Chinese New Year 2: the lion’s shoe by Elcet
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Description
The celebration of the Chinese New Year is a show that is not only an art, but also a sporting performance, as shown by the "lions" and "dragons" quickly dancing and jumping with an incredible easiness. These "animals" contain in fact two dancers. Either they are "normally" walking with the four feet of the dancers, or they become bipedal as you see here… and look where the shoes of the front legs are now!
Techdata: Nikon D70 first model with Nikkor 3.5-4.5/18-70 Pro ED at 38mm, 1/250s at f/5,6 aperture-priority automatic, shadow white balance, ISO 640. This upload gave me a lot of work, because of the ugly environment and bad lighting conditions. I selected carefully the "lion" with the so-called Quick Mask method (that you find at the bottom of the Tool Bar in Photoshop). I inverted the selection to duplicate the environment into a new Layer. I transformed this Layer into a Dynamic Object Layer to use the Dynamic Filter function. This possibility appears in Photoshop CS3, and it represents a fantastic advance for creative photographers and 3D artists. With this option, the Filters can now be modified at will and they include a Mask, just like the Adjustment Layers have. I applied a Dynamic Filter Gaussian Blur to the environment Layer to simulate an out-of-focus effect. But inside the Filtering Mask of the Filter, I applied a vertical Linear Gradient from white to black and finally to white again. With that you will notice that the 2/3 of the upper part of the environment appears quite unsharp, as well as the bottom part, but the pavement which is at the same distance of the lion’s feet stays pinpoint sharp, because there the black part of the Mask stops the action of the Gaussian Blur Filter. Therefore, even strongly modified, the image retains a full photorealism, as if it had been taken with a 1.0/35 (if it could exist…) used at full aperture. Finally I added Adjustement Layers to enhance color and contrast to the lion, and a slight Sharpening in Lab mode.
Thanks to people who commented my last upload of this series :
"Chinese New Year 1, for Richardphotos"
Techdata: Nikon D70 first model with Nikkor 3.5-4.5/18-70 Pro ED at 38mm, 1/250s at f/5,6 aperture-priority automatic, shadow white balance, ISO 640. This upload gave me a lot of work, because of the ugly environment and bad lighting conditions. I selected carefully the "lion" with the so-called Quick Mask method (that you find at the bottom of the Tool Bar in Photoshop). I inverted the selection to duplicate the environment into a new Layer. I transformed this Layer into a Dynamic Object Layer to use the Dynamic Filter function. This possibility appears in Photoshop CS3, and it represents a fantastic advance for creative photographers and 3D artists. With this option, the Filters can now be modified at will and they include a Mask, just like the Adjustment Layers have. I applied a Dynamic Filter Gaussian Blur to the environment Layer to simulate an out-of-focus effect. But inside the Filtering Mask of the Filter, I applied a vertical Linear Gradient from white to black and finally to white again. With that you will notice that the 2/3 of the upper part of the environment appears quite unsharp, as well as the bottom part, but the pavement which is at the same distance of the lion’s feet stays pinpoint sharp, because there the black part of the Mask stops the action of the Gaussian Blur Filter. Therefore, even strongly modified, the image retains a full photorealism, as if it had been taken with a 1.0/35 (if it could exist…) used at full aperture. Finally I added Adjustement Layers to enhance color and contrast to the lion, and a slight Sharpening in Lab mode.
Thanks to people who commented my last upload of this series :
"Chinese New Year 1, for Richardphotos"
Comments (23)
Kuiski
A nice and cool capture! Good
dphoadley
Lovely! DPH
timtripp
wonderful image
helanker
A really beautiful capture of the fantastic dragon. Double artwork ;-)
RBlue
What a great experience! I envy you globe trotting prowessness. The tall cropping of this photo, kept the image's perspective and better still, dramatized it!
lior
Une image qui sort du commun:une merveille!
2Loose2Trek
Extraordinary shot, Edouard, of a delightful celebration. I'm really in awe of this wonderful photograph, both for its aesthetic qualities as well as for your technical expertise. Excellent POV and tonal/color range. Really superb!
Severine
Magnifique dragon, c'est vraiment un beau costume !
RodolfoCiminelli
Impressive dragon and wonderful photo too....!!!!
Platin
A formidable dragon costume and the foot is a humorously touch- excellent shot!!!
JaneEden
Really excellent capture and work, so sorry for my lack of comments lately, please forgive me - hugs Jane xx
El_Lee
Always love the detail you capture and this is no exception. Great as always.
e-brink
Great capture! Interesting outfit!
Clouseau
Great shot, well done.
Ricardi
The depth of field is superb.
Janiss
Absolument fantastique et ton cliché est parfaitement réussi, quel extraordinaire PDC... bravo Elcet!
pixelmeister
Well done! Great shot with nice dof!
KarmaSong
Encore une photo bien maîtrisée et superbe. Décidement, la Chine est à la une cette année, ne reste plus que le Tibet l'année prochaine, j'espère!
Ptitchouette
Dois-je considérer ce lion comme un hommage à H. Salvador ? Je plaisante. Outre la performance sportive, je vois dans ce pied solitaire beaucoup d'humour et puis belle performance photographique..... au nouvel an chinois les lions dansent. Bonne journée.
MagikUnicorn
Flamboyante capture Bravo
Richardphotos
very humorous and an appropriate title
DukeNukem2005
Very beautiful and very interesting!
erlandpil
Well capture again erland