The Old Port of Portland
by csb

Comment by jmsetzler:
This photo has a fairly warm feeling of city life :) These little backstreet places are usually quite fun and nice places to hang out. Fortunately, I have been to Portland a few times but I haven't made it on to this particular street... I am asking myself if there may not be a better framing and angle for this photo.. the dark fence on the right and the partially clipped parking sign are not major drawbacks by any means, but i think there may be room for improvement in that area of the photo :) good work! = 6 - jmsetzler

The Old Port of Portland
by csb

Comment by Shiiizzzam:
This would be a better photo if you had cropped off the fence on the right and the a/c units above them:) It's still a good city life photo !

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by cmcvety:
wow. this is a great idea. good job. you should have done better.

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by jonathans:
i cant believe how many people didnt know how this was done. wish you did better.

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by Jenguin:
Wow.. I'm impressed!! And now I wanna copy and see if I can do it/something simliar with my camera. Very inspiring and creative!

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by csb:
Thanks for all the comments... kept me entertained during the voting week.

This image was recommended for disqualification. Good thing I had the original with EXIF data available ;) Thanks to those that recommended it... I enjoy being kept on my toes.

Here's how it was done... the bottle is actually sitting on a glass table covered with an off-white colored cloth. Beneath the table are 3 low powered lights to evenly disperse the light. There is a cardboard cutout of a female figure taped to the bottom of the table beneath the cloth. The effect is that of a shadow puppet.

The image was shot from above, using a black leather jacket for the background. There are a few bright spotlights from above to help diffuse unwanted shadows and balance the light coming from beneath the table. There was a yellow-shaded spotlight from the back, which resulted in the bottle shadow in the foreground. The critics are still deciding whether or not it distracts from the photo... I did it on purpose to add a little extra confusion and give an effect of multiple lighting angles.

This was an extremely fun photo to set up. By far, its the most complex photo I've ever made in a staged setting. It took about 50 shots to get it right and I experimented with 3 completely different setups. The biggest challenge was making sure the lights beneath the table didn't blead through the white cloth causing a washout, which looked horrible.

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by bhop73:
I can't figure how you did this without editing....

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by wenyao:
nice!

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by TSaylors:
Funny, but the foreshadow of the bottle hurts the effect. I am giving you additional points for creativity!

Beer Goggles
by csb

Comment by Gotcha:
Now that's clever-very innovative-