This concept came to mind immediately when reading the challenge. One of my daughter's friends in full Knight costume in Seattle. Thanks to Bryan for agreeing to do this, pulling off the perfect expression, and enduring the heavy chain-mail!
Lit with two remote flashes, two large spots and a reflector.
Thanks also to my two assistants for this remote shoot (Rai & Ben). Knight's with swords attract a lot of attention on the street :O)
Post processing:
Convert from RAW to multiple brightness adjustments & mixed in CS2
straighten
crop
curves
channels
levels
desat on the background
slight sepia filter
dogded the sword
usm
surface blur on the cape
neat image
add border
sfw
Hopefully the desat on the background doesn't kill me!
This turned out pretty much exactly like I'd envisioned it (this was only the 3rd shot of the entire session), so I hope it does well :O)
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Post Challenge:
Wahooooooooooooo! My first ribbon! :O)
Thanks to everyone for the votes, & awesome comments. I've been doing the "happy dance" all week, and the update button certainly got a good workout ;o)
Specific shouts go out to my fellow DPC-addicts Nicholas [nheilweil] and Brian [brchambe] for suggestions on post (and for your patience while mentoring me)!
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 92 Avg (all users): 7.8057 Avg (commenters): 9.2927 Avg (participants): 7.5000 Avg (non-participants): 7.8909 Views since voting: 16339 Views during voting: 575 Votes: 211 Comments: 77 Favorites: 35 (view)
Congrats on this your first, and very well deserved ribbon. Not only an awesome concept, but executed extremely well also. Great pp. The shot just looks really, really good. Kudos to your model, his look, and expression and everything is just spot on perfect. You composed this superbly, and perfect dof. Just truly an awesome job, congrats :-)
And after living in Seattle for 4 years, I would not find seeing something like this on the street that out of the ordinary hehe. I saw some pretty bizarre things in places like Capitol Hill and Queen Anne.
Awesome! I love everything about this image. And no, the background desat is great. It is kind of subtle, I didn't even realize it was desaturated at first, but it does a fantastic job of giving the foreground primary visual importance.
Congratulations on a stellar image!
When someone rates an obviously well put together photo a 1 or 2, I always wonder what their criteria is for judging it.... anyway congrats on your ribbon. This is awesome!
This is a superb shot, well thought, out and executed. I didnt vote on this challenge but this would definitely have been one of my favorites. Congratulations on the ribbon.
Wow, awesome shot. The seattle skyline is the perfect backdrop. I don't think any other city would do the job. And well done to find a grassy slope with this outlook. Perfect colour toning, and just the right exposure balance between foreground and background.
Congrats on your first ribbon, though I'm surprised it's your first. I expect you'll get a whole lot more of them. Really, really like this - congrats also on having the vision, following through, and getting what you want. Even better than a ribbon!
Nicely done, the only 10 I gave in this challenge, not to take anything away from the blue ribbon picture, I did give it a 9, but this was my top pick! Congratulations on your first ribbon.
I really like the contrast of the colorful foreground and bleak background. I also love the crisp detail and the lighting. 9+fav! (The only thing I could have further wished for is a grizzly old man. =)
My favorite of the challenge for a couple of reasons. First, it's a great shot. Second, and most importantly, the longing is tangible here - one can feel this gentleman's need to return to his time and place. Very nicely done, both for this specific challenge and as a standalone shot.
Keeping the mail from rusting up in that environment must be quite a challenge! I figured that SCA members would have an advantage in this particular competition.
Very nice concept, and great execution. Muted lighting is fine for
this composition. Good DOF with the skyscrapers blurred behind this
Medieval Man. Is he looking down because he's being knighted?
IMHO I still would have had him look towards the camera, with
a look of pride in his eyes.
Overall, I'd give this an 8
I love the contrast between the futuristic building in the background and the subject. I love the colors too. I would like to see more contrast in his face, but that is just me, it still is a great shot.
Nicely done. The background is perfect and the costume! Lucky to have something cool like that (or rent or whatever you may have done... lol!) I'm more a fan of eye contact but the solemn look works.
FANTASTIC!!! I've only seen 19 images so far but this seems to me to be the best of those. Great colors, mood, lighting.. and wonderful title to bring it all together.
Longing for Home
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Ribbon - keep 'em coming!
