Eliza, by Mike_J
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| Click image above to see this photo in Mike's gallery. |
Mike's Eliza is a portrait with a difference - this is no model, instead what we have here is a mannequin. Mike has contributed this image via the DPNow gallery to a photo challenge on our forum with the theme 'Mannequins'. In a way it's unlucky for us that this isn't a real person because the lighting is really good - you have the closeting darkness broken by the soft illumination of the face and catch-lights to bring the mannequin's eyes to life.
I'd go so far as to suggest that this is an abstract image; it's close to reality but a miss is as good as a mile and you start to spot weirdness in the image. For a start, the eyes are not pointing in a natural symmetry - they are wonky! The skin is unnaturally smooth and the hair is mop-like. The illusion completely breaks down as the eye tries to verify its human authenticity, but the composition and lighting are so good that all the observable features combine to make the image very interesting. I even wondered to myself if the face of the mannequin was based on a real girl's portrait and how close it might be to that reality, which we will probably never know.
On the technical side, the exif data reveals that the shot was taken using a Leica M8 although I don't know which lens was used and hopefully Mike will fill in that gap on the forum when we discuss today's POTD.
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We are always on the look out for great pictures posted to the user-galleries here on DPNow. POTDs are selected from the gallery and featured every week day. The gallery facility here is completely free; all you need to do is register as a user on our discussion forum and you will automatically receive storage space good for around a couple of hundred pictures uploaded at web resolution. You can also easily use your gallery space to show your photos on the DPNow discussion forum and enter regular competitions like the DPNow Salon.
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