the composite of "book club" self portrait by summerfield

the composite of "book club" self portrait

a couple of my non-365 photographer friends gave positive comments on my five plus two movie scene posting and encouraged me to post the photos that were used to re-create diane keaton's still from the movie "book club". https://365project.org/fiveplustwo/365/2018-07-25

helen @helenhall in her comment on the photo thought that i bought the book 'fifty shades' just for that posting. eh, no!

so i thought i'd share how i came up with this scene at the last minute. in fact i almost bailed out of this week's posting because i couldn't think of anything that's easy and wouldn't require too much costuming or make up. then remembering that i went out of my way over at the west end just to catch the last day of the movie's showing, i looked up on the internet various stills from the movie. mind you, i didn't see the movie because of this week's assignment.

my challenge was which of the four women i can emulate. in the movie, jane fonda had short red hair. maureen steenburgen wore her hair long with bangs and dyed dark brown. candice bergen had short blonde hair. it boiled down to diane keaton who wore her hair almost the same style as mine. almost, not quite.

until last week, i had a black and white collared long sleeved shirt. well, i brought it to my sister on sunday afternoon for inclusion in her box bound for manila. i nearly thought i'd have to go back and ask her to pull it out but then i remembered this red checked shirt that i pulled out of a suitcase last winter. how to make it black and white? well, process it b&w in ribbet then paint back the colours of the face and hands and the book.

for the book, there was no way i'd be caught dead with this book so i downloaded and printed the cover's image and taped it on to the cover of one of my books.

i was lazy to pull out the big wine glass from atop the overhead cupboards in the kitchen, so i made do with the one that is more accessible from the shelves. i have 'ribena' black currant concentrated juice in the fridge (and i've been meaning to throw it away!) and that with a bit of water, i made some red wine.

looking for an appropriate greenery for background, i remembered taking one at lunchtime on tuesday with a little flower in the foreground in focus which left the bushes in the background in soft focus.

put together in photoshop elements, changed the wine glass to size, then brought the flattened image to ribbet.com to burn and dodge the unwanted bits.

here's the diane keaton still: http://www.buzzmag.co.uk/film/book-club-film-review/

it was, overall, a great exercise in creativity. i think i even got diane keaton's smile down pat.

and i agree with @northy the northster, must get a green background!
Heavens, this is awesome! Amazing work!
July 27th, 2018  
@helenhall - this is how i cheat with my props. :-D

thanks, lin. @linnypinny
July 27th, 2018  
Oh my gosh! I appreciate so much more the trouble you went to to make it so perfect and appear so effortless! Aces indeed!
July 27th, 2018  
@grammyn - thanks, girlfriend. by the way, this style of showing "the making of" was inspired by rebecca's work @guttersniperebeccca her photoshop skills are quite enviable and her composites are incredible. she is DA BOMB!
July 27th, 2018  
what a fun description. Definitely yes on the smile capture
July 27th, 2018  
@summerfield You aren’t wrong. I have seen several of her creations on project X. I’m glad you have decided to follow in her footsteps!
July 27th, 2018  
Seamless work!
July 27th, 2018  
excellently excellent
July 27th, 2018  
So artistically creative 👍💖
July 27th, 2018  
Wow Vikki! This is a wonderful “show & tell” image. I’m proud of you for not buying that book.
July 27th, 2018  
Thar was quite a mission to achieve these fabulous images! Very creative indeed, fav!
July 27th, 2018  
Wonderful!!
July 27th, 2018  
I am quite exhausted reading through all of that and your ingenuity is most commendable. I would call this creativity rather than cheating. I love the way you describe your creative thinking.
July 27th, 2018  
Great work! I didn’t see this. Well done!
July 28th, 2018  
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