My boyfriend, who agreed to gel his hair into a duck's-ass and wear my biker jacket just so I could get this shot! He hates being nagged about his smoking (he really isn't that heavy a smoker) so I just told him to imagine both me and his son pestering him to quit. The b/g is my ol' faithful black backdrop - a black towel draped over a door. The light on the left is a small handheld 60w light.
PP: crop, brightness/contrast, curves, usm, resize, save for web
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Place: 73 out of 132 Avg (all users): 5.1732 Avg (commenters): 5.2857 Avg (participants): 4.9362 Avg (non-participants): 5.2337 Views since voting: 1017 Views during voting: 329 Votes: 231 Comments: 11 Favorites: 0
Composition: I like the composition as it tends to let me eye flow around the key elements in the image - the eyes, the cigarette, and the lighter in his hand. The only element I get drawn to that I don't really feel is a main part of the image is the jacket collar on the right side but that doesn't hurt the image.
Technical: Some of the commenters pointed this out already. The overall feel is that the image is a bit flat. Some increased contrast may have helped. The lighting works well in that it hilights the aspects you are trying to and is neither too harsh or too soft. Is it the DOF or motion blur on the hand with the lighter? I can't quite tell but in either case that works well as it is the cigarette rather than the lighter than your title refers to.
My Feelings: A nice image that fits the challenge in a couple of ways. Firstly there is the link that your title refers to. Secondly, your models eyes also portray a feeling of someone in a pool hall who is giving the cold stare to someone else for some reason. Great capture.
a very nice image indeed. i hdd a little play with it, not basic legal, but i think what i would do with it. there are two screen layers, on the eyes, with one on the hair and lighter as well, a multiply layer for the foreground fingers, and a high pass layer for the eyes and lighter. a curves layer at 70% bumped up the contrast a little.
i hope you don't mind me fiddling with it. ya got yourself a looker there!
Lovely shot. I think maybe you should have either lit up his eyes a little more, or had the lighter actually lit and left that in color. You do nice portraits!
I think you did a nice job with the portrait shot but to me it doesn't really show hate except for the title. Maybe you found your calling with portrait shots.
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