Paperwhite Glow * by Canon DSLR Challenge


06-MAR-2006	Victor Engel

My daughter, Stazie, illuminated by the light of a Paperwhite daffodil.

Canon EOS 10D ,Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
1/125s f/8.0 at 85.0mm iso200 hide exif

other sizes: small medium original auto

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* Submitter retains all copyrights *

Canon DSLR Challenge		08-Mar-2006 19:19
Olaf, Thanks for your comments. They sort of echo my thought process as I worked this image. It would be nice to have more detail in the flowers or more lightness in the face. I experimented with all that, and what happens is that the picture then becomes unbelievable as a face illuminated by the flowers. What I wound up doing was to use a curves adjustment layer for each half of the picture and make the adjustments until I was satisfied, giving as much detail as possible while still being believable. I also tried adding a blurred layer with partial opacity, but I abandoned that idea because it looked bad. -- Victor

Guest		07-Mar-2006 19:52
To brighten up the face might make a more balanced shot as well, but if you darken the flower and brighten the face, you're starting to pick your original idea apart... As it is here, there is enough detail in the face. I see the hat, but it is very, very subtle.

Guest		07-Mar-2006 19:47
Victor, I don't think it would hurt to have the flower slightly darker, showing a bit more detail in the petals etc... The image may seem better balanced that way?

Canon DSLR Challenge		07-Mar-2006 08:36
Olaf, Thanks for the comments. Actually, the stem is significantly darkened already. As for the flash, I had a Vivitar flash mounted on the hotshoe, set at 1/4 power. Out of the view of the lens, I placed a piece of black rubber foam, bought from the hobby shop. I arranged things in a line in the following order: my eye, the flash, the rubber, my daughter's face. This way I could be sure that none of the flash struck my daughter's face. I'm curious if you thing the flowers are too bright or too dark -- same for the face. I had a delicate balancing act here, given the limited dynamic range of the medium. I needed enough dynamic range in the face to make out details -- the same for the flowers. I pushed the flowers to the brink of being blown, and I lightened the face a bit using USM with a large radius. The picture actually turned out very close to the way I envisioned it when the idea came to me. The main difference is that I planned on sourcing the light from somewhere other than the hotshoe, and I also planned on a 3/4 profile. I like the way this turned out, though, except, perhaps the placement of the flowers. I'm thinking of renaming this High-key Illuminating Low-Key. Actually, I don't really care much about the name.... - Victor

Guest		07-Mar-2006 07:33
Well done Victor! How did you avoid having the flash spill (directly) onto her face? Is that what the hat is for? Did you put some kind of 'snoot' on the flash? Definitely a low key shot, even if the flower is very bright. Had this been mine, I would darken the stem of the flower slightly.