DSS #27 - Take Two

[richtersl]

Had another change to shoot today. Went to a local grange fair and managed to get a shot of one of the musicians, which may be OK for the challenge. Then we headed to an open house at a llama/alpaca farm. Talk about serendipity! If we hadn't headed to the grange fair, we'd have never seen the open house signs for the farm.

C&C appreciated.


#1
http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/557513907_mKxxF-L.jpg


#2
http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/557524883_g4fRL-L.jpg


#3
http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/557517855_GZGJm-L.jpg


#4
http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/557526424_EmMoX-XL.jpg

[ic4u]

#3 is precious! Do you have a title in mind for the musician to help tie it in? Maybe I'm just too tired to see the connection, but it is also a very nice shot:thumb

[richtersl]

Thanks for looking. :D I was thinking "musician" as opposed to "musicians" when I took that one. Or "harmonica player" as opposed to "harmonica players".:dunno

Don't have a title for any of them yet. :rofl

[Katmitchell]

Hi Linda..:wave

I like #2... it is full of character and shot and exposed nicely.. it made me laugh, so much personality in that fella.. I mean just look at those teeth.:rofl

The musician is my second fav....The lighting and processing are beautiful.. I will say the title in this one will be "key" because at first glance I have a hard time telling what he is doing.. it almost looks like he is eating something.

The third one is good too and awwwwwwww.. precious... maybe a title like:
Llama Llama.. Either way.. They are all wonderfully shot.

You have a real knack for candid shots, I might add..:thumb

Kat

[DeuceFour]

#3 is my favorite, and I like #4 also for challenge candidates.

[anonymouscuban]

I agree with Kat... #2 is cool. Maybe you can call it "Teethesis" :D

[pyroPrints.com]

#3 is cool

[MarkR]

Anudder vote for #3!

[nightpixels]

I too like #3 a lot. What I would experiment with is apply a tiny amount of Gaussian blur to the background to make it just a little more blurry to help the subject stand out more (kind of like the way it is in #2).

[richtersl]

Thanks for looking and commenting. :D

:scratch So the consensus appears to be #2 and #3.

That fellow in #2 was posing like a model for me. :rofl I have several of him, some comical, some quite dignified.

The mother alpaca and her newborn in #3 gave me a hard time in B&W. The color photo is gorgeous but in the conversion I had a hard time getting them to separate from the background because they looked the same color. I played with the Hue/Saturation layer to tweak the background color so it would look different in B&W. But I'm not 100% happy with it yet. Allen, thanks for the Gaussian blur suggestion, I'll give that a try when I get home tonight.

I also have another character from the llama farm I'd like to run past you guys, if you all don't mind.

[dlplumer]

I love the cute factor in #3 :lust

[richtersl]

Here's the Mama Alpaca and her newborn cleaned up as per Allen's suggestion (adding more blur to the background):

http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/558418096_6QUk4-L.jpg



And do you think this one has any potential? I can title it "Llama Mama". I just get a kick out of that face....LOL.
http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/558420512_wRthY-L.jpg

[Jet]

Aww... really like #3 (The adjusted version is great). Perfect comp. and spot on for the theme!

[Katmitchell]

The clean up on #3 is very nice Linda... and the other one, that would be a cute entry too, but a lot of white blowout on the nose there... but still I like the look on her face...too cute...

Kat

[nightpixels]

Hi Linda,

I like the new version much better. I kept flipping between page 1 and 2 on this thread to compare them over and over and in the reworked version they stand out much more. I bet you still have the mask that you used to blur up the background saved, so I would also try to use curves to create a little more contrast between the background and your subjects ... just something that I would definitely try, if it were my entry ... up to you, of course :cool (assuming you still have the mask saved)

[DsrtVW]

My vote is #3 it captured my interest the longest. The BW works well on it

[richtersl]

Thanks again, everyone! I'm starting to feel more confident about #3. Allen, I'm pretty sure I still have that mask saved. But I'm sure what area of the photo you're referring to when you're talking about playing with curves. The background? :scratch

Now that I see Llama Mama on my monitor at work, I can see that the DOF is off just a tad and her nose is just slightly out of focus. Oh well! But she is a piece of work with that face, eh?

[travelways]

Wonderful images Linda.

I really like the first one, but not for this contest... :)

For the purpose of this challenge I think #2 or #3 would be good.

I would clean/darken a little some of distracting white spots in the background though...

[nightpixels]

Hi Linda,

Yeah I was thinking of making the brighter parts of the background just a little darker.

[richtersl]

Thanks, Allen & Tatiana. :thumb

I darkened the background very subtley. And, I discovered I hadn't saved the version with my mask so I had to recreate it. :rolleyes Oy!

This is what I'll probably wind up going with:

http://lrichters.smugmug.com/photos/559431470_xhuG3-L.jpg

[nightpixels]

WOW!!! Absolutely gorgeous!!!

[anonymouscuban]

Nice! Has lots of depth now. Nice job Linda.