Self Portrait 2 * by Canon DSLR Challenge

Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 78 : Creative Self Portraits (Host: sergio rojkes) >> Exhibition > Self Portrait 2 *

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10/27-10/28	Victor Engel

Self Portrait 2 *

Austin, Texas

This picture is a composite of a self portrait
and a picture of the eclipse. The picture of the
moon was taken with my longest lens, a Spiratone
400mm preset lens. The quality of the lens isn't
great, but I got what I could afford in highschool,
and I still have the lens. In any case, it's good
enough for this shot.

The self portrait was made with a 28-135 IS lens
set on a tripod in self timer mode. Photoshop
manipulations included darkening the image (about
the last step), increasing saturation in the eyes,
background cleanup, red-eye addition. I really
wanted the redeye effect, but it didn't show up
enough, so I enhanced it.

I painted my face with charcoal I ground up and
filtered yesterday. The makeup job was not the best
so I did some cleanup in Photoshop.

Canon EOS 10D

other sizes: small medium original auto

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Please do not delete, update, or otherwise edit others' entries
* Submitter retains all copyrights *

Canon DSLR Challenge		12-Oct-2006 13:34
I am amazed at how much effort and thougt you put into this Victor.. it reads like a novel.. I particularly like the 'shovel focus' device and I had a picture of you running back and forth taking shots. Love to have the sound track as well (LOL). That lens did a good job of the moon as well. Great post, regards ~ Bob

Michael Kilpatrick		08-Oct-2006 08:30
That's a great image Victor. Well worth the effort you went to. Regards Michael

Guest		08-Oct-2006 03:47
Elegant and fanciful, Victor. Kudos. -Michael

Barbara Heide		07-Oct-2006 21:27
that's great artistic work! excellent entry!

jnconradie		07-Oct-2006 21:13
Wonderful stuff. Just in time for Halloween? Regards ~jnconradie

Canon DSLR Challenge		07-Oct-2006 15:36
This is wonderful Victor - Love it! CJ

Vikas Malhotra		07-Oct-2006 14:20
Very very cool....Love it. Cheers, Vikas.

Canon DSLR Challenge		07-Oct-2006 01:06
Well, since this is October, and since today is full moon, an October Harvest Moon, no less, I'll copy this picture to this gallery. -- Victor

Guest		08-Jan-2006 12:20
It´s wonderful, Victor! I like it very much. Doris

Canon DSLR Challenge		04-Jan-2006 03:00
I didn't so much manage to retain the stats as it happened accidentally. This was an entry in the eligible section of #27, I believe. I edited that gallery and selected the option to copy the picture to another gallery. This way, it doesn't use additional space on pbase. I didn't think it would copy all the comments and stats across, too, but it did. -- Victor

Canon DSLR Challenge		04-Jan-2006 02:14
This one is a real gem. I know this from your website and was taken by it. I did not know there was so much hardwork behind it. Does show a feeling of accomplishment on your face. Just curious how you managed to retain the "608 page views since 28-OCT-04" and "1111 direct links since 28-OCT-04" on this photo? -Cat

Victor Engel		04-Nov-2004 08:23
Of course what I meant to say was that I know exactly what YOU mean. -- Victor

Victor Engel		30-Oct-2004 21:06
I know exactly what I mean. I struggled a lot with that. I think I may have a chance this weekend to reshoot, and this time with a friend to help. It's interesting you say I should darken the robe, because I get a lot of people who can't even see it because it's so dark. My reply to them is to show them a graphic with various shades of grey and that they should be able to see them all. Pictures mostly black are probably the hardest to get consistent viewing on because of the variable settings people use for their monitors. I think the black end has the most variability. Interestingly, I printed this out on Epson glossy photo paper, and the robe is clearly visible. I printed it on Colorlife using Epson's color profile, and it's nearly invisible. I reprinted it after adjusting the gamma by 1.1, and it's still very faint. I suspect this is not a problem with the profile or with calibration but simply that there is so much ink it saturated the paper. -- Victor

Guest		30-Oct-2004 20:12
Your beard is your trademark! =) If I met you like that on the street I would run fast... I think I prefer the first one but I would have tried to darken the robe to make it melt in the background a bit (and reduce the feeling of direct flash) specially at the feet. Feels a little cut out now. /Jonas

Guest		30-Oct-2004 15:35
Victor this is why I like the second one... the moon seems to lite up the back ground and silhouette your body. As far as the lite on your face..... well we do have to see your face and I'll try not to look into that to much. Great shot and effort ether way.

