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Refractions of Me
Refractions of Me
timfythetoo


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Self Portrait VI (Advanced Editing V*)
Camera: Canon EOS-30D
Lens: Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon
Date: Nov 28, 2007
Date Uploaded: Nov 28, 2007

 Tuesday evening update -
Votes: 322
Views: 610
Avg Vote: 6.9286
Comments: 51

Not too bad for a cliche. I saw this in a recent photo magazine. I have never tried a shot like this before but I really liked how it looked as a portrait.

Set up - a sheet of glass resting on the backs of 2 counter hieght kitchen chair backs, blue poster board under neath me, water droplets on the glass, camera on a tripod balancing on the chair seats and glass, fired with timer. I manually focused on the drops using Aidan as my stand in. The glass is probably a good 3 and half feet from my head. 420ex on a light stand with a silver bounce umbrella firing from image top and a reflector at the back of my head.

I tried glycerine to get rounder drops but it didnt work any better. I then did a layer of rainx on the glass and water drops again, but while the drops themselves were much rounder and nicer the reflection of me was much smaller, way less detailed and the focus was just really hard to get clean. This was one of the first shots in the series taht went over 2 days. Very tough shot to shoot and get good focus and composition on my own. I wish I had taken a pic of the whole setup.

Nothing really fancy on editing, RAW comversion, contrast mask, NI, selective color adjustment, minor cloning to clean up glass and poster board shadows, slight guassian blur to background for slightly better separation, resize, USM, border.

Very pleased with the comments and score. I think that while this is an overdone effect, the fact that it is not a flower or flag or smiley face was a positive.

Post Challenge
Look at that - 10 votes of 3 and under and I still pull off an almost 7 score. Some voters are just cranky. Were you one of them Oliver? ;)

Statistics
Place: 10 out of 241
Avg (all users): 6.9233
Avg (commenters): 8.0000
Avg (participants): 6.8151
Avg (non-participants): 6.9897
Views since voting: 4373
Views during voting: 616
Votes: 313
Comments: 62
Favorites: 5 (view)

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AuthorThread
 01/10/2008 05:20:36 PM
Awesome! You said glycerine and RainX didn't give you the drops you wanted, so what did you end up using?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/09/2008 04:54:29 PM
Great idea, I'll have to try it. Did you try any whiskey, beer, or milk on the glass?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/13/2007 04:20:21 PM
Brilliant photo, congrats on your top 10 finish!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 04:32:09 PM
What f/stop did you use? This came out great!
Debbi
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 07:44:45 AM
very very cool!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 07:35:26 AM
Tim- Cool stuff - Really creative use of water droplets. After your tooth fairy shot, now I know why you put your SP behind glass and OOF!

Congrats on another well deserved top 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 03:33:39 AM
You have the midas touch!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 03:30:13 AM
Another great result Timmy! Top 10, fantastic!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 02:46:45 AM
Man, you beat me by 0.0002 _ must be a mathematical error :)

Congrats on your 10th!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 01:15:12 AM
Another star - congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/12/2007 12:17:22 AM
Very Cool Tim! On a roll brotha!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/11/2007 07:16:06 PM
Makes me go "How the heck?!"
I think only 1 word works for this picture -Brilliant!- 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/11/2007 02:52:23 PM
sweet!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/11/2007 01:11:59 AM
wow thats such an interesting effect! really cool idea
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/10/2007 08:51:56 PM
very cool and original. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/10/2007 04:40:51 PM
nice idea, well executed
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/10/2007 06:24:32 AM
8 - Nice clean image. Be even better if more of the larger drops had more face in them, but fairly minor.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 10:33:34 PM
cool shot, I thought of this but did not try. Very nicely executed!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 09:01:51 PM
I have seen this effect many times but it seems to really work well for this assignment.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 03:39:11 PM
Chuck Close might appreciate this. It is a lovely shade of blue and while it teeters a bit too much on the edge of cut-out art rather than photography, I admire its ambition.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 10:22:23 AM
Wonderful concept and execution.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 10:12:18 AM
Very neat but I think this idea is over its maximum life span. Sorry.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 08:57:14 AM
Nice take on the water drop shot. The best way to have round water drops is to use glycerine and an eye dropper.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/09/2007 08:31:14 AM
Excellent.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 01:58:14 PM
Brilliant - love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/08/2007 07:33:38 AM
Timfythetoo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2007 10:36:22 PM
Many of "you" :) A unique(!) idea for a human, I have seen bugs, flowers, but I don't think I have seen a human face like this photo. Sharp, clear drop faces. I like it :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2007 10:35:37 PM
have seen this idea before. came out good with sharpness. droplets could have been arranged to have big ones in center to smaller moving away from the center.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/07/2007 09:15:42 AM
Very good idea. Very creative.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 10:34:28 PM
I really really think this is a really cool photograph! And also the use of color in the photo makes it pop! I would really love to see this photograph blown up really big and on display somewhere.

A++
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 07:34:30 PM
Excellent concept! What's the clear medium? glass?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 04:24:13 PM
Love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 03:16:47 PM
The water drops need to be a little bigger (by just a bit) so that we can see more of your profile. Still a cool shot. BB
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 02:34:40 PM
This is my Favorite!!! +10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 11:04:55 AM
very creative. I like it a lot. Nice job focusing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 09:38:23 AM
NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 09:04:26 AM
well setup and very creative
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/06/2007 01:53:31 AM
That's too many Toos to take all at one time. :-) Nifty idea well executed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 09:57:54 PM
great shot. colours are intense and the whole thing grabs my attention. I sense a ribbon in this one... 9 from me
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 08:02:31 PM
Great !! 11 if I could but I guess I have to settle with giving you a 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 07:44:44 PM
Great new take on an often used technique --- Hard to tell, but I think its timfythetoo?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 07:43:38 PM
Very creative not sure how you did must of been hard.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 06:28:13 PM
That's kinda cool
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 06:27:00 PM
Wonderful concept, masterfully executed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 05:27:28 PM
Now that is wild. How the hell did you do this?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 05:02:38 PM
I'm thinkin Timfythetoo...and lots of him. Great idea, and lighting is really sweet on this shot. Nice job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 04:41:09 PM
That is ridiculously cool. I see another ribbon in your future. I hate you 'cuz I'm not dancing with you on this one ;-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 04:16:50 PM
nice very cool idea
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 03:19:30 PM
wow... that's all I need to say.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 02:13:22 PM
Clever great image
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 02:03:32 PM
hiya tim...love this..creative
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 12:39:09 PM
How incredibly creative! I love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 11:12:06 AM
Tim? Are you in there? ;-) Creative idea, nice colours.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 11:11:32 AM
'ello Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim, I think you have split personality!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 11:07:27 AM
Gotta be Tim! HAHA! Great use of a classic technique. I haven't tried this yet, but you've inspired me to do so. This is terrific!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 10:34:47 AM
Wow, I appreciate that the multiple images in water drops has been done before (but then again hasnt everything) but I really like the use of this technique as a SP (especially as it took me a moment to realise the bokeh background included your face.

Brilliant colours and great sharpness in the face in the drops. I have no idea how you did this but I am very jealous

Good luck
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 09:26:23 AM
Nice work. Very intresting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 08:28:18 AM
nice job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 06:50:17 AM
Good use of a cliché. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 06:31:34 AM
nice job! very creative.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 04:23:34 AM
very clever Tim...sensational blues
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/05/2007 02:12:19 AM
Excellent 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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