ianbattersby

Lovely tones and composition, just wonderful :)

Great colour and compositional balance in this shot. The juxtaposition between the painting and nude is extremely well done, although I would have had the nude on her side a little to better reflect the pose in the painting. Great work :)

Lovely tones and pose, it reminds me of a painters muse in a studio. The colour treatment/range on this is very unusual, was this post-process or lighting?

An absolutely beautiful shot, just lovely lighting :)

Jim, I love the abstract nature of this, it has me totally memorized! The offset composition on the black background, with the hallucinogenic type colours with moments of reality, is just great!

Thanks Jonathan.

 

I think it's am matter of technique in Photoshop as my method (using quick mask and creating levels layers based on those selections) leaves me with some hard edges I can't seem to lose. I have a book in the cupboard on Photoshop for Photographers, perhaps it's about time I got it out and gave it a good read after all.

 

Attached is my version, which took me about 10-15 minutes, seemingly too long :o(

 

PS> I should mention I didn't boost her top body/face as much as you as I wanted to keep a little more contrast.

@Jonathan: Thanks for your comment, suggestion, and example - it certainly is an improvement on the original. Do you have a suggested resources on creating a low-key such as you have done? My quick attempts in Photoshop seem to lack the same punchy contrast you've achieved?

Absolutely wonderful! The lighting, composition, colours, pose, gaze, humorous nature; my admiration knows no bounds. Thanks for sharing :)

Ah! How wonderfully humorous, and the contrasting colours and excelling lighting make for an excellent shot - love it :)

What a wonderfully composed scene. I just wish the sky had more to it, in an effort to add more 'mood' to the shot, but love the idea :)

Stunning in every way - composition, lighting, pose, make-up - just fantastic!

Wow - this would look excellent as a canvas print on any wall, love the composition and lighting. Thanks for sharing :)

Beautiful mood and composition, just lovely!

Wonderful background setting and mood, great :)

Wonderful lighting and tonal quality, the shot also carries a strange but fascinating element of anonymity. I may have been tempted to create more negative space to the left, shifting her to the right, but otherwise great :)

Beautifully captured shot with excellent composition. Thanks for sharing :)

Beautifully discreet and natural, lovely shot :)

I love this, both the idea and composition is excellent, great! :)

Lovely composition and tonal quality - thanks for sharing :)

Beautifully captured, I simply love the mood of this shot with the glow of the lights and the lady through the window. Thanks for sharing :)

Lovely pose and composition with a great back-drop. I wonder how many lights you used in your setup?

Barry:
Thanks for the feedback.

I agree entirely with your sentiments regarding the technical aspects of the shot, I hesitated in posting it. It was an 'end of the film' moment after returning to our hotel room; unfortunately with available light I had to push an already 400 ISO film despite being fully open @ f/1.4.

On reflection it's more a personal portrait, and given the technical constraints, perhaps one better left in the library :)

Jonathan/Barry: Thank you both for your kind comments.

Jonathan: I'm now making more efforts to increase my profile on photo.net and generally get more photography done, hopefully you'll see lots more as we move into 2009. Thank you for your continued support :)

Jim:
Many thanks for your comments.

I appreciate your point about the sky, you are right that it distracts from the model. I feel to omit the sky entirely may have made the shot lack balance, although agree that if the sky was darker it would help enormously, perhaps through the use of a polarizing filter or similar?

The shot was taken at a rented villa in Vers Pont du Gard (South of France), both beautiful and secluded :)

Comments and feedback welcomed; please leave comment if rating less than 4/4.