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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> CSLR Challenge 124 - Many Me (hosted by Pops) >> Exhibition > 3rd Place
Self Illumination Take 2
by Victor Engel
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16-OCT-2006 Victor Engel

3rd Place
Self Illumination Take 2
by Victor Engel

Canon EOS 10D
1/30s f/8.0 at 41.0mm iso100
See "Self Illumination" for other details full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Guest 11-Jul-2008 11:18
It was an excellent picture way back in challenge 78 "Creative Self Portraits" and it still is. I'm glad you've added it here.
Canon DSLR Challenge20-Oct-2006 03:30
I'm copying my steps from the other picture and elaborating a bit.

In a way, this is a continuation of exploring the same basic setup used for "Five Powers of Five" in challenge 75. That piece started out being a bit contrieved, but it ended up turning into something I really liked. This image continues with the same basic idea, but not tied down by five but by something else instead. I got the idea to show myself as a fetus, inside an amniotic sack. That turned into something a bit more presentable in my mind, at least.

Then I saw Lonnit's entry, "Please be Seated", where she basically hides herself in darkness. I thought to myself, "Ever notice how only females can get away with images like that?" So then I thought to challenge myself to do something akin to it. That wasn't the inspiration for this image, but it reinforced me resolve to do it. Rather than hide in darkness, though, I decided to hide in light.

One of the things I decided, after shooting "Five Powers of Five" was that I should have explored a profile angle. So I did that with this project. I took various poses in various positions, holding my hands orthogonally and nonorthogonally. I should have taken about 5 times as many takes, but I was already spending too much time on the project, so I went with what I had. Anyway, here are the steps, elaborated from before.

The final image is a composite of 4 images.

1. Image of myself in fetal position lying on my black cape (1.0s).
2. Image of plastic ball filled with water and a bit of milk -- two copies of an image (one rotated 30 degrees) (2.5s).
3. Image of another clear, plastic ball, empty, illuminated to produce color reflections. (1.6s).
4. Image of myself with hands around a light bulb (1/30s).

By far the hardest part was crafting the orb so that it really looked like I was floating in a fluid, yet glowing enough for the photo to work. I used 12 layers (in order from bottom to top):

* Base layer: image of colorful clear ball.
* Photo of myself in fetal position. I originally thought this was going to be a black and white image, so this layer is black and white. Additionally, the image is rotated to be at the angle I thought best. Then I applied a spherical distortion filter to it, so that it really looked like I was in the ball (if you didn't notice this, then I consider myself successful in this regard). Normal blend mode at 75% opacity.
* Fill layer (because the background of the second layer didn't extend far enough) -- in retrospect, it looks like this layer is superfluous.
* Color fill layer to add color back. Blend mode Color, 100%.
** Image of flattened image composed of two layers of milky water-filled ball, rotated 30 degrees from each other in order to hide the support for the ball. Blend mode Screen, 100%.
* Copy of base layer with blend mode hard light, 72% opacity.
* Copy of previous layer but with color blend mode to enhance colors of reflections.
* Steep curves layer to make the orb "glow". Normal blend mode, 74% opacity.
* Fill layer to create dark background behind glowing halo.
* Blurred version of flattened version of all above layers. Blend mode Lighten, opacity 32%
* Same as previous, but larger radius. Blend mode Lighten, opacity 46%.

Last two layers had masks so they applied only to the area around the orb, in order to preserve the detail within the orb.


This I flattened and used as a layer in the final composite of 2 layers. A bit of cloning of my hand to get rid of the fixture holding the lightbulb and to replace the lightbulb itself (this last part is mostly covered by the orb, but if I hadn't done this cloning, it would not have looked right, because the orb is transparent, having a blend mode of Screen).

Maybe this weekend, I'll post some of the individual components on my own pbase site.

-- Victor
Vikas Malhotra18-Oct-2006 05:59
Definitely like this one better. Excellent idea; beautifully executed.

Cheers, Vikas.
jnconradie18-Oct-2006 03:01
Definitely also my favourite of the two, Victor. Compliments again. Regards. ~jnconradie
Canon DSLR Challenge18-Oct-2006 02:31
I'm glad you guys like this version better. Kiki_2, funny you should mention that about the hair (actually a small clump of hairs). As I was taking shots, I was very cognizant of it. It wafted around energetically, seemingly trying to sample the heat of the light. I only controlled it by how I moved, my hands being otherwise occupied. -- Victor
Canon DSLR Challenge18-Oct-2006 01:16
Very cool. I think I prefer this version of the two. --Melanie (mlynn)
Canon DSLR Challenge18-Oct-2006 01:09
I like this version better too. The angle is much better because it allows us to see the darkness and light more easily. And I find it easier to see the other "you", in the globe, which was too subtle in the other version. Great! Jim H.
jbhgmvo18-Oct-2006 00:39
Much more powerful and clean. The darkness gives meaning and shape to the image here. In the other version it was more like darkness happened to be around, but too intimate to set the image off in any meaningful way. It had your face and 'darkness' on one level, and hands/light on another. This one hints about a whole universe, and the light/face/hand/beard stand out as a unit, a balanced counterpoint to the void darkness. Also nice: The light along the silhouette of your hand closest in the image and the darkness below it. Nice framing. Crop up along the right side also feels right. This could be a book cover. Can't put my finger on a single flaw in this one. Whatever that is worth hehe. Oh.. except that single strand of hair along your cheek. I would have removed that, but I'm a retouch freak. Too late now anyway. Nice work.
Guest 18-Oct-2006 00:10
Victor, I think I agree with you - this is the better one of the two... Great idea and well carried out!