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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> CSLR Challenge 49: Faceless (hosted by iso3200) >> Challenge 49: Eligible > after the prang *
6th Place
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03-SEP-2005 Kelly Bellis

after the prang *
6th Place

Canon EOS 20D
1/50s f/6.3 at 120.0mm iso100 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time03-Sep-2005 05:33:51
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 20D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length120 mm
Exposure Time1/50 sec
Aperturef/6.3
ISO Equivalent100
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programprogram (1)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Canon DSLR Challenge07-Sep-2005 00:37
Fabulous image Kelly, so creative! --Melanie (mlynn)
Guest 06-Sep-2005 21:56
Excellent, Kelly. I think this my favorite of your very creative and strong images. -Michael
Canon DSLR Challenge05-Sep-2005 10:54
Hi Debbie, the light used was a single 500 watt halogen work light - one of two on a single stand available at Home Depot, - Kelly
Guest 05-Sep-2005 00:47
Excellent!! Would you mind sharing the type of lighting you used and how many sources. I'm just learning studio lighting and this is perfectly lit. Excellent PS work also
Debbi
Guest 04-Sep-2005 18:42
The darker shadow in the hole works a lot better, I would think that the toning would be closer to that of under the chin. But the darkness does better create the effect. Chris
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Sep-2005 16:45
Thanks Grant. I took another crack at it - sorry. Hope the hole is dark enough for your tastes. As for the glasses casting a shadow on the inside of the ovaidal - you won't be able to see it due to the angle of the light source and the vantage point of the camera. The curving shadow falls generally to the right of center on the posterior side of the brain stem - if I had one ;) - since the light is up and to the left. - Kelly
Guest 04-Sep-2005 16:40
Much better!
Guest 04-Sep-2005 13:52
This is a really great idea! I agree though about the inside of hte egg being too light. I hink you need to do one of two things. Either make it a little darker (I would "paint with light" and graduate the shadow to make the surface seem round. Otherwise, you should add the shadow of the glasses on the inside. Right now, although it might be correct, it looks too flat. I really like this though.
Timothy O'Connor04-Sep-2005 13:07
Thanks for the wonderful information. It reminds me of the stuff that Storm Thorgerson did on various Pink Floyd covers during the 70's.

Its a great achievement - I was especially mystified byhow you did the glasses shadow - I see that a lot of elbow grease was needed for that!
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Sep-2005 12:49
Hi Tim, thanks for asking.

Both the head and the egg were shot separately with black cloth backdrops, identical lighting and similar vantage points. I had to zoom in on the egg to get the detail level I wanted.

Each image was then brought into a new single Photoshop document with the egg layer above the head layer. A touch of the magic wand to the egg’s background, delete key and the entire egg was easily isolated – this is one thing quite handy using the black backdrop.

The reduced opacity of the egg helped see how it would fit on top of the head. Ctrl+t (or Edit, Transform) then allowed the rotation and scaling of the egg to align with the underlying head.

Then using a big brush and the eraser (at 100% opacity), most of the egg was removed that I didn’t want and then with about 10% opacity I began removing bits of egg around the chin and hairline until satisfied with the tonal transition.

On a duplicated head layer (above the egg) I began the somewhat tedious process of isolating the glasses, cloning in the portions of the nose piece and frame obscured by the schnozzle and painting in the shadow cast from the frame. The pen tool helped do almost all of the glasses with a .5 pixel feather. After posting the image the first time, iso suggested playing with the color which I did using the channel mixer – my first time with color and my second time since reading and going through iso’s great write up on the journey in his mini tutorial.

The shot below shows the various stages.


For my British friends, I just learned the term “prang” on Friday (from the daily crossword ;) and thought it fun to use for the title. For my American friends, if you’re wondering, it means a crash involving a car or plane.

Regarding Chris’s comments about the hole being too light, that’s exactly what I thought after I applied iso’s coloring idea – in fact I even did multiple diminished burns to a limited degree over just that portion of the opening. But actually, the inside of the egg is being naturally illuminated by the same light source – not backlit.

Kelly

Timothy O'Connor04-Sep-2005 09:15
I would be interested in how you did this. Care to share? :-)
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Sep-2005 03:28
Neat Kelly. theFly
Guest 04-Sep-2005 02:26
Cool idea. But I am not sure that it is finished. I would think that the inside of the head would be more in shadow, seems to light. I also think that the eggshell needs the texture of the skin applied to it, and better color matching (as has been mentioned). I really think that around the chin the image really falls apart and the photoshop really shows, possibly if the transition in this area was done better then the eggshell with out the skin texture would work. I think also you need to fix hole, as it is just too light.

Chris
Canon DSLR Challenge03-Sep-2005 19:25
Thanks iso - I tried pushing the red a little more this time around. - Kelly
iso320003-Sep-2005 18:51
Wonderful. You've really excelled yourself on this one. Purely observational, perhaps if the skin and egg tone were more evenly matched it would be more err, err, *realistic*. Seriously - really good. Eggcellent creativity.