This one went through some pretty heavy post-processing. I couldn't hold the fans, push shutters, and hold still for any lenght of shutter. No fancy equipment here, so I had to use the built-in flash. The result? Darn flat lighting.
Photoshop to the rescue!
Levels, Dodged, Burned, and Quadtoned. Stray eyebrows cloned or dodged down (I come from a yeti-like people, pale and hairy, so it's a lot of work to give the impression of thin, asian eyebrows). The face was given a diffuse glow to enhance the Geisha look. Finally a little noise for that old-tymey look!
I'm very pleased with it, I'll be interested to see what other people think!
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A wonderful idea, utilising great composition. I think I would have prefered this in colour though, fans are traditionally quite colourful and I'm not convinced there's a good reason for a duotone treatment here. The noise levels don't look effective to my taste, looking more like noise than grain. The black vertical marks in the lower corner of each eye are a bit distracting, and nothing seems quite sharp enough. The lighting has resulted in an unappealing shadow on your subject, thrown by the darkest fan. The eyes don't look sultry, more startled or afraid.
Sorry about all the nitpicking though, as the first impression is good when looking at this photo, these details only become apparent as the viewer looks at it longer. I love a lot of your other work, especially the recent 'Pale Josephine' entry, so I hope to see a lot more!
Bob
Edit: Just read your description, so I see your reason for converting to quadtone... a shame you didn't get better lighting!
Yes, there are 3 fans, but the subject here are those great eyes. Perhaps with a little more light on the dark fan and a wider crop you might get a little more attention on the fans. Wish I could see the color version- it looks like you had a good exposure on the eyes.
I really like the composition very much. but I long for color in this shot - the fans, the eyes - so much they could say with color that seems lost in the black and white.
Three fans, very clever. A tad bit noisy (unless that is the effect you was trying to achieve), I would have liked to see a little crisper on at least the top fan and model's facial features.
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