Heartless
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by Abra: Common Christophe, enough of the self portraits ;-) Congrats, got a 10 from me. This should be hanging in a renowned art gallery somewhere.

Thanks a lot Phil, much appreciated. As a matter of fact, you're right: bodies are mine, although I'm not that skinny, nor that fat ;-)

November
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by terryduck: I hope you don't mind, I'm using this picture as my background now, because it is so beautiful.

Not the least, I'm extremely happy and proud when my pictures are appreciated. On my Flickr page, you can download the 1500x1000px version.

You may kiss the Corpse Bride
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by 1m1A: Great work, you are really an inspiration with your continual excellence! As far as nightpixels' objection, I went back to look at the rules and here's what I found. Under the You May Not section it includes: "use distortions to create new effects or radically alter objects." So to me this means you can use distortions to alter objects in a subtle, non-radical way. Like nightpixels, I wasn't aware of that—good to know!

Thanks!
You might want to read this thread too, this is what convinced me it was legit. Good information.

You may kiss the Corpse Bride
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by nightpixels: Yeah, I knew something was not right :) But is this legal in advanced editing? This almost falls into the expert editing territory. Maybe it is totally fine and I should go read the rules again. I though distortions were not allowed to a point where it changes the viewer's perspective on the image. Great final product regardless.

Distortions are allowed if they don't change the image too much. I don't think a bit longer fingers or bigger eyes change things radically. Moreover, the image is validated, so it looks like the council shares my opinion on this one :)

You may kiss the Corpse Bride
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by nightpixels: Congrats Christophe! Did you have to do anything to her ring finger and her eyes since they look a tiny bit liquified (ring finger's knuckle looks bigger than it should, and her eyes a bit bigger than they should). Picture is not large enough to tell for sure, but just the impression that I am getting from this 800-pixel long image.

Thank you Allen! Yes you are very close to the truth: I used liquify to make her fingers a bit longer, and eyes a bit bigger. Also, I made my chin thinner to get closer to the original characters appearance. You have good eyes :)

You may kiss the Corpse Bride
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by snaffles: wondering if that's a slip or similar piece of lingerie your wife's wearing?

Yes indeed, it is a corset.

You may kiss the Corpse Bride
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by tanguera: You look so young!!!! What a gorgeous wife! Congrats on the ribbon, Christophe. Thought this challenge was up your alley.

Thanks Johanna :-)
As for the young appearance, as you probably guessed, the skin was smoothed a lot to reach that "puppet" look. The goal was to be as close as possible to the movie's aesthetic. The 1.85:1 ratio is another feature towards that goal.

The Mad Hatters Wife
by sjhuls

Comment:
Congratulations Jenn! Your hard work surely paid off :-)

November
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by jesusfreak864ever: I would love if you could set up a tutorial on how you did this. I just think this photo is fantastic and would love to learn how to do some really nice HDR

Thanks, glad you liked it!
The main editing steps are described under the photo. I'm afraid more details would not be very useful (like values and parameters for each step), because they are very specific to the photo and to what you want to achieve. The main HDR itself was done in a very classical way: 3 RAWs, HDR Efex Pro, some quick adjustments and that's it. Done in 3 minutes (really!). However, tone-mapping the HDR was merely the beginning, and the result is all about many local tweaks (more saturation here, more light there, more detail in the darks here, change the color of that, etc.). This is what took the longest by a large margin (editing-wise). Feel free to PM me if you want specific information.

November
by gyaban

Comment:

Originally posted by karaleigh: Do you sell your images? I just saw this on my weekly email, went to it and my husband wants it for his wall. Thanks in advance, this is stunning!

Sure, I'll PM you with the different options for that. Thank you!