I am quite happy with this card. When I came up with the concept while talking to Rachael, we were both kind of excited about it. In fact, talking about the card with her was the entire thing that inspired me to take her, Laurie and Amaya on the river shoot.
That said, I was kind of nervous about it. I was quite confident that taking pictures of three gorgeous girls nude, in an absolutely gorgeous mountain river setting during golden hour would turn out great. What I was worried about, however was doing a tarot card outside of the studio setting. From the very beginning of this project, I had intended to do every shot in the studio so that I could have visual consistency in the style. But I had taken pictures at the waterfall before and I was pretty sure I could blacken it and process it to the level that would make it look the way I wanted. Especially with golden hour lighting.
I’m quite happy with how it turned out and hope that it matches the other cards well enough. I wonder if I’ll end up doing any other cards outside.
And of course comments and criticism welcome.
It turned out great, and you’re right, it does match up in tone with the other cards.
@lrayholly: good… always good to hear an opinion by someone else. Hopefully I’ll get some by a non-my-mom. 🙂
This looks like the other cards, no worries there. I like the concept, too. However, I think her face is dark. When I squint in to see it, I really like her expression. If there is anyway to lighten her face I think it would really improve this card.
I really like her hands in the water. The ripples in the black are awesome.
Also, I think Rachael is amazingly perfect for this card. Both in look and, well, being Rachael.
I think it is wonderfully consistent with the setting and tones of the rest of the deck, and the concept turned out wonderfully. Not to mention, it is far superior to my one-time-only, non-series affiliated, rendition! :o)
@Princess Diablo: digitally lightening facial features sucks… I did that with the wheel of fortune card, because so many people complained and then as time went on I decided I liked the darker one a lot better anyway. Especially after its printed. One thing I think may be throwing people off is that you’re all using icky PC gamma which is way too dark. Find a macintosh and you’ll see something a lot closer to what it will look like in print.
Also, yeah, I really like the black lagoon like quality of the water by the falls. It was the reason I thought of it and thought it’d be ok for this.
@sarahsflickr: thank you. And I think yours is perfectly cute.
I wouldn’t have thought twice about the consistency issue if you hadn’t mentioned it. It fits just fine.
I think it’s my favorite card so far. Beautiful shot…love her expression and the angle you shot this at (with her walking away but glancing back).
Well, I suppose you can be complimented for not using HDR in the one situation where it was necessary to compensate for the 5,000,000 gratuitous uses of it on Flickr.
@d.rex: cool, thanks. I guess I was just worried because there are more environmental elements than any of the other cards. But I guess it isn’t bothering anyone.
@wooble: you really think I should have?
Told ya so 😛
@lrayholly: 🙂
In terms of consistency with the deck I think you achieved your aim – however, I feel the expression of the subject and the choice of having her look back towards the viwer indicates knowledge of guilt in the pleasure with which she is partaking – it is suggestive and a little bit dirty, which is not quite how I’ve personally interpreted ‘the Fool’ to be. Innocence is carefree and blind to peril …
@Tommy Train: you read it as guilt? Hmm… I was reading it as surprise. But its a fair point. Though not one I think I can do much about at this point. Anyway, I kind of like the peeping tom esque moment of it.
Well, the lack of detail in the face is definitely a dynamic range problem; as long as you didn’t use the horrible overdone type of HDR that’s prevalent on Flickr I think it would have helped you to have her face a few stops brighter. Of course the evidence suggests that once a photographer starts using HDR they’re almost certainly going to start producing photos that look like they were done completely in CGI with no camera involved in the process…
@wooble: really? see, i thought you were talking about detail in the water. I’m actually pretty happy with the face.