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The Spirit in the Bottle
The Spirit in the Bottle
Shutter-For-Hire


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: The Brothers Grimm (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikon AF Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G IF-ED DX
Location: Toronto, Ontario (My front lawn)
Date: Oct 3, 2008
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 200
Shutter: 13 sec
Galleries: Landscape, History
Date Uploaded: Oct 4, 2008

 ok... well I hope this one does better than my last four entries =)... honestly, I can't tell...

So, I spent some time reading through a bounch of the Brothers Grimm stories and when I read "The Spirit in the Bottle" I had an instant mental picture of the above image, and I knew that I had to do this shot! If you want to know more about it, look it up on the web and read it... it's a good one!

I needed the help of leugim_seven for this one, he just joined on to the website. He was really helpful, and I just want to formally thank him =)

Now, For the shot, I used a nikkor 10.5 fisheye (obviously) to get the entire HUGE tree in... i really wanted it to fill the frame. For lighting, I used my alienbees B1600 at full power from way behind the camera (This tree is on my front lawn... very convenient). I used my D50 set to 13 seconds with the flash set to rear curtain so it would fire at the end of the shot. I started off at the base of the tree holding the bottle with an LED lantern and LED flashlight taped to the end of a 15 foot pole being held by leugim_seven from the side. He started with the lights behind the bottle, then swirled them up into the sky during the exposure. We had to wrap black tape around the pole so it wouldn't show up in the pic. Then at the end of the shot the flash fired to light up the tree and myself. To ensure a broad depth of field, and a tight enough aperture to properly expose the LED lights, I set the aperture to f/10.

I really like the way the sky naturally turned orange due to the city tungsten lights... I had the WB set to flash so the tree and myself are the right temperature colour... I left the orange sky because it adds a nice dramatic touch

For editing, all I did was open the pic in camera raw several times, adjusting it differently each time, then put all the pics together as different layers, and erased through to show the good parts of each layer, then flattened it, did some dodge/burn, resize/quality, then submit...

-----------------

Thanks everyone for all the amazing comments!!! I was confused why this Alex person was, because everyone thought my pic was by him... I actually added AlexSaberi to my favorites a while ago, then when I looked through his pics I found out why people thought my pic was by him... I hadn't seen his pic with the music notes under a tree until the middle of the voting and as soon as I did I started laughing because it was just like the one I did! Even with the orange sky... and in my pic it was totally accidental! But, after looking through his pics, I take everyones wrong guess as a HUGE compliment! =)

I was hoping I would hold on to the 7+ score I had, but I lost it at the very end, that's my next goal =)

Thanks again everyone!!!

Statistics
Place: 6 out of 82
Avg (all users): 6.9950
Avg (commenters): 7.6364
Avg (participants): 7.3000
Avg (non-participants): 6.9188
Views since voting: 5536
Views during voting: 499
Votes: 200
Comments: 35
Favorites: 5 (view)

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AuthorThread
 11/28/2009 12:31:42 AM
this is totally awesome .. a wicked shot .. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2008 04:08:37 PM
Beautiful image, Shutter no matter who took it, and a very difficult one to achieve. The effort really shows.Congrats on your top 10 finish.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2008 08:29:19 AM
Great shot. Congrats on your PB.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/17/2008 11:43:35 PM
From the Critique Club

Wow, this is really something cool. I'm not sure what I can offer other than to continue the accolades you've already gotten. Exposure-wise, you nailed it. Lighting the tree from below, combined with the low angle of view, really makes the tree stand out in a kind of creepy, haunted forest kind of way, especially with the strong orange sky. You've really done a great job with the "spirit" too.

The only thing I can suggest that might have improved on this are to make the bottle a bit more obvious and maybe some costuming of the subject. These are really pretty minor. And congratulations on a top ten finish.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2008 09:28:56 PM
Nice shot and a heck of a lot of work. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2008 10:07:16 AM
congrats on your personal best and the top 10... this shot is awesome, colorful, and has that magical feel. Nice work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2008 04:48:42 AM
And I thought it was Alex Saberi... that is a big compliment BTW.. excellent shot
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2008 01:10:40 AM
The sky in this is amazing...excellent image and congrats on the top 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/13/2008 12:43:14 AM
Very clever and well executed - nice to see a vision carried through so well! I did have to laugh about the part "all I did was..." in your editing steps... That's more editing than I do in a month! Congratulations on an excellent score and placement.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/12/2008 09:37:02 PM
Great night work ... very cool image ... good luck
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2008 09:01:25 PM
I wanted to do this story but knew there would be shots like this that it would pale in comparison to! This is fantastic, I look forward to seeing how you did it. I love your setting too, with the old leaning tree and the orange sky in back. Great job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2008 08:16:55 PM
hard to do in the dark... but you've done it well. Congrats.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2008 07:59:04 PM
nice effort - the lighting is cool and you did well to keep the shot sharp during the 'spirit' work
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/12/2008 06:33:17 PM
This is an amazing photo: beautiful lighting (light painting/night shot I am sure). Hope you include how you did this! Top 5 I would suspect.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2008 01:02:45 AM
I assume a flash followed by some light painting. Well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/09/2008 12:38:36 AM
I would think this is an AlexSaberi image....if not...take it as a compliment.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/08/2008 12:26:07 PM
Very well executed. Looks like an AlexSaberi photograph.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/07/2008 11:45:34 PM
I like your idea here, and the "spirit" effect is very well executed. My only two complaints are 1) oversaturation and 2) I wish the model's outfit looked a little less modern. If he had been wearing a hooded black robe for example, it would have added mystery and authenticity to your shot. 6.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/07/2008 07:43:12 PM
Great shot. The colours add to the sense of story.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 11:34:08 PM
Great colours, lovely effects from the bottle. Seems a bit overprocessed
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 10:50:18 PM
what's that in the left hand? a remote flash trigger? lol
good shot...and very nice use of the fisheye lense..one of my favorite lenses.
let me know after the challenge what you used for the light trail
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 07:44:13 PM
Very nice. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 07:09:47 PM
Ya, I think this is a contender. I expect a good score. has a very alexsaberi feel to it with the lighting and the sky. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 04:16:09 PM
This lighting looks very familiar. Love it! Alex? Great job as always... Commenting only.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 02:17:14 PM
i love this pic! the lighting and color is perfect throughout, except on the man it seems odd. I'm interested to see how you accomplished this shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 11:31:35 AM
Though I did not submit to this
challenge, wanted to but little
time I had. I read the stories
and if I had submited this is
what I would have chosen.
Good Idea, Like It - 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 10:11:14 AM
This is so well done, love the light painting ( if thats how you did it ) and the editing is amazing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 09:27:31 AM
Hey Alex, Thanks for the comment. ;)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 07:44:33 AM
yeah this is more like it 10 and the winner
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 06:35:58 AM
not sure there is actually a Grimm tale with a fairy in a bottle ;-) ... anyway a really great shot! nice use of light, great POV and nice colour treatment!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 03:19:42 AM
very good image
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 03:10:45 AM
Great effect for the challenge, love the sunset sky...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 01:31:08 AM
Nice shot and idea, but I'm more drawn to wondering about and looking at the guy's denim shorts and other modern clothes.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 01:20:26 AM
Very, very cool image, the lighting and effects are wonderful!! Such a perfect tree for this shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/06/2008 12:41:12 AM
The sky is so gorgeous forboding - I wish I knew how to edit the sky.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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