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Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Natural Light Portrait (Advanced Editing V*)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D
Lens: Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L USM
Location: Heiðmörk, Hafnarfjörður
Date: Jul 17, 2007
Aperture: 2.0
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/200
Galleries: Emotive, Portraiture
Date Uploaded: Jul 17, 2007

 This is Agla Harðardóttir, first time photographing her for DPC, although I have photographed her before. Me and Henný have been wanting to do an "Elf" series for a while now in the style of "Mystical Gaze" and we both thought Agla would be a perfect candidate for it, she has got really beautiful eyes and a certain elf like appearance. I know the ears are not really prominent in this shot and I kindof like it that way.

Only used natural light, I did however bounce some of it back to her face using a silver reflector. I am sure some really anal and self proclaimed catchlight experts are going to comment on it not meeting the challenge because of that but I´ll be damned if I have to clone the reflector out of her eyes just to please the DPC voters, if using a reflector to bounce sunlight around no longer qualifies as natural light I am not really sure I want to be a part of this community anymore.

I really like the shot as it is, I really like her expression and what she is emoting with her eyes. I don´t think it will score nearly as well as "Mystical Gaze" but I don´t really care :)

As usual, raw conversion in capture one where I tweaked white balance, contrast and saturation, added vignetting and took away some blemishes in photoshop, curves for contrast and sharpened after resizing.

Statistics
Place: 45 out of 366
Avg (all users): 6.2043
Avg (commenters): 7.2727
Avg (participants): 6.1053
Avg (non-participants): 6.2714
Views since voting: 3057
Views during voting: 519
Votes: 235
Comments: 31
Favorites: 3 (view)

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AuthorThread
 01/16/2011 04:45:32 PM
beautiful shot, but too much contrast in the face, makes it seem kind of splotchy (sorry for the technical terms).......
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/28/2007 01:39:09 PM
the lighting here seems to mask all the depth to the face. not a fan of the heavy over exposure.

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/25/2007 05:02:37 AM
Damn this was IMO a top 10. Guess there are a lot of anal people like you said. :P Still a great shot, you should be very happy with this shot. I think the "Elf" type shot was the first shot I really thought, "Man this guy is good". So I think that taking a few more with the mystical look would be bad ass. Great shot man and keep up the great work!

Edit: P.S. I don't think you should tell her that she has the elf look down. :P

Message edited by author 2007-07-25 09:03:18.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/25/2007 04:54:19 AM
I nearly left a comment during the challenge about this being a Larus style image. :) I see I was not the only one who noticed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/24/2007 08:41:49 PM
Originally posted by routerguy666:
Pretty girl, nice detail in the eyes. Have to say though, looks like a bad Larus copy.


Ok, you suck at copying yourself! lol
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
07/24/2007 03:30:50 PM
It´s hard to believe this is natural light but if that´s real I congrats you. This is flawless. Beautiful model, beautiful light and superb etiding!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/24/2007 12:57:55 AM
looks overprocessed
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/23/2007 07:20:12 PM
striking but slightly overexposed or maybe some detail lost in processing, for a less than natural light effect.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/23/2007 05:35:25 PM
beautifully processed, like out of a fairy tale
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/23/2007 02:30:18 PM
A prettily composed portrait - the flowers in the hair provide a nice romantic touch. I am not keen on the post-processing, and in particular the orange shadows, which give a harsh look at odds with the romantic style pose.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/23/2007 12:37:59 AM
beautiful in every way..stunning face and eyes...love the light and colours 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/22/2007 04:46:31 PM
Great DOF and sharpness and clarity are right on the money. Like the editing also. I think the editing or reflector may have taken away the natural light look a tad. The expression is great and the eyes and lips look very nice. Great job. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/22/2007 02:14:22 PM
Larus?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/20/2007 09:45:05 AM
The flowers in hair are distracting...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/20/2007 09:41:58 AM
i like the lighting and high contrast, i think that it may be a bit much though. beautiful girl
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/19/2007 07:22:44 PM
Really rich and vivid portrait. Very fairyland like backdrop. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/19/2007 02:11:37 PM
Nice portrait. I like the way you have included a flower on her hair that goes with the BG. A little overdoing of PP IMHO.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/19/2007 09:04:22 AM
Nice amount of contrst. I like how every color helps to enhance hte photo. Great work on teh eyes and lips.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/19/2007 05:03:53 AM
Ok, this is the second shot in this challenge that looks like one of Larus', so now i'm confused. This is a great shot, however i do think it's slightly overexposed, i.e. between the eyes, i'm guessing there was a strong reflector used to good effect here.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 07:16:19 PM
Pretty girl, nice detail in the eyes. Have to say though, looks like a bad Larus copy.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 05:09:54 PM
what an angel! appears overblown in some spots, focus is excellent. 6
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 04:49:14 PM
this is very beautiful, i see this is the top ten at least. it's very "garden of eden"
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 04:19:20 PM
beautiful
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 04:11:05 PM
This is interesting and familiar looking... In my opinion, the processing is way too heavy handed. She is so pretty that with slightly less contrast and saturation or whatever is making her look so orange, it would be much nicer. Her eyes look great and the general idea (comp, clarity and all that good stuff) is very nice indeed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 03:58:57 PM
great photo, beautiful girl
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 12:32:36 PM
Very nice, the lighting is great, could have labled this Eve, 8.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 12:28:14 PM
Very interesting photo. I would like some pointers as to how you managed the finished look you achieved. Her eyes jump right out at me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 08:23:32 AM
I'm torn here. This is a good shot but it seems, IMHO, a bit over-saturated. I can easily see that it was intentional...hence the delema.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 08:16:47 AM
Nice photo, lovely proccesing and a gorgeus model!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/18/2007 05:06:26 AM
A very memorable and beautiful portrait. One of my favorites in this challenge. Should do very well. (10)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2007 11:45:43 PM
Looks very larus-esque. Great colors and contrast and sharpness and blur. And model.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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