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Blue, Eyes
Blue, Eyes
levyj413


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Magic & Mystery (Advanced Editing IV)
Collection: People
Camera: Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Location: My basement
Date: Aug 17, 2006
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 100
Shutter: 2s
Galleries: Emotive, Self Portrait
Date Uploaded: Aug 17, 2006

 This is me having more fun with my daughter's fiber optic lamp. I shook the fibers around and then sat still for 2 seconds.

This is a random page I found on fiber optic lamps, in case you're not familiar with them. Since all the fibers are the same length, when you bounce them around, they create light trails that form a sphere: random fiber optic lamp page.

I tried several crops and took about 200 shots (with and without the lamp) to find one that gave me the right mood and facial expression.

What I like, aside from the blue light swirls, is that the eyes grab you and only then you notice the nose is also visible. At least, that's what happens to me each time I look at it. So while the lights appear to be an opaque globe, they really aren't.

I also like that the whites of the eyes came out whiter than everything else. That wasn't actually intentional, but came out of the dodging and sharpening. Hence the comma in the title - not blue eyes, but blue and eyes.

Editing: curves, levels, dodging the whites of the eyes to lighten them up, some more curves, yet more curves to drop the background truly to black. After cropping and scaling, I did a sharpening pass.

Statistics
Place: 26 out of 127
Avg (all users): 6.1262
Avg (commenters): 7.8000
Avg (participants): 5.8036
Avg (non-participants): 6.2467
Views since voting: 1439
Views during voting: 396
Votes: 206
Comments: 18
Favorites: 2 (view)

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AuthorThread
 08/26/2007 05:56:05 PM
This is so cool. I love the eyes. I hadn't seen this shot, the challenge was before I joined DPC.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/26/2007 10:20:57 AM
Ooh - very cool !
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/23/2006 11:33:58 PM
Very nice idea and wonderfully executed! The blue color gives it a Sci-fi feel to me. It's amazing that it's so perfectly spherical.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/04/2006 09:08:45 PM
Very, very ingenious! Turned out quite well, too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/02/2006 02:07:32 PM
Critique Club Review:

I'm surprised this photo didn't place at least in the top 10. You have a very good exposure, great contrast, and excellent depth of field. It took me a bit to find the nose, and that is about the only feature that I wish wasn't there. Nothing personal against your nose, but till then the picture has even more punch. Since you can't see the bridge of the nose, and the lighting accentuates the brow, could this be Neanderthal, King Kong, an Alien brooding over the earth? Or even another blue planet? Lots of interest and energy here. About the only other minor negative I see is the lower right of the picture is approaching burn-out, which draws the eye away from the rest of the composition a bit. Not bad, as it takes awhile to happen, but could be an improvement.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/28/2006 05:54:01 PM
Hadn't noticed the nose until you mentioned it :D Very well done. I don't think light play such as this, gets enough credit anymore. It's not only a fun technique, but one that can produce the most spectacular abstracts.

Congrats for the great score!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/28/2006 08:57:47 AM
I loved this. Thought it deserved higher.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/28/2006 05:48:04 AM
Great description. I was wondering how you did this. I was beginning to think that the face was a poster or something. I noticed the nose probably on the 5th or 6th viewing which had me all the more perplexed about the execution. Great job and very creative thinking.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
08/27/2006 10:22:16 PM
Great idea and execution. Comp and use of negative space are great too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/27/2006 06:33:39 AM
Interesting shot. I am looking forward to reading the description. Creative and oddly pleasing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/26/2006 07:55:02 AM
With quite a global view.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/25/2006 04:53:25 PM
This is very cool, it will be fun to see how you did this. Just the right amount of light on the eyes.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/25/2006 01:51:02 PM
Nice - the eyes are great...a little spooky. I love the lines in the sphere -
they create a great deal of interest. Excellent shot!! 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/24/2006 12:18:48 AM
Meets the challenge...interesting photo...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/22/2006 05:55:47 AM
Eerie, but very good.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/21/2006 07:09:05 PM
Interesting. Like the hue. Maybe a tiny bit more space above the eyes. 5
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/21/2006 02:32:47 AM
wow, this looks amazing....would love to know how this was done...perhaps the eyes needed a bit of lightening up, but great job
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/21/2006 12:14:11 AM
COOL BEANS!!!!! I like this. Great imagination.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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