Red River Pro
NATALIE DYBISZ

The Photographer
Natalie Dybisz (aka Miss Aniela) is a young photographer from the UK who stunned the art world by using Flickr to showcase her imaginative, multiple-shot self-portraits, breaking with the tradition of spending years as struggling, unknown artist. In a short period of time, she has developed a huge following that has catapulted her to one-woman gallery shows and guest appearances at photographic venues throughout the world.

The Client
As with most of her images, Dybisz comes up with ideas and then executes them. This composite appeared on Flickr, in gallery shows, and in her new book, Miss Aniela: Self Gazing, available at blurb.com

© Natalie Dybisz

The Assignment
Create an image that has the same look and feel as the picture on the wall, a reproduction of Fin de Souper (After Dinner), a 1913 work by French painter Jules-Alexandre Grün, showing people engaged in animated conversation around a table.

The Execution
"I used a Sony DSC-R1 on a tripod with the camera set to "Automatic" and the zoom lens pulled back to its widest focal length- 14.3mm (24mm equivalent for 35mm). All exposures were 1/25 sec at f/2.8 with an ISO of 400. In all, 25 captures were made from which I chose six."

Post Production
"I placed two main clones in the foreground who were to be the main focus of attention, as if they were in conversation. The placement and expressions of the other 'clones' in the background were equally important as accessories to a tightly-composed image and contributing to the feeling of bustle in the scene."

The Output
"Their Evening Banter is quite a dark image, resulting from the compositing and post-processing. It has heavy vignetting round the edges, with the shadow areas opening up to strong saturated orange tones by the candles in the centre of the image making it a challenge for any paper to reproduce faithfully, and producing varied results between different paper types.

"Using an HP Photosmart C4580 set to best photo quality, I chose Arctic Polar Luster as my paper choice because the paper's surface shows the saturation of the image in full, without distorting the shadow areas, and without the hindrance of reflection. The paper is halfway between gloss and matt with the benefits of both.

"I often exhibit my images behind frame glass and want to ensure the surface will not be too shiny and Arctic Polar Luster makes the image look vivid but with less sheen- in fact, the paper is barely reflective even when held next to a bright window."

Contact
Natalie Dybisz's image collections may be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/ndybisz/. To contact her regarding the purchase of limited editions of her work visit her web site: www.missaniela.com.