This started out as a "pencil is mightier than the sword" idea. I raided my son's bedroom to find pirates, knights and anything else that could fight. This guy was the coolest, and we found a tiny pencil that just fit in his hand. I tried to arrange him fighting other characters with swords, but couldn't come up with a good arrangement, so I shot this guy on his own.
Someone is bound to recognise the background as one of the Windows Vista sample images. It is on my laptop, and this guy is standing on a black diary on the keyboard.
Lighting is a flash overhead, on minimum power, snooted to keep off the laptop monitor, and a torch from the right, shining onto the pencil. There's a few reflectors around to try to light the shadows, but I don't think they are doing much in the final take.
Editing was colour balance, histogram, saturation, crop, resize, USM, and a black border along the top, to balance the bottom edge.
The title is an afterthought that makes the shot.
If I shot this again, I'd clean the dust off the diary, set the focus properly on his eyes (it's currently on the breastplate, so the face isn't as sharp as I'd like). I'd put the lights on stands, so I wouldn't have to keep holding them and moving them. Oh, and I'd buy an extra flash or two, and work on getting rid of the shiny highlights.
Ooh, I'm in early this week. 4th entry into the challenge. :)
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Sure I got it. Didn't you get my e-mail in response? I think this could have had some more humor or impact, though I am not quite sure what it needs. Perhaps a slightly changed perspective...
Nice use of depth of field, the pencil has a nice perspective to it. Lighting a little on the harsh side perhaps and the figure doesn't really blend in the with the background as well as he might.
This would be a good advertisement shot for this toy. I like the lighting and the photo background worrks well. Plus, it does kind of resemble my boss at times. Lol
The background looks obviously fake in this shot, maybe its because the guy is standing on a black table. If he looked like he was standing in the forrest this would work a lot better for me.
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