JPCollinsPhotography
JPCollinsPhotography
Decay

Decay



Side-lit 45 degrees-right using an LED desk lamp. Using a displacement mask and a "rust" image overlay, then blended using the brush tool. To finish, ...
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Side-lit 45 degrees-right using an LED desk lamp. Using a displacement mask and a "rust" image overlay, then blended using the brush tool. To finish, high-pass sharpening and global adjustments using the curves tool and Lightroom.
Read less
cameraCanon EOS 60D

settings Aperture f/2.8 ISO 1600 Shutter 1/125 Focal Length 50/1 

upload_dateNov, 2015

Views

2857

Likes

Awards

Featured
Contest Finalist in Creative Self Portraits Photo Contest
Sigma 150-500mm Lens
Contest Finalist in Metamorphosis Photo Contest
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Peer Award
Johnsalterego TonyGuzmanG davidjprosser Ulysees Vorster gman176 jorgealbertopealozapealoza +162
Outstanding Creativity
Pepelepoo Vegan_LisaMota JePePhoto karlnathan shelleymillercampbell RCogswell WJSARTIMAGES +76
Superb Composition
antoinefilhollouis obijonkenobi Linda65 bordershots hudazahid_4325 andinorwich Yuldoshov +12
Absolute Masterpiece
dthroph Sniperspawk9 DigitalDragonPhotography CSpencer_Photos Svenergy72 PeanutsAndGravy pranaypictures +7
Top Choice
DanielBenda Jimalor The_Whitography_Project olivegoreglad Albert-Serra-Photography jelliottabshire rpdhjja +3
Superior Skill
KenBrakefield devilita shaundasmithroberts VladPsh PatriZioMBusnel finosandrea Kajamera
All Star
akphotographystudio Vilem12 rolfnorge NaturalEyePhotography Denise_Marshall ZachEddy AngelaGartlan
Magnificent Capture
Mish55 ewill jamesrichardbruce
Genius
cathyrossi photosofwales
Virtuoso
henemark99

Top Ranks

Creative Boundaries Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
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Inspired By The World Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Monochrome Masters ProjectTop 10 rank
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Anything People Photo ContestTop 10 rank
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My Best Shot Photo Contest Vol 3Top 20 rank
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A Fantasy World Photo ContestTop 20 rank
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Eye To Eye Portraits Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
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Creative Self Portraits Photo ContestTop 10 rank
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Categories

4 Comments | Report
TracyDreyer
 
TracyDreyer September 14, 2016
Fantastic photo. Great imagination and caught my eye immediately. Good Job
JPCollinsPhotography
JPCollinsPhotography September 14, 2016
Thanks Tracy!
Maud_
 
Maud_ October 02, 2016
That looks amazing I hope too learn how too photoshop like that sometime. Is there any program you would recoment
JPCollinsPhotography
JPCollinsPhotography October 03, 2016
Thanks! Photoshop is what I use but I'm not sure if there are equivalents out there... Phlearn on Youtube is great for tutorials so check them out! This was done with a simple displacement mask and a lot of blending so relatively simple in the terms of photoshopping! Thanks for commenting :-)
candywoodcollins
 
candywoodcollins October 14, 2016
This is cool! I'm a complete amateur who just enjoys photography, but I know what I like and this is good. I love the way you can read into it. Personally, I see life and death but not a physical death. More of an emotional death. As if you've been through something that's caused you an emotional downfall and in turn you've become withdrawn and introverted. It's an awesome photogragh either way!
JPCollinsPhotography
JPCollinsPhotography October 17, 2016
Thanks so much for stopping by and for the very thoughtful comment, I'm glad you like it and could take something from it! :-)
DanielBenda
 
DanielBenda April 05, 2018
Absolutely fantastic, To be honest I have tried something similar some time before I came across your photo however your execution of it is just miles ahead anything I could even dream of doing.
JPCollinsPhotography
JPCollinsPhotography April 05, 2018
Thank you so much, Daniel! Keep at it and you'll get there. There are many great tutorials out there on YouTube to help you along. All the best with your work!

Submitted to Photo Contests

Tags

#decay #depression #greed #life #love #hate #self-portrait #self portrait #portrait #death #money #work #work-life balance #rust #skin #apocalypse #fallout #war #burn #fire #old #tired #empty #black #dead
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Behind The Lens

Location
I took this photo at my home - nothing glamorous, I'm afraid!
Time
Friday 20th November around 18:30, after work - I'd had a really full-on week and felt so worn-out by the grind of the office. I was doing some work with textures and displacement masks at the time (unsuccessfully) and then just decided to use my fading attention span to take this self-portrait.
Lighting
This is entirely artificially lit - it's black and miserable at 18:30 in November. The sickly light from the low-evergy ceiling lamp was on directly in front, I wanted add some texture and fill-in the lower shadows so I set-up a with a 45-degree flash.
Equipment
This was shot with a Canon 60d with a inexpensive (but excellent) Canon 50mm f1.8 prime, I used an IR triggered 430 II ex Speedlight on a tripod for the fill light.
Inspiration
I was really just throwing mud at the wall to see what would stick - sometimes something does and you can turn a last shot into something positive (I was quite ready to veg-out in front of the TV at this point). I suppose the choice to use the rust overlay was subconsciously capturing my feelings about the week and the mental attrition of slaving over a mundane job - to which something I think many people are able to relate. The energy I felt after making some progress with it was a huge pick-up and a great feeling.
Editing
Due to the components of the photo, post-processing was unavoidable - I post-process all photos as the camera doesn't capture the image in the same way your eyes do so for me personally it's an essential part of photography, it just depends how sympathetic you want to be to the real scene - in this case, I used a displacement mask in Photoshop - I had to create a high-contrast version of the portrait for the displacement mask to pick up the contours - overlaid the rust image onto the mask and blended using the brush tool. The eye was blackened using an adjustment layer with the brightness/contrast adjustments and blended with a brush - I wanted to maintain full control and ensure the catch-light remained so it still looked real. I shot it wide open so I needed to add some slight blur to the rust overlay as it moved backwards toward the left ear. To finish, I applied high-pass sharpening to bring-out the grit and texture of the rust and used some global adjustments using the curves tool and Lightroom.
In my camera bag
Usually far more than I (or anyone) ever needs... I had a cull recently and tried to shake-off the gear-junkie tendencies so now I'm left with a Canon 60d body, Canon 50mm f1.8 prime, the trusty Canon 17-55mm f2.8 USM (which I'm worried might be attached so much of the time that it permanently becomes part of the body) - that thing's a beauty for the money, especially with a cropped-frame sensor; and the 430 Speedlight. OK, I lied about shaking of the gear-cravings... I also bought a Sigma 70-200mm f 2.8 recently and I'm really impressed with the results - the bokeh doesn't compare to the Canon's L series but its so sharp you have to put the cover on in crowded places (and half the price of the L!).
Feedback
The beauty of shots like this is you have ultimate control of the lighting in a studio environment so you can really play with mood. Timing is not an issue - especially if you're doing a self portrait - just make sure you get the focus on point if you're shooting wide open as this will be really obvious in the results (mark out the floor so you stand in the same spot or put something behind you so can't move backwards) - this was shot in autofocus as I was central to the lens but you may have difficulty if you are shooting off-centre. The rest is practice behind the lens and the computer (Youtube is excellent for tutorial videos if you need to pick-up specific treatment ideas/how-tos). Lastly, ensuring you upset your wife and friends when you're out and about by stopping every 30 seconds to take odd photos of seemingly boring textures - use an f9 or f11 on a flat surface to get maximum sharpness.

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