess you got a clear indication of how DPC views photographs turned into illustrations. It's a pretty shot, anyway. I bet it'd do well in a digital art contest. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
09/05/2007 02:24:10 PM
Interesting post-processing. I would be interested in seeing how this looks with thinner dark lines.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/04/2007 07:11:15 AM
Sorry, this is not to my taste at all, I want images that appear photographic and don´t look like Illustrator drawings, just wanted to explain why I voted this a 3.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/02/2007 12:24:34 AM
this technique really doesn't add anything
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 08:59:08 PM
gotta say this is an interesting take on processing - also gotta say that i really don't like it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 08:40:05 PM
I wish I understood why you decided to ruin your picture like this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 05:02:15 PM
It seems like porcelin effect. Pretty cool.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 10:58:46 AM
Cute photo. The post-processing is a bit of a travesty.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 10:37:22 AM
The composition is good but I don't care for the effect.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 09:45:04 AM
This was used with a posterized filter. Doesn't really work on photographs sorry.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/01/2007 12:31:30 AM
not a fan of the edit at all...sorry
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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