Ch 47 - Purified

purified

Hey, I'm back! Been extremely busy with school & work.

I did a lot of re-shooting versions of older self-portrait ideas the past week, and can't pick out of them all. Here's some things I came up with along with some more original ideas. FYI, I'm not really that pale.

I've been looking at all the entries and I'm very impressed and quite intimidated. This challenge is very promising!


From the Lily Idea. I had to go out and buy new lilies since all our summer flowers in the garden are gone.







So this last one doesn't reflect me personally, but it's a self-portrait nonetheless... it's worth a shot.

DavidTO

My favorites are the 2nd and 4th. That last on may not be you, but it's great. I'm amazed at the different looks you can get when shooting yourself. I'd be hard pressed to get one decent looking shot of myself, and you just keep turning them out.

On the second, I would love to see more contrast. I would suggest curves that look like this (just my opinion):

purified

Thanks for the advice. Here's what I managed to fix with the curves on #2:

DavidTO

purified wrote:

Thanks for the advice. Here's what I managed to fix with the curves on #2:

Do you like it better? That's the most important thing, that you like it.

purified

Yes it's better than it was before. I think I may add a little tint of blue or orange to make it sepia. I'll experiment I guess.

DavidTO

purified wrote:

Yes it's better than it was before. I think I may add a little tint of blue or orange to make it sepia. I'll experiment I guess.

If that's what you want to do, then I highly recommend that you go to Greg Gorman's site and follow his tutorial on b/w conversion. Click on "Learn" and you'll find it. He's an awesome photographer, and his technique (not his originally, I don't think) is great--produces great duotones, easily.

BTW: you'll start with the color version in his tute.

Nikolai

I like #2
The B/w one seems like a winner to me:-)

Flyinggina

They are all beautiful and any one of them would be an outstanding entry (as usual from Purified!). For me, though, #4 is a show stopper. Definitely different. And definitely not your classic photo of a beautiful young woman. Wow.

XO-Studios

#4 alll the way

Osprey Whisperer

All extremely nice. Something about #3 that does it for me. Do think the skin is a bit washed out. Difficult to pick up facial features as they sort of all blend together. Not sure if I would like to see just a hint more of the right eye? Maybe make the black head covering make a bit of an "S" curve to reveal just a bit more eye? Not sure....the one eye is so captivating...I wonder if two would double the effect?


Good luck

BMP

erich6

These are all awesome Purified but I like #3 the best. Great self-portraits!

Erich

DavidTO

I have two questions for you:

1) Why photobucket and not smugmug? Just curious.

2) Is your hair short or long? It seems to be both.

4labs

Have missed seeing your photographs. Welcome back. I love what the curve adjusment accomplished.

auraflora

Hi there..


These are all such wonderful photos. You have nothing to be intimidated about. I have a hard time picking one that I like. They are all just wonderful.

Michal

SnapHappy

DavidTO wrote:

I have two questions for you:

2) Is your hair short or long? It seems to be both.

I think it's just tied back on the 4th.

Hi Kelly, great shots all of them, I prefer No.2. You certainly have a touch with that camera, no matter which side of it you are on.

purified

DavidTO wrote:

I have two questions for you:

1) Why photobucket and not smugmug? Just curious.

2) Is your hair short or long? It seems to be both.

I didn't update it, and I usually don't want to put too many self-portraits on my site. I feel like I need to even it out a bit first.

I had extensions put in a while ago... so it is naturally short, but to the eye it is long.

lynnma

All beautiful.. #4 is amazing tho.. whichever one you pick will be great.. glad to see you back

dkoyanagi

Great job as usual, Kelly! They're all great, but I'd have to go with #2 (retouched) and #3. thumb