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The Flying Paintress
2nd PlaceThe Flying Paintress
Alex_Petrini


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Leap Day: In The Style Of: Natsumi Hayashi (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: Studio with People
Camera: Nikon D7000
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR
Date: Mar 7, 2012
Aperture: 8.0
ISO: 100
Shutter: 25
Date Uploaded: Mar 6, 2012

 Wow, what an amazing week :)

My first ribbon this year. I thought there was a curse on it! But maybe the curse is on my top scores - I thought that a 7.6+ could be enough to win, but I was wrong.

At the end of the first day I almost had 100 votes, so my 7.7+ score was not due to early voters. I was lucky to be away so I didn't consume the update button. After 20-30 votes the score has never gone under 7.50. Very few hours before rollover my score was 7.67 and then it dropped just a little but enough to lose the first place.

This is one of the most difficult images I've ever done. I thought of this shot for the entire week. A few hours before rollover I had no idea how I can do it. I had the lights set up, the model (my niece), the canvas (it's a photo I had taken in Seville a couple of years ago) and the general idea, but I couldn't find a way to convey the idea of levitation without using expert editing ruleset.

Then something changed. I suddenly understood how the Japanese photographer got those images (or at least I found what I was missing): that kind of shots was impossible with a simple leap – the face can't be relaxed and above all the feet can't stay in that position for a long time and during a regular jump. She uses double exposures, or if she doesn't, she uses magic :)

But what interested me was the position of the feet. So I assumed that the only way in advanced to get it, was having her on a chair. All was covered with a black background and behind it there was Davide, her boyfriend, who helped her to stay in equilibrium.

This was not enough. Doing everything in black was easy but it couldn't work. I needed something to convey the concept of depth. So I thought of the baseboard. It's not on the wall – it's fake. It's between the tripod with the canvas and the girl. So there's a sort of optical illusion that works in deceiving the viewer. I should've used this concept for the Fool the viewer challenge (where I used the same model).

I wanna thank Alessia and Davide – we needed 3 hours to get it and it was very late at night! You're great! ^_^

Statistics
Place: 2 out of 86
Avg (all users): 7.6364
Avg (commenters): 8.8750
Avg (participants): 7.0870
Avg (non-participants): 7.7816
Views since voting: 5823
Views during voting: 585
Votes: 220
Comments: 40
Favorites: 5 (view)

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AuthorThread
 03/15/2012 06:28:42 AM
Originally posted by snaffles:
Great work Alessandro! I knew I'd see this on the front page. And buried in one of the threads here and also on Natsumi's site is an explanation of how she gets her shots, and from the sounds of it she only does one capture. Mind it IS tough keeping the face relaxed while jumping, but it can be done :-)


Thank you Susan and thank you everybody out there for commenting and voting and congrats to Mike for the blue :)

I'll search for the explanation of her shots. In any case my shot was almost impossible with a leap. It could be dangerous for her, for the canvas and for my house (and for me after the return of my wife ^_^)
 03/15/2012 04:49:53 AM
Great work Alessandro! I knew I'd see this on the front page. And buried in one of the threads here and also on Natsumi's site is an explanation of how she gets her shots, and from the sounds of it she only does one capture. Mind it IS tough keeping the face relaxed while jumping, but it can be done :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 01:10:45 PM
Great job Sir!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 09:34:18 AM
Wonderful job, Alessandro!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 08:37:34 AM
I'm glad all your hard work paid off, congratulations on the ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 08:16:01 AM
Nice work,Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 08:09:12 AM
Well, now I am truly glad I did not enter as that I had an idea similar to this. Congrats on the ribbon! Fabulous work and hat's off to you with the patience and persistence it took to get the shot. The colors, the lighting, and the mood of the this shot is just pure art.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 04:43:15 AM
Originally posted by Jutilda:
Really awesome. She reminds me of Alanis Morrisette.


Yes, not only in this picture :)
 03/14/2012 04:41:06 AM
Your hard work paid off Alessandro. Very well done with planning and taking the time to understand how to execute the process. Congrats on a great score and ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 04:38:22 AM
Really awesome. She reminds me of Alanis Morrisette.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/14/2012 02:27:59 AM
Very nicely done Alessandro! I knew this was yours as soon as I saw it. Great stuff! Congrats on the ribbon!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 11:53:06 PM
good stuff, and thanks for the explaining it so well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 11:21:43 PM
You are SO on a roll! Congrats on the ribbon.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 09:45:57 PM
Great effort! Well executed, well deserved! Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 09:45:51 PM
The dress sort of ties everything together for me. It's so one dimensional, but not trying to be... just like a painting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 09:35:18 PM
The lighting is Great..Awesome execution....Congrats!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 09:03:29 PM
Congrats Alessandro!!. Great work and hard work at that and good thinking as well. Love it when you do well
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 09:02:51 PM
Congratulations, brilliant work. I love this.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 08:42:48 PM
One of your very best work yet, Alessandro! Love her expression and pose. There is a great flow in this image. It was such a close finish that I think a tiny thing like the background's wrinkles not being ironed out may have cost you the blue here.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 08:05:30 PM
Cong amazing my best 1
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 08:03:42 PM
Awesome!
Congrats Alessandro on red. A great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
03/13/2012 01:47:11 PM
Your imagination is just so great. Wonderful job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2012 08:32:08 AM
This looks like in the style of tanguera. A bit too dark on the near side of her face - maybe even overall. Wish the red in the picture popped a bit more. Very nice positioning of the arms / hands & legs / feet.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/12/2012 10:19:01 PM
Great shot, addresses the challenge wonderfully. I love the rich colour provided by the painting, and the dramatic lighting. One of my two 10s, hope to see it ribbon.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/12/2012 10:45:48 AM
Perfect. the lighting and jumping style are spot on.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/12/2012 12:18:06 AM
No doubt will do well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2012 12:06:00 PM
Ribbon worthy.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/11/2012 07:04:48 AM
Excellent job. Great lighting too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/09/2012 06:12:24 AM
I'm prejudice...I'm a painter...... looks like she's contemplating traveling down the tunnel to see the Wizard..... :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/08/2012 05:51:34 AM
This is one of my favorites, I can't figure out what she is doing with her right hand, it just looks un-natural
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/08/2012 04:07:18 AM
Holy cow. THe lighting and the perfect stop action is astonishing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 05:39:05 PM
One of my favorite in this competition. Really well done. Good luck! 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 12:50:08 PM
amazing my best 1
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 11:48:42 AM
Very nice - the model has managed to look as though she is genuinely engaged in a different activity - while happening to hover :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 10:37:50 AM
Lovely capture. If you did this by jumping only, I'm very impressed. You've got a very talented jumper. I'm guessing you used a suspension of some sort to get this one? Very nice illusion. This will do well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 10:29:52 AM
This is a lovely shot. Love the idea captured here. The lighting is a little off, but overall, this is great!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 07:22:29 AM
Front page, I think, although the total absence of detail in areas does have an impact
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 05:12:37 AM
Fabulous!


(commenting only)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/07/2012 12:00:38 AM
And my 50,000th vote goes to... YOU! :) Very fitting to use it on such a masterful image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/06/2012 09:25:29 PM
best yet excellent, 10 love the light
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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