Victor Engel		29-Oct-2004 19:11
I'm surprised nobody has yet commented about the placement of the moon relative to the subject or the placement of the subject relative to the frame. I made conscious decisions on each of these, but not based on any standard rules. If anyone has feedback along these lines, I'd like to hear it. -- Victor

Guest		29-Oct-2004 18:14
Very cool Victor for me I like the second one better. It makes me try to look into the picture more. Appreciate and respect your effort.

Guest		29-Oct-2004 14:17
Both are REALLY cool, Victor! What a great self portrait!! Very unsettling mood you've captured. Worth the effort you put into it!

Guest		29-Oct-2004 01:35
I like the original better. It's a great shot that was worth all the effort.

Victor Engel		28-Oct-2004 22:33
What do you think of something like this?After making this change (adding a gradient that's blue on the top, green on the bottom, behind the figure and merged with the moon), I get the sense that the problem is with the lighting. Direct flash maybe is not the best lighting for this scene. I used it in order to produce redeye. Theoretically, the light comes from the moon, but, of course, the moon is behind the figure, so it doesn't compute. -- Victor

Victor Engel		28-Oct-2004 20:39
When I said I had other shots in the works, that is one of the things I intended to play with. I'll be scouting around for locations. Possibly a park would be a good idea. It may have to wait until I can enlist someone to help me out. As you no doubt are aware, shooting self portraits is extra demanding, because you have to run back and forth between the subject location and the camera locaion, and in my cast, the computer. Also, in order to get proper focus, I propped up a shovel against the stool I was standing on and focused on it, knocking it out of the way for each picture. I'm going to have to see if there's a way to extend the delay of the self-timer, because the time to get from camera on top of the stool, move the shovel, and arrange the cape and beard, is actually more time than I had. Argghh. Sometime I'll get a remote release. -- Victor

iso3200		28-Oct-2004 19:53
Yes, I appreciate the work you've done, and the reasons for doing it, which are very practical and valid reasons indeed, and the CG remark isn't really meant as a severe criticism by any means. I do like it as it is. I have to wonder what the image would be like with some background though. A little ambience of something. I'd guess only a reshoot in the perfect location would solve that.

Victor Engel		28-Oct-2004 19:23
I forgot to mention one other important design decision. My self portrait is illuminated by a Vivitar flash. I shot in raw, giving me the option for white balance on conversion. Normally, for a shot like this, I'd experiment with converting with tungsten setting or some other warm light setting to give a blue cast to help indicate night. However, because of the orange moon, which, theoretically, is the ambient light source, I choose something that would render the picture warmer. I think using the default flash wb is what I wound up using. I'll have to double check, but I think I used the flash setting for the moon as well, so it actually renders oranger than in reality. Also, the moon picture is a composition of two separate moon pictures taken a few seconds apart. -- Victor

Victor Engel		28-Oct-2004 19:17
By CG do you mean computer generated? If so, part of the reason is probably because of my treatment of the background, which I essentially blacked out. This was because I didn't really have a good background to use. I just used my back yard, and, although I used the widest setting on my lens so I could move in close and hence darken the distracting background, it was nevertheless visible -- such things as power lines, wooden fence, trees, etc. I did a lot of experimenting with various poses. I chose this out of the dozens of shots I made primarily because I think the pose works well. By the way, I was surprised at how little processing the eyes needed. I thought I was going to have to paint the color I wanted. Instead, all I had to do was boost saturation +65%, if I recall correctly, and then enhance the red-eye. -- Victor

iso3200		28-Oct-2004 18:35
Great image Victor, though it almost looks like CG. I like this one a lot.

Canon DSLR Challenge		28-Oct-2004 17:15
This is literally the "Dark Side." The red shows an element of evil and one can only guess what's about to happen! Shu

Guest		28-Oct-2004 16:52
Beautiful image, Victor! It almost looks cartoon like - great job with the make-up and thanks for the extended description! - Ralph

Guest		28-Oct-2004 15:21
Kudos Victor! This is GREAT!