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19-AUG-2006 Franky2005

Eighth (tie) - Flower Queen
by Franky2005

This is a complete new area for me and I appreciate every comment. The portrait was more a snapshot made indoor with an external flash bounced to the ceiling. The sky I had shot a few days before for no reason. I merged the shots, which I guess can be noticed easily, even though I tried to soften the edges (the original background was just horrible).

Still I do not think it is a really good picture! Well the young lady is beautiful, as well as the real and the painted flowers. Everybody who disagrees should know that it is my daughter! But this is not the point. I am biased and would like to understand how to improve the image from a photographic point of view.

Additional note:
Finally I have used Zahid's work, slightly tweaked (see comment below) and replaced the original!

Sony DSC-V3
1/200s f/4.0 at 21.5mm iso100 with Flash full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Franky2005 22-Aug-2006 07:00
Martin. I am not sure that you missed much and I promise that there was never a version with a black or white background :-) .Nevertheless I put the initial version also into the demo folder. Feel free to have a look:http://upload.pbase.com/image/65570667
Martin Polanic 22-Aug-2006 02:43
hmmm, not sure if I missed seeing the original after reading all the comments, but it looks really nice to my eyes. The sky/clouds helps to give her a sort of angelic appearance, and technically speaking, the white areas are exposed just right! Another great capture, Frank!
Tera Baaap 21-Aug-2006 22:29
You screwd whole image by adding sky in background
full Black or full bleached white was fine choice
Franky2005 21-Aug-2006 21:45
Zahid, there was one detail which I finally tried to tweak with my update. The white flowers in the upper left were not too much visible. Thus I tried to replace the clouds with the blue sky to have the flowers more stand out. It would have been better to just place the portrait on a different part of the sky, but we can do that later :-). Thanks again for your effort!

BTW, I also produced some samples with the head not bend down. These all did not work as I think it gives the image also an interesting perspective.
Franky2005 21-Aug-2006 21:10
Thank you all and especially Zahid! I believe your point is just hitting my nerve. Based on your demo I have been playing around with a few different versions, but none has reached yours. Thus I took the freedom to utilise it directly! Still I will try to tweak it, but do not know whether I can do in time. Thanks a lot, it really gave me food for thought.
Harvey Rawn 21-Aug-2006 15:53
Very nice, well-lit image of your pretty daughter. Like you, I would like to hear from others how they would blend the edges of the portrait with the background.
Guest 21-Aug-2006 11:37
Good shot, Frank! Your cutting is pretty good except for a little missing here and there. I think you are disturbed by less contrast between the figure and the backgroung. I have changed the background and feel the blue sky is producing more contrast to highlight the model ... see the image in Demo Folder:
http://www.pbase.com/stfchallenge/image/65516495

Zahid Niaz
Katherine Stanback's Photos21-Aug-2006 03:52
Beautiful portrait - I love the flowery designs painted on her face! I love the color of her hair, too. I think I wouldn't have seen that it isn't the original background if you hadn't mentioned it - it's only noticeable in a few places.
Guest 20-Aug-2006 23:24
Frank -
I think it works fine. The concept is great, the photo of your daughter is spot on.
Maybe the merge needs polishing, but, as they say, practice makes perfect.